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Globetrotting, Australian-born soft-rock artist Joel Sarakula returns to Leeds to present an intimate solo show at Hyde Park Book Club. Expect 70s-tinged soft-rock, disco and funk.
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Imagine if Ray Manzarek was the frontman for the Bee Gees... It’s a neat visual introduction to Joel Sarakula, a UK-based Australian artist who writes, produces and sings Soulful Pop, gazing out at a contemporary world through vintage glasses, vintage threads and long blond hair. His music is informed by a rich, 1970s-inspired palette, drawing on soft-rock, funk and disco influences: sunny, uptempo jams for darker times. Self-aware that he looks and occasionally sounds like the love child of Ray Manzarek and the Gibb brothers, his self-deprecating sense of humour is always there just below the fringe.
Born in Sydney, based in UK and international in outlook Sarakula is a songwriter who has travelled the world in search of his muse, experiencing everything from being a victim of Caribbean carjackings to performing in the remote fishing villages of Norway before finally establishing his career in the UK and Europe. Since then he has released albums such as Island Time (2023), Companionship (2020), Love Club (2018) and The Imposter (2015) that have racked up plays on BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and European radio and got him noticed in The New York Times, The Independent (UK), The Irish Times, Rolling Stone Germany, El Pais (Spain) and Sydney Morning Herald. He has been favourably compared to his peers and fellow Aussies Parcels and Donny Benet as well as Prep, Benny Sings and Young Gun Silver Fox.
It’s been a long road finding his current cult status starting out at the piano from a young age in suburban Sydney, writing and singing songs by the time he was a teenager and onstage by sixteen years old playing jazz standards in his local golf club. “I came from humble beginnings, it’s best not to mention” as he sings in his 70s boogie influenced song ‘I’m Still Winning’ with echoes of formative musical influences such as Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Todd Rundgren and Sly Stone.