If you ever feel like skipping town and starting over, Julez and the Rollerz have your soundtrack at the ready. The LA garage rockers bring a bright, shiny optimism to the idea on their new single “Be Something New,” where girl-group harmonies and surfy keyboards kick in like the sun coming up on your first day of freedom somewhere no one knows your name. “Can you guess my sign?” bandleader Jules Batterman quips on the chorus. “I don’t wanna be a bitch all the time.”
“It’s easy for people to assume who you are based on your sign, life habits, etc., and of course at a certain point one would want to break out of those assumptions,” she elaborated in a press release. Batterman speaks from experience, past and present; she moved to the Golden State in 2018 after starting out as a solo artist in New York City, where she says the scene wasn’t for her. LA is where she assembled her band, and some of the city’s most iconic locales provide the backdrop for Batterman’s identity crisis on “Be Something New.”
“I have bad anxiety, and mundane acts like driving on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and PCH, and going to random coffee shops every day helped put my mind at ease at times where the city might’ve gotten the most of me,” Batterman says. “I’m so grateful to have my partner out here with me, and to be a part of a music scene most of my closest friends in LA are in as well. I don’t know how much longer I will last before I feel I need to move back closer to my family and long-time friends, but for now, LA is my home, and it feels right!”
You can stream “Be Something New” below in advance of Julez and the Rollerz’ new EP Is This Where the Party Is? coming May 19. Recorded at The Cave with Josiah Mazzaschi, it showcases the best of the band’s earworm riffs and self-deprecating wit.
