About
Julz-A Bio
Julian “Julz-A” Hintz was born in Hollywood, raised in San Diego, and left all that sunshine for the grind and grit of New York City. After 4 years of music study at CalArts in Los Angeles, Hintz realized he didn’t have patience for the laid back nature of the West Coast. With over a decade of experience as a band leader, song writer, live show host and record producer, there are still more things he is set to accomplish. His latest project, All The Hintz, is the simplest approach to music making that he has ever taken on. With a fresh hunger to write songs on the guitar, he is able to stand out as a newcomer with an expert approach to the singer/songwriter scene.
Julz-A considers his early years in NYC as his graduate degree in real life. In that time he played the accordion alongside Japanese punk rockers Dynamite Club and Peelander Z, while also playing Free Jazz with legendary names like Daniel Carter and William Parker. Julz collaborated on Indonesian inspired percussion music with Terry Dame’s Electric Junkyard Gamelan, and he even paid his rent singing Frank Sinatra songs in the subway stations around the city. He also could be found wandering the streets looking for hip hop battles and open mics to practice his unique style of rap that developed out of all these experiments.
After establishing himself in the Underground New York music scene as the notorious rapping accordion player with a band called Squeeze Rock, Julz-A started to experiment further by writing for musical theater, performing and arranging for an Oktoberfest project called BB And The Polkahaus, and fronting an electronic rock band called TSELA (say-la). He has written theme songs for television and web shows as well as a syndicated radio show. Julz-A made it to national television appearing on Showtime At The Apollo alongside Whoopi, Chingy and Ray Chew. He advanced to the semi-finals of the 2008 Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition performing his song “Fortified.” He has opened for Eliza Gilkyson, Qui, and Northern State among others. Julz-A received an honorable mention for The Billboard World Song Contest in 2006 with his song “Burning Bellows” and in 2005 with his song “I Tried,” featured on the Squeeze Rock EP, as well as honorable mentions for the We Are Listening Singer/Songwriter Awards 2006 with his songs “Where?” and “Sunset Time.” Besides the Apollo appearance, Julz-A has performed at The Kennedy Center, MoMA, Detroit Institute of Art, The Kitchen, Joe’s Pub, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Chicago World Music Festival, Ingenuity Cleveland, Celebrate Brooklyn, and The CMJ Music Marathon.