Meet the mind behind Incubus’ and Maxwell’s creative direction.
Julian greets me with a big smile and a hug in front of his Williamsburg apartment. We walk inside a plant and candle filled living room, where Julian immediately lights up some palo santo and sits on the carpet, smile still strong across his face.
Positive energy emanates from him and is highly contagious. Any and every thing Julian does is his passion. Now a model signed with Soul Artist Management, he started modeling at the age of 17 and appeared in campaigns of Armani, 7 For All Mankind, Ralph Lauren and many more. In addition to his career as a model he is also a photographer and director working with numerous musicians ranging from Vic Mensa to Maxwell.
He’s the person behind the creative blossom of the Instagram account of Incubus – iconic alternative rock band. In addition to controlling all of their social media handles, Julian joins them on tours and captures their performances to later create behind-the-scenes videos – as he says “it’s all for the fans.”
As one of his latest projects is creative work for R&B singer Maxwell that included putting together his Barclays Center assets. New projects are still a work in progress, but Julian assured us it’s going to be worth the wait.
See the full interview below:
The Knockturnal: How do you manage juggling so many different career paths?
Julian Schratter: Most of the time it doesn’t feel like work, and when it does feel like work it can be trying … I mean, I’m in the city to work and make something happen on a larger scale than you can do in other parts of the world. So, you know, I don’t mind putting in the hours, I enjoy it.
TK: What is the most important project you’re working on?
JS: Myself is my most important project. That’s a cumulation of all different things that I do, different things that I am. I mean, I am constantly trying to evolve, myself as a person, on all different levels and professional level is one of those things. It seems to be the most feasible one for conversation, but I couldn’t point a specific project that I’m working on to be the most important. The most important one is for sure me.
TK: Tell us about your work for Incubus.
JS: Yeah, I love working with Incubus. They’ve given me an awesome platform to do what I want, they’re really trusting artists. Obviously there’s a level of approval with any musician at that level. Yeah, so I do interactive competitions with them, getting their fans involved, mostly on the Instagram platform. We’ve recently started making more YouTube recap videos. Again, it’s about taking the feedback from the fans, ’cause that’s ultimately who I’m trying satisfy and then adjusting my work for them. The beauty of a long term relationship like I have with Incubus is that I can do that as time goes. And that’s one artist that’s really given me an opportunity to do stuff so that other artists pay attention.
TK: How did your collaboration with Maxwell begin?
JS: I think it was a concert visual I made for them [Incubus] and Maxwell saw it and was like “give that to me!” and I sai “I can’t give that to you! Let me make your own!” You know, I ended up doing, I think, 9 songs for his Barclays show with Nas, which was so much work … Awesome, awesome work.
TK: How long have you been working with Maxwell?
JS: The first thing we did, I did the intro for his BET show which he had like five, six months ago. I did the BET one off for him and they were really happy with that so they reached out to me to do Barclays Center assets and I was one of three people on the creative team, and we busted ass to make this show awesome. He asked me to design something for Instagram and I designed a mock cover and he fell in love with it. And he probably fought for me against the powers of be. But it’s a great single cover, it’s dynamic, and it moves and it translates well with his brand and with, you know, a new vibe to it. We kind of found a little aesthetic that is working for right now.
JS: I like both equally and differently. I think I was less into modeling as it was more relevant in my life and now I’m more yearning to be in front of the camera because I have so much value for the muses in my life, I just would love to play that role in somebody else’s.
TK: Does modeling experience help you create your own art?
JS: I don’t know if I draw inspiration or anything from my modeling, but I learned a lot in terms of navigating relationships.
TK: Being active on Snapchat – does that help your career?
JS: I think Snapchat is the most free form of social media, because I snap a the whim of the moment, without a second guess – which might not be a good thing. I don’t get crazy amount of views on my Snapchat but I think it’s a cool way to show what a day is like. There’s less weight to a snap post.
TK: Where do you see your career going now?
JS: I think that I have barely cracked modeling. You know, I think I had a cool thing going and modeling is much about the new, exciting thing but I still think I can be new and exciting to people that I haven’t worked with and people that I admire today that I wouldn’t have the same admiration for as a young, egotistical punk kid. I gotta put a portfolio together, I’ve been doing a lot of awesome stuff that I haven’t really shared as a cohesive thing. So I think once I do that I’ll just go knocking on labels’ doors and artists’ doors and say “hey! You got any use for me? Because, you know, I’m hungry.”
Photo Credit: Brent Chua