Album: In the dead of night
Artist: Julia Volkova
Label: Songs to love and die by
Genre: Hard Rock, Glam Rock, Alternative Rock, Folk
Writers: Julia Volkova, Lilly Stuart, Bill Owens
Producers: Bill Owens, Julia Volkova, Rick Rubin
Executive Producer: Julia Volkova and Bill Owens
Recorded: 2014 – 2015 New York, US
Release Date: August 1st
Length: 54 minutes

Track listing

1- Insomnia
2- The fear
3- Self destructive
4- Seven lives
5- Get behind me Satan
6- Hey Stop!
7- I don’t believe in love
8- Only mine
9- Why do you hurt
10- Understand me
11- La petit mort
12- For Alex
Bonus Tracks
13- Friends Again
14- Cold Broken Stones

“In the dead of the night” is the third studio album by Russian born rock singer Julia Volkova. It will be released on August 1st, 2015, by Songs to love and die by. Looking to transition from her earlier albums “All you want to know about me” (2012) and “Haunted” (2013), Volkova began to embrace a heavier rock sound culminating with this most recent release. Its music incorporates elements of different subgenres of rock music such as Hard Rock ahd Glam Rock and occasionally dips into other subgenres as well like industrial rock, electronic rock and folk; its lyrics follow conceptions of Julia’s personal lives, experiences she had while the time she took on a hiatus without releasing any new material of her own solo career, they also comes progressing, speaking of inner sentiments to outside and relationship sentiments. Contributions to its production came from a few collaborators, including Lilly Stuart and Rick Rubin and the producer behind “The Enlightened” Bill Owens. Julia wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks on the album.
At the end of her second headline world tour, Julia took a hiatus of two years, where she met Alex Simms and not only started a relationship with him but also formed the rock duo called ‘Mutual Addiction” which turned into a full album and a world tour. The final months of 2013 and the whole year of 2014, saw these two singers travelling the world with the music they produced in short period. Julia claimed back in the time, she was under a writer’s block, when she met Alex, but instead of making music to release as a soloist the music they made turned into a duet album. The album and tour experienced a moderate success plus average criticism, some praising the stage presence and chemistry between the two members.
However at the end of 2014, Alex announced he would go back to his solo career and that “Mutual Addiction” would take a hiatus, some speculated that the couple had split, but none of the rumors were confirmed and the situation between them remains uncertainly, but the same. During the time Julia was touring with Alex, she started to write new music for what would become her third studio album, when the tour was finished; she got in contact with her record label and said that she was ready to release the follow up to “Haunted (2012)”. She then, invited Lilly Stuart and Rick Rubin to work on the pre-production of the record with her, for later on invite Bill Owens to co-executive produce the entire album with her.
Volkova spoke on twitter and on interviews as well, about her passion for the band “The Elightned” praising their ability to put rock music back at the mainstream market and also speaking about the talent of Bill Owens. The sessions with Bill Owens lasted a total of six months, where Volkova was back and forth into the studio to work with the busy man, as for this part of the project, Julia revealed that Owens was one of the easiest producers she ever had the privilege to work with and that he has visions of future that she could never imagined or dream about.
The first single “I don’t believe in love” raised to the top of the charts, becoming a radio instant hit with its vicious riffs and sexy lyrics, the music video went viral on the internet, mostly because it pictures Julia almost naked and sets a darker visual aspect to the album. The second single released was a song called “Hey Stop” which on Julia words was the most liked song to play live when she traveled US for one month, reconnecting with her fans. Later Julia revealed the artwork and set list of the album with the release date for it, but she promised to stream the tracks earlier the release date. She is set to perform at the FCA awards of 2015.
As for the reason why Volkova decided to name the album "In the dead of the night" she said: “In the dead of the night is the moment of my days where I was being inspired to write and compose new music, it’s basically because of all the tracks on this record came out in the dead of the night, that I felt it was a perfect choice of name for it. But obviously somethings are deeper than just the hour of the night or of the day that you’re inspired to write or compose music, there’s a common thread through the tracks that can only be felt at night, I’m not saying that if you listen to them in the daylight you won’t feel a thing, but I’m sure that when the night is falling, that’s when we feel some of the things that I talk about on this record."

Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
Length: 4:38
Producer (s): Bill Owens, Rick Rubin
Writer (s): Julia Volkova, Lily Stuart, Rick Rubin

