The Hunt for Square One

The biggest problem there is with going back to square one, is that we think we have, we’re sure we have, but the reality is, we very rarely do. We mask the shortcomings that have led to this point. We tend to ignore any suggestion that it is something we have done which may have led to the collapse of the situation we find ourself in, the very reason we are back to square one. And so, when we restart the process, we restart at square two, sometimes three or even four.

Let’s take the case of Julian James. Right now, he is questioning everything, wondering if he needs to give up on his lifelong dream of making it as a musician and getting a bona fide record deal, a world tour and a bestselling number one hit. He felt that he had prepared for any of the knock backs he had received on the way to fame and fortune. And he had been so sure, deep down, so confident that he would make it. Hard work and learning his craft would surely see him all the way to the top.

He certainly knew how to graft. From the moment he went into the music store and picked up a ¼ size junior electric guitar for his 7^th birthday after begging his parents for one since his 6^th birthday instead of the bike he had been promised; he then spent the best part of 10 years learning and honing his technique. He had taught himself to play the guitar, painstakingly spending hour after hour, strumming away, plucking the strings and tirelessly working out the chords until he was finally able to play a recognisable tune. One tune led to several and then, once he turned 13, he began to busk. A few years later his father asked the landlord of the local bar, if Julian could play a set one evening. Once he said yes, Julian was convinced he was on the way to stardom. He was particularly fond of ballads but knew he had to throw in a few more up-tempo numbers into the sets he was playing, to keep the interest of the crowd. And each night he played he picked up another pearl of wisdom about his stage presence and crowd interaction. Every spare moment was spent learning a new song. It wasn’t long before he was playing the local circuit of bars and clubs, slowly but surely gaining a small but loyal following.

Bryn Flynn was always looking for the one act that would sky rocket to fame and make him a fortune on the way. He managed most of the local bands and had found that almost all of them wanted the same thing – to make a record, make it big, tour the world, and he was happy to do all he could to make that happen. His biggest success to date had been Moonface & Silky, a brother and sister act that had been booked to join the UK leg of the Animals Revival Tour as their opening act. The would-be fame and fortune ended before it even started as Silky, the sister, found out she was pregnant only two weeks before the start of the tour and decided that touring at this point was not the right move. Her brother chose to get lost in drink; and the first glimpse of that elusive fortune slipped away from Bryn. He walked into open night at The Bull as Julian walked onto the stage in the corner for his first set. Bryn was interested as he always was when newbies showed up. The key was to come back a few weeks later and see if the artist had progressed in any way. Bryn saw Julian three more times and saw his potential. There was definitely something there, and plenty to work with to improve, Bryn just couldn’t work out exactly what needed to be worked on – maybe one of the multitude of reasons why Bryn had not yet successfully managed a musician to stardom?

Two years later, Bryn knew that the time was right. Julian had grown, not just physically, his voice now had a raspy edge which really set off the ballads, however Bryn still felt that there was something missing, something holding Julian back, but he was by far the best act on his books. He couldn’t wait for a flash of inspiration or insight, Julian was as ready as he ever would be, plus opportunities to meet with record producers didn’t come along every day – even from small record labels such as Triple D, owned solely by David Donovan Django, born Thomas Neale, but this was the entertainment business and Thomas Neale was a nobody, always would be, but Django, well he was in the process of building a very successful business and had agreed to meet Julian as a favour to a friend of a friend who owed Bryn a favour. He was always happy to provide favours which involved new artists on the basis that he, like Bryn, would find an act that would propel him into the big leagues. Roughly 90 seconds into Julians’ first number, he knew that this wasn’t ‘that’ act.

Speaking afterwards he was as professional as he could be as he declined to offer Julian a record deal. “You’re okay, but to be honest, it was all a bit, well it was all rather bland, you were no different to hundreds of other young hopefuls out there all looking to make it big. I can’t work out if it was your voice, the song choice, or it could just be your name, but I’m sorry, right now, there’s just not that spark in your set up that I feel we could work with that we could eventually market. Go away, strip it all back, start again and see if you can discover a new you that has that, well, that something which will put your head above all the others looking to ride the rainbow”.

Julian, as focused as ever, took the feedback and digested it, ruminated over it for a few days and then met with Bryn to discuss the way forward. Bryn too had been thinking. The first suggestion he pitched was a change of name. “He said to strip it back right, so let’s go right back to Square One and start with your name. Now there’s nothing wrong with Julian, or James for that matter, but is it the name of a music icon? Is it going to sell records? Is it going to have kids clamouring to try and get a ticket for your sell-out arena tour? Probably not, so let’s start with that shall we?”. And so, at the end of that first meeting, Julian James had transformed into Jaxon. By the end of the week, he had managed to perfect a gravelly tone to his voice, and his hair dyed from its natural sandy brown to a deep blue-black and encouraged to grow, until eventually it was long enough for a pony tail – both Bryn and Jaxon drew the line at a man-bun, Bryn because he thought they didn’t go with the new identity, Jaxon simply because he wasn’t sure he could pull off the look.

Meticulously they worked on changing his style, his look and his voice. Continually for two years. Jaxon morphed into Jersey, then he became Julius for a fortnight only, before moving away from the fascination with the letter J and became Zephyr. Each name change brought a different focus, a different style and a different genre. He had met once more with a producer from the Triple D record label, and was offered a role as a session musician. And, on the basis that it was a foot in the door he took it, and used any recording sessions he was involved with to pick up tips from other musicians, still in the belief he would one day make it big.

Bryn came to him during a break one evening as he was doing a local gig, and introduced him to a woman about 10 years older than he was. It was none other than Silky who having had two children and a broken marriage realised she still wanted to be famous and had contacted Bryn. She and Julian hit it off immediately and for two months Silky & The Man (his new rebrand), played the pubs and clubs. It seemed as if this was it, the puzzle was complete. And to a certain extent that was true. At least it was for Moonface and Silky. Moonface having conveniently resurfaced from a drunken stupor when he realised Silky was performing once again, and had decided to make peace with his sister and see if between them they could start over again. Julian watched on in disbelief when Silky agreed and the siblings rebooted their career and brought out a platinum selling album ‘Back to Square One’ before drink reclaimed Moonface.

This is where we met Julian, contemplating if all the hard work was ever going to pay off and realise his dreams, questioning everything

We began by stating that we mask our shortcomings, ignoring things which point to us being responsible and at times not knowing or realising what or where Square One is. Julian never made it as a credible musician. It wasn’t due to the lack of his hard work; it wasn’t due to the lack of his ability as a musician. It was quite simply the inability to recognise where square one was in the great scheme of things.

Somewhere on the other side of the Galaxy in a parallel universe, a 7-year-old Julian James walks into a music shop. His eyes light up as he picks up the junior guitar and starts strumming away. On the way to the counter, he walks past a piano, carelessly he runs his fingers along the keys. He stops, turns around, places the guitar to the side and sits on the piano stool …

In this world on the other side of the Galaxy, Julian James is a global superstar, known for his inventive keyboard playing and the fluid sound of his accompanying voice which was as if an extra set of keys had been added to a piano. All because, as his fingers delicately explored the keys of that piano in the music store, he felt an immediate connection, the musicality flowed through him and that moment, not the pantomime of deciding the change of name, genre, look or style of music, that moment right there, was his own personal Square One.