Juli (band)
Background information
Origin Gießen, Hesse, Germany
Genre(s) German rock, Pop
Years active 1999-present
Label(s) Universal Music
Website Official site
Members
Eva Briegel (lead singer)
Marcel Römer (drums)
Andreas "Dedi" Herde (bass)
Jonas Pfetzing (guitar)
Simon Triebel (guitar)
Former members
Miriam Adameit (lead singer)
Martin Möller (drums)
Juli is a German rock/pop band from Gießen, Hesse, consisting of singer Eva
Briegel, guitarists Jonas Pfetzing and Simon Triebel, bassist Andreas "Dedi"
Herde and drummer Marcel Römer. In this shape the band was formed out of
Sunnyglade in 2001.
History
Sunnyglade
In 1996 Sunnyglade was formed without a female singer, as an all-male band,
consisting of Andreas "Dedi" Herde, Martin Möller (drums), Jonas Pfetzing,
Marcel Römer and Simon Triebel, who was also the singer. The band soon was
joined by their female lead singer Miriam Adameit. In this formation they
recorded an album called Pictures of my mind, (1998) which sold 500 copies.
When Adameit and Möller decided to leave the band in 2000, they were joined
by Eva Briegel and Marcel Römer, and the list of band members has not
changed since. At that time the group focused on writing and performing
songs with English lyrics and enjoyed their first major success when they
won the Hessischen Rockpreis 2000 and finished second in the Deutschen Pop-Preis
contest.
After the signing of their first recording contract with EMIin early 2001,
Sunnyglade started working on further recordings with producer Lutz
Fahrenkrog-Petersen. Soon the quintet decided to turn towards songs with
German lyrics. At this time they also abandoned the name Sunnyglade and all
their songs, and renamed themselves Juli, which they chose from the song
with the same name by another band from Berlin called Tex.
Juli
Their first gigs as Juli took place in June 2002. They recorded their first
professional demo in October 2002 with producer Michael Gerlach. Due to the
extremely positive feedback of various record labels, their music publisher
decided to put up a showcase which took place on January 16, 2003 at the
Oxymoron in Berlin. Three months later, on April 24 Universal Music
organized an "Unplugged Showcase" with several artists in front of a jury,
at which singer Eva Briegel and guitarist Jonas Pfetzing contributed four
songs in the name of the band. It is to be asumed that the decisions about a
record contract fell at that performance, which only took place because of
the recommendation of an A&R who had seen their performance on [[January
16], and recommended them. In August 2003, four years after they had set
that goal, they signed their first recording contract at Popkomm in Cologne.
Commercial breakthrough: "Perfekte Welle" "Es ist Juli"
in June 2004 Juli release their debut single "Perfekte Welle", which turned
into a kind of anthem for the new rise in popularity of German song lyrics,
and also gave its name to a collection of compilations of music with German
lyrics (Perfekte Welle - Musik von hier). Though the single debuted at a
modest number 38 on the German singles charts and instantly fell out of the
top 40 in its second week, the song soon recovered and due to heavy radio
airplay and massive CD single sales, "Perfekte Welle" finally entered the
German top 10 in its eleventh week. While the song reached its peak position
of number 2 four months after release and eventually received its first Gold
certification, "Perfekte Welle" (German for "Perfect Wave") came into
controversy when it was banned from radio and TV stations after the 2004
Indian Ocean earthquake.
The band's critically acclaimed debut album Es ist Juli was released in
September 2004 and peaked at #2 in Germany, #4 in Austria and #7 in
Switzerland, selling more than 700,000 copies within a few months. By July
2006, it had sold over 1 million copies, and thus reached the status of a
quadruple platinum record. Though the album became the fourth most
successful album of the year (it stayed and in the German top 25 charts for
a complete year) and it spawned another four singles, only "Geile Zeit", the
album's second single, could peak within the German Top 20; the song was the
winning title of the first Bundesvision Song Contest in which Juli
represented their home province of Hesse. In July of the same year, Juli
participated in the Berlin Live 8 concert.
After participating on the radio-tour organized by Eins Live through
Nordrhein-Westfalen in September 2004, July started their own club tour
through Germany, which was completely sold out. After that followed a tour
as support for Rosenstolz through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
After the Tsunami disaster in south east Asia in December 2004, when flood
waves caused more than 280,000 to lose their lives, most radio stations took
"Perfekte Welle" out of their program right away, because, according to
their opinion, its lyrics had obtained an involuntary ambiguity. However,
the song is actually about a surfer who is waiting for a wave to ride on, a
metaphor for taking chances after long periods of waiting and hoping.
Apparently it happened at various stations during the first few days after
the catastrophe that, because of auto rotation, the song popped up right
after reports from the affected area, and some of the audience considered it
to be deliberate sarcasm. Some fans tried to convince the stations that the
song had a positive message and nothing to do with the disaster, but the
band and Universal Music showed understanding with the stations.
