Armand Ruby and Julian Colbeck are releasing their radio remix, "I Don't Want to Walk Away" under the Karmic Neighborhood artist title, with vocals by rocker James Durbin. This dreamy yet upbeat track reflects themes of mystery and pain associated with the sudden and unexpected ending of an intense romantic relationship. The lyrics, "I don’t want to say goodbye, I said I will, and I will, but I don’t want to," play into an overarching concept of "lost love." Armand and Julian strive to connect with their listeners on an emotional level via the release of this single and on additional Karmic Neighborhood projects to come.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hey Karmic Neighborhood, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Thanks for having us! Our first Karmic Neighborhood interview! Julian and I both had parents who were music lovers, and they encouraged us from an early age. Julian began playing piano at age 8 when his parents purchased an old upright, which he still owns to this day. My parents bought me my first guitar at a young age as well. With those tools at hand and just enough talent to be dangerous, we both started composing music before our teen years. Coincidentally, we both also played clarinet in the school band, me in the northeastern US and Julian in the south of England.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
We were both active in sports throughout youth and early adulthood, and until some recent health challenges Julian was an enthusiastic mountain biker. As a gorky 6’3” human I’ve taken to making a fool of myself on the dance floor with the local Boomer crowd, to cut loose and get some freaky exercise. Julian claims to have a rather discerning palate for red wine. We both “enjoy” gardening (i.e., we both support our wives’ gardening ambitions) and purely out of necessity we accept the challenge of attempting to manage mother nature in her ongoing attempts to claw back our country properties (which are about 200 m. apart near the central California coast).
Your latest song is 'I Don't Want to Walk Away (radio remix)'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
We originally released the song as a mellower production, with an extended piano intro (Julian’s longtime friend and business partner Alan Parsons did the final mix). Knowing that the few people who heard the song loved it, we decided to remix it to make a more radio-friendly version. We kept James Durbin’s incredible vocals but dropped the intro and re-imagined the percussion, while adding some cool new sounds and musical bits. For example we added a fill on (electronic) steel drum. Our main engineer, Patrick Brede, is always up for helping us screw around with sounds.
Can you reveal the recipe for a musical hit?
Haha well if I could I probably wouldn’t tell you! But I do know that writing a great song is just the first part; creating an arrangement, getting great performances, and producing a track that brings out the best in the song are just as important, and require just as much creativity. And all those other parts, when you’re working with people you enjoy being with, are generally super fun.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
For me, continuing to write - including on-demand, for events like weddings and milestone birthdays - and challenging myself to be my best creative self is important. As a younger man I sometimes had a fear that the well of musical creativity would dry up; I long ago realized that it’s never going to, even if I’m not writing all the time.
As a team, exploring different musical styles and bringing creative elements into our arrangements and production work feels like growth and development; working to manifest a creative expression of the tune that WE find interesting and fresh, adding cool licks and sounds (a process I sometimes like to call, “f***ing it up”).
Our current project, a preview soundtrack for a musical film in development (“Equinox the Musical”), showcases at least 7 musical styles among the 14 songs on the album.
What inspires you as an artist? Could it be the sea, the weather or something else?
Yes. ;-) For me it’s most often humanity, human emotions, what’s living inside us, our inner life. And of course love and affection is a fav topic. Sometimes social issues. But sometimes inspiration is non-verbal; just (instrumental) music; no words, no thoughts.
Even though I’ve been composing music (sporadically) most of my life, the creative musical process still seems very mysterious to me. Being a composer I think is something that happens to you, or if you prefer, something you incarnate with. I don’t think many composers wake up one day and say, “I want to be a composer”; instead one day we just find ourselves composing.
But how does that happen, really? Where exactly does the inspiration to write a song or a symphony come from? How does it happen that a thought or a feeling starts becoming a musical composition? It certainly doesn’t feel intellectual. An avid dreamer, I have a few times awakened to realize I was composing in my dream.
Yes, we have to work to refine the musical idea into a musical composition, and the more we work on that craft the better the results will be. But without that original mysterious inspiration we wouldn’t be composing. And no amount of AI imitation will take that beautiful mystery of human creativity away from the actual music creators.
How do you spend your free time? What makes you feel relaxed?
In addition to the aforementioned funky dancing, gardening, and so on, as an aspiring filmmaker I watch a lot of movies. And of course we both listen to a lot of music, including watching music videos. Living 5 miles as the crow flies from the beautiful California coast, we also enjoy walks with our wives on the often nearly deserted beaches of Monterey Bay.
Do you have a mentor or coach?
Having literally written the book on the Art and Science of Sound Recording, and with a lifetime of recording experience with some of the world’s best musicians and engineers, Julian has certainly been a mentor to me in the studio. And I’m also often blown away by his arrangement and production ideas.
On the filmmaking side I have a mentor in San Francisco who has a Sundance pedigree.
Do you think it's easy to become established in the music world, or is it difficult?
Haha; that depends on who you are, and [inserting personal world-view] what your destiny (i.e., your pre-birth plan) is for this lifetime. For most people I think it is quite difficult. Julian is someone who fell into it quite naturally while he was still a teenager; his band got signed to a record deal after their very first gig! And the rest is history. Not always easy history; there were bumps in the road, but he traveled down that road and made his living as a professional musician. All that involved hard work, of course, and in Julian’s case he set himself up for a continuing life in the music biz once he decided to get off the stage (which he suddenly decided to do following a gig in Tokyo in front of 10,000 people), through writing for music industry publications and getting involved in music tech, eventually forming ASSR with Alan Parsons.
For me, although I always have been involved in music in various non-professional and semi-professional ways, becoming established in the big, new, evolving world of musical commerce has been daunting, discouraging, challenging, frustrating, and similar (th)ings, even while working alongside a pro such as Julian. The music creation parts have been great fun; and as you can perhaps infer from this interview, I’m also trying to have some fun with the promotional parts as well.
What accomplishments do you see yourself achieving in the next five to 10 years?
Glad you asked that! Not too much; just a few things. :-) Here’s the rough plan:
> IDWTWA becomes a hit song worldwide, on streaming services, in sync, on YouTube, and on radio
> Karmic Neighborhood becomes widely known, developing a loyal fanbase, and leading to success with other releases, including "Radiant Beauty"
> The preview soundtrack to "Equinox the Musical" becomes a hit album worldwide for Karmic Neighborhood, and leads to the making of the feature film, "Equinox the Musical"
> "Equinox the Musical" becomes an award-winning film and box office success
> The prequel ("The Eclipse") and sequel ("Solstice") musical films to Equinox are made and become similarly successful
> "My Name Is Truth", a musical feature film about the life of Sojourner Truth, is made and becomes similarly successful
> "Cancer the Musical" is made and becomes widely successful on the stage.