We interview JuBillee ahead of the release of their debut record – You and I – about the journey to the record, their success in quarantine and more. If you’d like the chance to chat to the duo, Destination Country are hosting a Happy (Half) Hour with the duo on the 5th November – registration link here.
Hi, how are you?
Fine thank you, we’ve been great.
How have you been handling the pandemic? It’s so exciting to be putting out this record, but I can imagine it’s a strange time to be releasing it…
Justine: Oh, 100%, it’s been so strange that this is our first experience, but hey it’s probably the best place to start out, start in the weird times.
At the same time, I do feel like it’s a great time for people to be discovering new music actually, people have been listening to records the whole way through.
Billy: Yeah, and social media has got bigger, where people are locked in they’ve been taking to social media so we find that the platform is actually bigger now than it was.
People are spending more time on their phones rather than being out at gigs.
Billy: Yeah you win some, you lose some.
I wanted to talk about how your sound evolved both separately and then together, so how did you both start off?
Billy: Well we both started off in the past as solo artists, gigging and working in a few bands. Justine did her vocal thing. In 2017 we teamed up, I was looking for something different that duo and with Justine it was just that perfect product. We went from there and just got stronger and stronger.
Did you find that your sound evolved a lot from being solo artists to then forming the duo, did you listen to the same kind of music and did you come from very different styles?
Justine: I would say that our musical background was very different, obviously we were teamed up doing things like weddings and functions that you have to do. You have to learn how to please the ground, playing stuff you wouldn’t normally do, whether you like it or not.
Billy: I think it helps you become a stronger singer.
Justine: Definitely. My background is more poppy and Billy’s more in your bands and rock sound.
You guys have such a fresh and unique sound, it imbibes so many genres and there’s a little bit of something for everyone in there.
Billy: Definitely, we’ve said that a few times that our sound is very unique and it’s kind of tapping into country-pop, country-rock.
Justine: I wouldn’t say the sound shocks you but you do think ‘oh that’s different and oh that’s different again.’
I know that you teamed up in 2017 which probably feels like forever ago, but it has almost been quite a quick journey from then to now, signing with Vacancy Records, so how did they get involved in this project.
Billy: They listened to our livestreams.
Justine: Yeah, they heard our Facebook lives and noticed us, they sent us an email. They liked that we had a lot of fans behind us and that we’ve gained fans in a short period of time through lockdown.
Billy: They trusted that we had a good product.
It obviously paid off for them with the success that you guys have had from the first two singles already. It’s kind of crazy. ‘Don’t Make Me Look Into Your Eyes’ was probably the first introduction that many people had to your music, but it did so well. Did you expect the response that you got with that one?
Justine: Yes and no, we know from doing it on our Facebook live that the fans really liked it. People were saying ‘this is my first dance song,’ ‘this is my new ringtone,’ comments like that, we were like ‘woah.’
Billy: We were kind of getting the vibe that it was going to be a big hit, but we didn’t think it would go that far.
Well until it’s out in the world it’s hard to know. You can believe in the song so much but until it’s released you can never predict anything. ‘Bed of Lies’ is also such a gorgeous track, there’s so many country sensibilities in there, can you talk a bit about that song?
Billy: We didn’t actually write that song, that was our manager that wrote that song.
Justine: I loved the feel of it.
Billy: That and ‘Don’t Make Me Look Into Your Eyes’ were two of the first songs that we were kind of handed and we knew that they were always going to be released at some point.
This is your debut and your introduction, what did you want to say with the record and did it change a lot over the course of creating the project?
Justine: There were a lot of songs that were in there for consideration, there were a lot of songs that didn’t make the album because they just didn’t fit. A lot of the tracks got changed a lot, it was a quick journey and we got it turned around pretty fast. We knew we wanted to go with it and we’re really happy with the product that we’ve got.
Billy: I think we all knew as a team the sound that we were looking for and going for and we’re certainly really happy with it.
I read that you had completed a lot of the album during the pandemic and things changed, was that in response to a mind-shift or what was that change?
Billy: When Vacancy wanted to release the album so soon, we were like ‘oh my’ it was thrust upon us, but we had all the songs already written and created, not recorded but written. It was a case of us doing our own arrangements and putting our own stamp on it and getting the songs turned around. They were just demos originally. The album was already created but it was just putting our own stamp on it and recording it.
It will be very different this release not being in front of people, but which songs are you most excited to see the response to on social media, do you think any of them will particularly resonate with people?
Billy: All of them! (laughs)
Justine: There has been a lot of interest on ‘Over You.’
Billy: I’m really excited about the one that we wrote, because lyrically it’s very clever and the lyrics are about the journey, I’m excited for people to hear that one and ‘Over You.’ The two ballads on the album, all of them…
I’m so excited for the record to be out and good luck for Friday and the release!