On February 12, 2005 Juli won the first prize in the Bundesvision Song
Contest in their home, Bundesland Hessen, with the song "Geile Zeit". A few
days later the real "Es ist Juli" tour started, in which the band launched
many concerts and festival gigs, and spent most of the year 2005. Part of
that was also their participation at the Live-8-concert in Berlin, where
they performed the songs "Geile Zeit" and "Perfekte Welle". At that time
three more singles were released: "Regen und Meer", "Warum", and "November",
but none had the same success as their predecessor. The video of "Regen und
Meer" got some attention in the media, because the band was playing the part
of a terrorist group from 1977 and referred directly to the RAF and the
abduction and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer.
The second album: Ein neuer Tag
From third quarter 2005 onwards, the band kept very few official
appointments, choosing instead to retreat to Bochum to work on their second
studio album. The band decided to keep the overall tone of the album quieter
and more mature than their previous one. During 2006 they played mainly in
festivals, such as the Schlossgrabenfest, Donauinselfest, and the
Soundgarden Festival. In July 2006, the new album was finally completed.
The time before the release of the album Ein neuer Tag (A New Day) was
filled with PR work. On September 22, 2006, the first single of the album
"Dieses Leben" was released, which hit the top 5 single charts right away,
and on October 13 finally the album charts. It sold 75,000 copies within the
first week and reached position 18 in the World United Album Charts, and
with more than 200,000 pre-orders, it had already reached platinum status by
the release date.
On November 30, 2006, they won the German Bambi-award in the category music
national, and on December 7, 2006, they were awarded the Eins-Live-Krone,
Germany's most important radio listener award.
After the release of "Wir Beide", the second single for the album, they
started touring with the new album. Some of the concerts had been sold out
weeks in advance, or had to be moved into larger venues.
Originally they had planned "Am Besten" to be their next single, which was
to be released in January 2007. However, the next single will now be "Zerrissen".
Music
The songs of Juli are almost exclusively written by the singer and the two
guitarists. Most of the time they do not collaborate on their song work,
preferring to work on their own and present the almost complete song to the
rest of the band.
Juli do not see themselves as a rock band, but call their own music style
"alternative pop". They put high expectations into their lyrics and because
of that they are always trying to reach more of an adult audience than
teenagers.
Juli are one of Germany's most played bands on the radio. Their first three
singles ("Perfekte Welle", "Geile Zeit", and "Regen und Meer") all reached
the top of Germany's Air-play charts and all remained in the Top 10 for
several months. "Dieses Leben" also repeated this success. It remained
number one for five consecutive weeks. They also managed to reach the top 5
with their current single.
Relationships to other Bands
At the same time as Juli started out with their success, there were a couple
of other bands with German lyrics who experienced a breakthrough. Just
before Juli rose to fame, the bands Wir Sind Helden (first release in 2003)
and Silbermond (first release in March 2004) for example, celebrated their
first success. The fact that all 3 of those bands appear with a female
singer and German lyrics got them a lot of attention at first. From the
start of their career they had to face such comparisons, which they strictly
disclaimed. One thing that is clearly missed out in that case is that all
three bands were already writing German songs, and played with the same line
up before their first recording contract. In particular Silbermond, whose
career started out similar to Juli's as a student band singing English
songs, they are frequently compared to each other by the media, which both
bands consider nonsense. Juli have recently appeared in a Dashboard
Confessional music video where lead singer Eva Briegel also sang.
Discography
Albums
Year Title Chart Position Certification
GER AUT SWI
2004 Es ist Juli 2 4 7 IFPI: 3x Platinum
2006 Ein neuer Tag 1 4 3
Singles
Year Title Chart Position Album
GER AUT SWI
2004 "Perfekte Welle" 2 2 18 Es ist Juli
"Geile Zeit" 19 11 32
2005 "Regen und Meer" 31 20 -
"Warum" 47 52 -
"November" 49 - -
2006 "Dieses Leben" 5 7 25 Ein neuer Tag
"Wir beide" 23 55 -
2007 "Zerrissen" 15 35 -
"Ein Neuer Tag" TBA TBA TBA Ein neuer Tag
Awards
* 2004
o Bravo Otto category Shootingstar
* 2005
o Bundesvision Song Contest winner with Geile Zeit
o Goldene Schallplatte
+ 5x Gold and 3x Platinum for Es ist Juli (Album) in Germany
+ 1x Gold for Perfekte Welle (Single)
+ in each case 1x Gold and 1x Platinum for Es ist Juli (Album) in Austria
and Switzerland
* 2006
o European Border Breakers Award for the best selling German debut album in
Europe not including Germany (September 2004 to August 2005)
o Bambi Category Musik national
o Eins Live Krone Category Best Band
o Golden record
+ 2x Gold and 1x Platinum for Ein Neuer Tag (Album)
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