About the track…

Keeping the autobiographical style of the first track, “The Fear” shows off another issue of Miss Volkova. In a mid-tempo, guitar-oriented track, Bill Owens takes the credit alongside Rick Rubin for the production of the track while Volkova co-wrote the track with Lilly Stuart and Mister Rubin. In Julia words: “This track I had written for a very long time ago, like when I was meant to make a third record, before I even met Alex and Mutual Addiction happened. I was kind of trying to find a new sound for my style and that’s when I had the idea of inventing Rick Rubin to work on some ideas for songs with me, some of the tracks on the album are also credited to him, because of that first attempt of making the record. Obviously, when Bill came in the track took a different direction in terms of sonority with all the synths and the gothic vibe it has, but certainly, this song grew up bigger than I thought, it has potential to become a single.”
Julia adopted a torture croon singing style for the track, she really sounds tempted to commit something, just to ease the dark feelings she’s going through. The track kept the use of synths like the previous track, but on the bridge, a guitar solo punctuates the track for almost a minute, Julia credited that riff for Rick Rubin.
Julia described the track as a “melancholy and heavy slower ballad with cruelty and crying riffs”, the lyrics starts describing all the physical sensations the singer has when she’s in fear and with that plot on her mind, she keeps the whole track trying to find proper words to transmit that feeling of desperation, desolation and the longing of feeling something else, like pain other than the fear. There’s no such reasons for the feeling of the fear, so it perhaps can be linked to panic attacks, while it’s uncertain if Julia really suffers of the psychiatric disease of not.
As for the overall sound of the album, it accomplishes the intimate and minimalistic start, with loud synths and weird noises missed on hard rock guitars and guttural vocals, but let’s not forget the undeniable sexy tone characteristic of Julia’s husky voice.


Lyrics



Sounds Like

Genre: Industrial Rock, Alternative Rock
Length: 3:32
Producer (s): Bill Owens
Writer (s): Julia Volkova, Bill Owens

About the track…

The track starts off firing on all cylinders, with chunky power chords that repeat through much of the song, like rounds of ammo. It is a overall a mix of what we’ve heard until now, the industrial rock and its synths mixed with heavy hard rock electric guitar riffs and pounding drums. The synths buzz like electric currents and Volkova’s razory vocals are also present, as to be expected.
It’s a chaotic industrial aggro anthem, but the singer never gives up on melody. The song is memorable and it’ll get your head bobbing along. Those stop-start riffs feel like aftershocks, too. It takes us back to something that Volkova tried limitedly on her second studio album “Haunted” with a well-known hit called “The Bite”. But this time, Volkova sings on her own, with no male help and let’s just praise the work on her vocals, because they never sound so good before, perfectly matched to the proposal of this record.
As we pay attention on its lyrics, we clearly see some kind of redemption here, like compared to the three previous tracks and its dark themes of abuse and psychiatric diseases, Julia is searching for redemption, but in a morbid way, she admits she hit the bottom, and the order is to re-start, like a cat and its seven lives, she also suggests some really intriguing questioning about dying, like she knows the world won’t stop to turn despite her failure. Its quite disconcerting.
“Seven lives is another new one, Bill helped me to write this one, we needed to make some track for the safe of the track listing as package, I mean, if you take the album as a story line, you’ll understand that Seven Lives is the transition for other subjects that I took for the following tracks, it was like I had those really dark songs about my private fears and struggles, but like I said before, I’m 30 now, I don’t have time to really be a teenager all the time and cry about these teenage fears, so Seven lives is me, seeing that it was already time to re-start. I really don’t wanna sound misunderstood here, because fear, rejection or whatever other dark feeling is part of life no matter how old you are, but we must find ways to overcome them for the benefit of our future.”
She also noted the choruses of the track, by saying: “I like the choruses of this track so much, it’s like a bubblegum track, I mean it, I wrote it first at the piano and Bill brought the heavy guitars in and as much it’s way heavier, I think it sticks on your mind, I find myself singing it over and over after I listen to this track. Its addicting.”

Lyrics



Sounds Like

Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
Length: 3:21
Writer(s): Julia Volkova, Bill Owens, Rick Rubin
Producer(s): Bill Owens, Julia Volkova


About the track...

It starts with a fusion of drums, electric guitar and bass in a single riff followed by a mute note, it repeats two times when suddenly the drums kept the sequence without the guitars and the bass. Julia takes the lead, a smooth guitar accompanies her, and bass sequence in this first verse. Her voice is sexy, a little husky and she has that sarcastic tone ot her voice so familiar of her previous works, some effects are added to her vocals, effects of echoes, backing vocals and megaphone distortions. When she sings the name of the track “Hey Stop” it is almost combined to its following line, but it has a longer intonation than other words, it serves as a bridge for the second verse of the track, a short climax moment happens before the second verse, but it ends with Julia assuming the same structure of the first verse.
The second verse is shorter than the first one and when all the melodies and Julia’s vocals are raised, comes the chorus. The chorus is a repeating line that Julia screams through the trash guitars and hard rock drums. The third verse resumes the same structure all over again, but it’s more aggressive not only on Julia’s singing style but on the melodies as well, it is progressing to some kind of climax.
The bridge has the highest key we’ve seen Julia perform in a while, she liberates her voice and reveals a whole lot of attitude on doing that. The rest of the track is a mix of revolution and hard rock guitars and Julia yelling the chorus until it suddenly ends.
Julia is worried with how this modern society if living their lives, when everyone cares about the rich and famous and no one really wants to fight for a better and more commonly life socially speaking. Certainly is a critic to the futilities of the world, the opinions of the fools, who hide before a mask to impose a discourse trying to subjugate people under their commands, obviously there’s money involved and politic powers too, Julia ass us “How long will we swallow all this shit?”
"I think it's part of a rock singer to talk about society and what happens that some people doesn't say anything about. We already had this track going since 2014, when I first worked with Rick Rubin, when I got back to work on this record I showed it to Bill and he loved the fast tempo it has and the repetitive choruses her just added some secret ingredients and it turned to be one of my favorites of this record."

