Julean and the Rai Release "Muse Tree" to Eager Fan Following Nationwide

    /24-7PressRelease/ - NEW YORK, NY, November 08, 2007 - This week, songwriter Julean Rai (known to his listeners as the band "Julean and the Rai") released his first official debut album, following a healthy live career and a string of EPs, instrumentals, and demos. Julean, who is decidedly well-known in a number of regional circuits nationwide, including Austin, Texas, and most recently New York City, finished the project early this year as part of a series of intensive recording sessions. The first of several albums completed in those sessions, Muse Tree gives us 15 songs that even fans familiar with Julean live or in the studio can find fresh, enduring, and at times, unfamiliar.

"A few of the songs on this [album] are songs I've been playing for years of course," Julean says in a recent interview, "but no song really made it to Muse Tree without being completely revamped in one way or another. Most are recognizable if you've heard them, but a few are entirely new bodies of work."

Muse Tree, Julean says, relates the songs, stories and experiences of his first year as an adult and as a musician, twelve years ago. "A couple of those tunes are actually new songs about old stories. I've tried to write them for years and, in a way, I'm glad that I was able to make them more recent and probably more sophisticated than they would be back then." Of the fifteen tracks on the album, only a handful are songs Julean says he performed at that actual time in his early career.

When asked about the recording process, Julean had this to say: "Forty some days and nights of manic hyper-productivity. I slept on a cot in the studio, which was in the loft of a larger studio. It was cold -- winter in Ohio, you know. The walls were too thin, the pipes above the studio in the wood creaked at all the wrong times. A lot of it was timing. I had my coffee in the mornings outside, ramen in the afternoon and rice in the evenings. Sometimes the producer would send me some fast food burgers and fries for the protein, or productivity, or whatever. For those sessions, because I couldn't bring anybody else in where I was at the time, I pretty much was "The Rai". I had tons of instruments up there and I played them all. I really had a ball with all the vocals and different voicings on the tracks, too. I think it gave me a chance to show my range somewhat, which I don't think I've done on the demos beforehand. I think it was a great experience for me, and I hope that translated to [Muse Tree] in a way all the people who have enjoyed the demos can hear and enjoy right along with me."

Muse Tree is the followup to a number of semi-commercial demos and recordings by Julean Rai, a list that includes the rock-oriented "Some Plans, the artfully analog and enchanting tracks of "The Windfall", and the predecessor to "Muse" known as "The Muse Tree (Demos)". When asked the reasons for the delay in an official release, Julean cites his travel and his lifestyle.

"I sort of live like a monk, you know? Not a pious one, but a strange one. I set up in a town, grow up a little, change a lot, you know? Get into trouble, piss people off. Make good friends, meet a girl. Gather up my stories and my songs, play the circuit and work odd jobs. Every once in awhile I get the chance or the resources to actually sit down and record a bunch of the songs that have stacked up over the years. Then I get a wild hair and I move on to a new adventure. It's where I get all my inspiration and how I inspire others, I think. I've really wanted to buckle down on getting these songs recorded, though. Kind of make music my "odd job" for once."

To date, Julean claims nearly ninety songs of unrecorded material, a small portion of which he was able to record and produce as part of these sessions. These include "Disconnect", a small promotional EP of newer songs, and Julean's next album "Here", which is currently in mastering and post-production. Rai also churned out the long-awaited "Alexandria, Falling", an Arabic music-inspired EP that truly shows off Julean's unique playing skill and talents as a musical composer. Julean's plans are to release these albums sequentially.

"I've got a ton of new songs, so the backlog keeps getting bigger and bigger. I want to record the newest ones with [The Rai], but I think I'm going to go back to the studio soon and work on "Anastasia Continuum" soon, which should be the next one up."

Given the opportunity to listen to "Muse", the album is a genuine, lighthearted and warm recounting of a young boy growing up to discover himself, girls, life, and Independence. With steady rock acoustic songs like "First Light", full band menageries, such as "Mind Games" and "Ryn", and even tender, moody stories such as "The Roots" and the impeccable "Muse Tree", "Muse" calls to mind contemporaries from Kaki King and Jack Johnson as well as influences like Bruce Springsteen and Nina Simone. In both his intricate skill as a guitar player, his astonishing vocal range, and his trademark impish-slash-sincere delivery, Julean Rai's "Muse Tree" makes us all wish to be seventeen again.

Fans and listeners of Julean Rai can buy "Muse Tree" and more at his online store at http://www.juleanandtherai.com/ or at his Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/juleanandtherai

A FEW INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT JULEAN RAI:

*Julean was born Julian Bernard Findley in Dayton, Ohio in 1978

*Julean has been known professionally as "Julian Rai", "Avallon Rai", "Taos Rai", and even "Didymos". Julean officially changed his name 2001

*Julean credits his unique percussive-hand strumming technique to lesser-known guitarist and friend Steve Maymo, with whom he performed with and around during his late teens in Ohio

*Julean also shares his love for music with theatre and has an acting background, even recently performing off-Broadway in "The Brig" with The Living Theatre in New York

*Julean is an avid composer and multi-instrumentalist who is credited with a number of short film soundtracks

*Julean and the Rai was officially formed in 2006 in New York. Other previous projects include AXIS and Julian Lanahan

# # #