Rediscovering Human Connection and Empathy
Student musician Julian Salberg sings, plays and writes to…
Student musician Julian Salberg sings, plays and writes to…
Julian Salberg is a senior student at San Diego State majoring in economics. He grew up in a small northern California city where he slowly fell in love with music starting with his young obsession with Hey There Deliah. Salberg is the lead singer in the SDSU band “The Blue Hour” which consists of Ashton Thomas, Judson Smith, and Wayne McClellan.
I first heard student musician Julian Salberg sing in March where he and his band The Blue Hour played in the backyard of a house on Mary lane; an iconic SDSU Friday night. Salberg being the lead singer the second I heard his cover of Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon I was hooked. There’s nothing like hearing Sex on Fire live but the energy Salberg brought to this small backyard concert made that shit hit so much harder.
Although Salberg kills it at singing covers, he also writes some of his own music. Taking him back to freshman year of high school where he began piecing together lyrics for songs stating that “I don’t really know why I started writing music because it wasn’t really something I planned on sharing with others at first, I just liked making little worlds out of personal experiences I’ve had and non-personal ideas I had floating around”.
One original song Salberg wrote called Sprinklers was one of the first songs I had heard where I felt the importance of the words he was singing rather than just the melody. It also happens to be one of Salberg's favorite songs he wrote. Sprinklers reflects on summertime his hometown and “how brief it feels when it's all over but how much has changed too.”
While some artists write according to the beats or melody Salberg rather focuses on creating human connection while also helping himself. Music for Salberg allows him to be able to articulate and understand his feelings while turning it into art. As some of us turn to more simple ways of understanding our feelings like journaling or venting to a friend, Salberg has a way of figuring his stuff out through singing it.
Some of Salberg's favorite songs he's written have come from his own human experience, he states that “I like to write about personal situations or stuff that’s inspired me from travel because I feel like it’s the easiest way to unravel emotions that we can all empathize with and create imagery people can see like I saw them”, stating that it “Mostly it just touches on little things I’ve noticed that moved me enough to be put into a song”.
While Salberg continues to play in backyard concerts in the future he hopes to record music with his band while also maybe doing some solo stuff on the side. When asked about his future he states “Not gonna lie, it would be nice to turn it into a career and have it reach people from all over. Playing live is something I’d be more than cool with doing for the rest of my life, it’s a pretty awesome feeling” but for right now everything he has been a part of “has been some of the most fun times and I’ve met some really awesome people, hopefully, I can keep doing just that ” he said.
It's refreshing to find someone who writes music to form and find a connection through other people.I felt that connection through his originals songs and even his covers like Sex on Fire, the energy that Salberg brings when he is singing is one that is hard to come by. Salberg is someone who above all wants to make music for that connection no matter the outcome.
Jenna Harter — May 3rd, 2022
