Julian Velard at Hotel Cafe in LA Dec. 5

JULIAN VELARD RETURNS STATESIDE FOR A U.S. TOUR
Sunday, December 5 @ The Hotel Cafe
1623 1/2 N Cahuenga Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028-6201
(323) 461-2040
http://www.hotelcafe.com
Tickets: $10
Time: 7 p.m.

Singer/songwriter and piano-man Julian Velard returns stateside in October to support his indie release The Planeteer and road test material from the forthcoming Mr. Saturday Night, due in 2011. The tour will commence on October 6 in New York City.

Moonlighting as a Kindergarten gym teacher by day and burgeoning barroom crooner at night, the native New Yorker debuted in 2003 with the aptly titled Nitetime. His sophomore effort The Movies Without You EP (2006) followed to much acclaim. The Los Angeles Weekly lauded him a “megatalent... guaranteed to generate feminine moisture... not so much concocting life dramas as revealing them. Undislikable.”

Signing a deal with EMI UK in 2007, Julian moved to London and released the single “Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen, “a jaunty-as-mad paean to Hollywood nostalgia that calls to mind fellow piano freaks Ben Folds and Billy Joel.” - Independent New Review

Intended for his full-length, The Planeteer, the single was his only release on EMI UK, another victim of major label restructuring. It took the better part of a year for the label to relinquish the album. In meantime, the EP Another Guy’s Song garnered much buzz for the cabaret-style covers of mainstream hits from Kings of Leon, Katy Perry, Chris Brown and “an unnerving interpretation of 'The Way You Make Me Feel' that hints at what the song might have been if Michael Jackson were an unsung barroom musician in New Orleans.” - The New Yorker

In 2009, Julian released The Planeteer independently and has since straddled both sides of the Atlantic, writing songs for himself and others, and playing shows alongside Jamie Cullum, Goldfrapp, Shelby Lynne, Amy McDonald, Kate Nash, Jose Gonzalez, Marc Broussard, Tom Baxter, Horatio Sanz, Ben Kweller, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and others, and is currently working towards the release of Mr. Saturday Night in 2011. If The Guardian’s prediction is accurate, “The future just might be his.”