Get to Know Julien Earle and His New Project r3flection

Julien Earle spent years in the scene churning out some quality tunes and now has embarked on the next chapter of his story as r3flection.

Since first breaking onto the scene years ago, Julien Earle has traveled through a number of different genre realms while crafting up immersive tunes. Beginning his journey in the realm of left-field, he found a passion for electronic beats after diving deeper into the sounds of lo-fi. This helped push him further into the underground as his exploration of techno began, leading to releases on prominent labels such as 1605, Kraftek, and Respekt.

After climbing the charts for years, Julien Earle set his sights on assisting others on their journey as well. This led to the creation of his YouTube page that is littered with tutorials for anyone intent on making the jump into production. From creating lo-fi beats and hard techno to answering questions and replicating the styles of other notable producers in the scene, it’s a wealth of information for any aspiring producer.

Now, in the early days of 2022, Julien Earle has set course on the next era of his career with the debut of his new alias, r3flection. The first sounds from this project were heard just a few short weeks ago with the release of “Fix My H3art,” a stunning track that will surely captivate anyone who listens. Further, r3flection will also double as a label for Julien to release more tunes as well as those from other artists.

Looking to gain some deeper insight into Julien Earle’s mind, we caught up with him after the release of “Fix My H3art” to chat about the project and his plans for the future. Give his exclusive guest mix a spin and read on for the full conversation!

Stream EDMID Guest Mix 310 || Julien Earle / r3flection on SoundCloud:

Hi Julien, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Let’s start off by diving into your own roots as an artist! Who were some of your earliest influences and favorite artists in the dance music scene?

Early on I really dove into more left-field stuff, not so much House or Techno. I really connected with Burial early on and I loved Night Slugs, Tessella, R&S, that kind of stuff. It was also a different time from now whereas now 4×4 music is much more prominent(these were the early 2010s).

Honestly just all that super textural stuff from back then, even stepping to more electronic like Flying Lotus, James Blake, all that stuff was what really pulled me in. I came from Rock, playing guitar, Emo house shows all that so these really left-field explorations of what could be done with the template of dance music were the hook that pulled me in.

What drew you to begin DJing and producing in the house and techno realm? Was there a certain “spark” that happened one day or was it a natural progression?

Lo-fi House around 2016-2017 really got me back into the game a bit. I think that was when 4×4 started getting interesting again and people’s attention really focused back on the underground as far as what was going to come next. I took the foundation I had already built making all these other styles of music and really hammered it down trying to make the best stuff I could. A few years later, I’m still hammering down trying every day to make my best stuff but I’ve come a long way and grown my project a bit!

You previously released music under your own name, Julien Earle, but have since begun to deliver new tunes as r3flection. What prompted this change and what can fans expect to hear under this alias?

This project represents everything I’ve learned, all of my influences, everything I want to do. It’s a “r3flection” of everything I’ve ever consumed or wanted to do artistically. It’s also to separate my new and different ideas from the videos and the techno and to keep it still under one umbrella where you know it’s me Julien, but it’s a different guy also if that makes sense. I’m Julien, but my homie r3flection. You guys really gotta meet him.

The release of “Fix My H3art” marked the beginning of this new journey. Can you share what the production process was like behind this tune?

This track is the first entry in the project, and it’s a new style for me. The genre is called 808 House. If you know you know. For me, to create a whole new genre from scratch is not very interesting but it is more interesting to take what is going on, expand on it, and hopefully take it places no one else has thought of. That’s 808 House.

You can play it alongside all the Tech House and piano House or even Techno that people are loving, but when “Fix My H3art” comes on you know it’s r3flection and you can’t mistake it for anyone else. So I could talk all day about the production techniques I used, but they are really only a tool I used here to accomplish the goals I detailed above.

Not only is r3fection a new alias of yours, but also shares the name of your newly minted imprint as well. What led to your decision in creating this new imprint and do you plan on including other artists’ work on it?

The goal of the label is simple: I want to do things that the other labels are just not very interested in, but I know there is an audience for. The one principle I live by is if you like something, there are at least 1,000 other people on the internet who will like it too. Even if it isn’t as well produced as the biggest labels or anything like that.

That being said, don’t get it twisted. The standard of quality for r3flection is as hard to match up to like any of the biggest labels, but we’ll take a chance and use the same promo resources as those big labels to make sure the world hears it if they deserve to hear it and it is quality. Other artists will be getting releases soon, we’re doing remix contests and I’ll be opening demos up before the end of the year.

Aside from your own work, you’ve helped foster other artists’ production abilities with your videos on YouTube. When did you decide to use this platform as a way to teach others and are there any specific videos you recommend us checking out?

For me, it actually all goes back to Lo-fi house. I spent a few years just being a huge YouTube fan, literally watching it all day while producing and I really got how it worked. I realized that there were almost no Lofi House tutorials out there, so that was my calling. I eventually spread to other genres and here we are. It’s really about making the videos I wished were out there when I was starting.

In 2013, I WISHED someone would make a Burial tutorial, or a Flying Lotus tutorial, or a Tessella tutorial – and five years later when those things still didn’t exist I realized I had to be the one to study these tracks and do my best job of explaining what I learn from them so everyone else can have those videos I was dying for back then and ultimately production can be an easier process to learn and the overall track quality can be improved. Check out my first video on how to make Lofi House for a good throwback pre-crazy journey Julien. [Laughs]

Finally, now that your new alias and label are out for the world to hear, what goals do you hope to achieve in 2022 and beyond?

First of all, just going to keep working my ass off on these tracks both on my own techno releases as well as r3flection, and just keep showing the world. I’m not stopping until r3flection has earned the space I believe it deserves in this game. Also going to keep doing videos every single day so that’s not stopping any time soon. Also working on a secret project but the world is going to know about that very soon. Thanks for having me!