Lyrics



Sounds Like

Genre: Power Ballad, Hard Rock
Length: 4:45
Writer(s): Julia Volkova, Lilly Stuart
Producer(s): Julia Volkova, Bill Owens

About the track…

"Only Mine" starts out with a heartbeat and an acoustic guitar, until it grows to a heavier power ballad fusion of drums and electric guitar. Volkova’s vocals shine throughout the entire track, she sets the mood and also the tempo of the track. Through huskiness and crying notes, it is far intimate than its predecessors. Julia is a singer that’s not known for hit single ballads, except her folk singles like “Excuses” or her attempt with “Looking for you” that charted moderately and received general mixed to positive reviews, certainly with this third album, she used all of her knowledge gained to accomplish something like “Only Mine”.
The lyrics is clearly the biggest fear of a person, which is to recognize its own failure, its own struggles and at the same time try to stand from that no-perspective situation. The lyrics turned the track to a possible suicidal themed, to a more wiser and mature “I know that I have to go through this”. It has potential for a single, it could be a Christmas singles perhaps. Julia co-wrote the track with Lilly Stuart and she co-produced it with Bill Owens.
“Only mine was a song that I had for a very longtime ago, the lyrics of it is an old poem I wrote, I never thought about using it, until Bill and I were working on some ballads for the album and we got to something sounding like the final version of this track. Then I thought, why not using this poem, it is so updated for me, I mean, I always looked at that piece of paper and thought how could I write something at such a young age and only feel its real purpose this old. They’re tricks of our lives, but this one is really strong and beautifully played.”
The level of intimacy of this record is no less than understanding what Julia Volkova’s fear and loves, it started out with the most dirty and suicidal tracks like Insomnia, followed through pop bangers like Hey Stop and now it reached the core of Julia’s heart.


Lyrics



Sounds Like

Genre: Alternative Rock, Hard Rock
Length: 4:27
Writer(s): Julia Volkova, Bill Owens
Producer(s): Bill Owens

About the track…

A bit lighter, following it’s previous folk sister track, but getting back rocking, “Understand me” is dreamier and moodier in effect and vocals. It’s some sort of “second part” of the album’s previous theme “why do you hurt” as Julia decides to really reveals the inner lines of the struggles she’s singing about . It’s one of the slower tracks on the record and by no coincidence, features one of the better vocal efforts. It’s mid-tempo and alternative rock fusion of drums and electric guitar riffs, make the track a radio friendly without hesitation.
Bill Owens produced it but he also co-wrote it with Julia Volkova as she talks about the track: “Understand me is another new one, written in the final meetings I had with Bill regarding the album, it came from the wish to re-work on the previous track ‘why do you hurt’ but as much as we wanted to change that song, we definitely felt about working on a new song that could work as a continuation for it, that’s the goal for this track.”
Volkova’s talking about relationships again, but not as teenager anymore, she is really arguing with conscience and reason. Her main complaints is to ask complacency and that her lover could understand her and try not to be always so selfish. Some words sound even on acid tones and she later compares herself as an anxiolytic pill, as if her lover is under some psychological recovery and Julia is his remedy and as the ultimate arguing she asks, why she can’t be understood, why she always has to take the lead and not be the one vulnerable? Well perhaps it’s her attitudes and confidence that always put her into being the lead one, even though she’s a girl. On the bridge of the track, Julia just explains why she’s arguing, she says “I’m just trying to say that I’m as complex as you”.

Lyrics




Sounds Like

Genre: Folk, Country
Length: 3:11
Producer (s): Julia Volkova, Rick Rubin, Bill Owens
Writer (s): Julia Volkova

About the track...

Closing the album is “For Alex”. The most sweet and lovely track on the album. The acoustic song, completed with harmonica, strips down everything to the essentials. Reminiscent of say Bob Dylan or Neil Young, this is Americana and it’s brilliant. It dips low to country elements and folksy, Volkova’s amazingly well produced husky vocals and her performance at the harmonica also the first time we’ve seen her using the instrument ever since her debut. It shows the folk side of the singer, the one that hides inside all of the dirty electric guitars, the side that longs for a side project. It was obviously wrote by Julia as all of the other tracks on this record, but was produced by Bill and Rick Rubin with Volkova’s demandas as well, so it perhaps showcases the intentions of the singer to let her folk side come out of the darkness among so many hard rock songs talking about the different ways hell can be present in someone’s life.
As a breath of fresh air, “For Alex” is as it is called, for Alex, Volkova’s lover ever since she started on a venture called “Mutual Addiction”, so the track is sweet and delicate, feminine, strip down, the lyrics are straight forward but in a gentle way. “I wanted to end this record with a softer track among the others we wrote for it, because if you take a deep listen to the songs, they are all so dark and heavy, I needed to have this breaking point comparing to the other tracks of it and ‘For Alex’ accomplishes that aspect.”

Lyrics



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