You might indeed not understand the accent, but listening to Julyan Sinclair – once you’re tuned in – is a learning experience.
He’s a mine of entertaining stories, and fascinating facts – from his time as teenage metalhead in the Orkneys, sent home to think again by the Aussies, every day’s an education, whether it’s in football, music, or English as a foreign language…
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Any thoughts that EVERY male Xfm DJ is living the grunge dream are dispelled on meeting Julyan Sinclair. Clad in a patterned shirt and natty tan leather jacket, his appearance is actually quite far removed from his colleagues in the specialist rock shows. Mind you, it could all have been so different…
“My old man played – still plays – in a band – bigband jazz and dixieland. They play a lot of dances, a lot of Scots stuff and eightsome reels… and my mum was a dance teacher – traditional stuff, and foxtrot and waltzes.”
Now that’s quite a starting point for any DJ on an alternative music station. Perhaps Julyan’s brother – who many will know as Cameron Stout, Big Brother winner – guided him towards the light? “He’s 3 years older – I dunno if he influenced my taste but he was quite into pop music, buying all the NOW albums – he had a wide gamut of music as well.”
Well, it’d seems that it was Mr Sinclair Senior who was the most likely chief influence.
“I didn’t like the music,” Julyan insists, “but watching him gigging gave me an appreciation, hearing the tightness of a band – so for me the mark of a good band is playing well live.” And has perhaps led to an almost academic interest in music. “Well, I grew up with my dad talking about a drummer being half a beat off in his syncopation, or whatever!”
Stalkers should be able to check out some ultra-precise rhythms emanating from a flat in Glasgow’s West End, as he has continued the family interest in percussion. “It’s good to release tension and thrash about with the iPod on – or mates come round occasionally, plug in their guitars and have a few beers.”
And, Julyan’s liking of harder sounds stems, it seems, from his childhood.
“I was pretty much a metalhead, into Kiss and Judas Priest and AC/DC. It was kind of peer influence, I suppose; on the islands – Orkney, and Shetland too, people like rock – it’s ‘traditional’.
Julyan’s tastes have since expanded somewhat, to encompass “anything except thrash metal and r’n’b.” I enquire as to where metal ends and thrash begins.
“Rage Against The Machine… Slipknot is on the edge of what I’d listen to, but Rammstein, that’s crossed the line, when it’s just shouting!”
Tying down Mr Sinclair for this interview has been tricky, with his various TV commitments, That, and a sudden absence for a trip to Germany for the World Cup, his previous broadcasting career standing him in good stead for Mondial action.
“I still do some work for ABC Australia and they got me tickets, and I wanted to see Brazil” – handily, playing the Socceroos – “ though I could only go for a weekend.” Still enough to make your average football fan extremely jealous, but sadly, Brazil disappointed.
“Much the same as England, they weren’t encouraged to play the way they club football,” he explains. It seems that the event itself overshadowed the football. “The Germans stereotypically know how to organise things, so it was at least a great occasion…” he enthuses.
Julyan makes that crossover that not many football fans do, between arts and sport.
“With my missus Simone being an actress I see a lot of films and plays, so I am into my pop culture. I’m not interested in criticising things I don’t like, so I’ll go see movies I know I’ll like… but especially during the festival, when I’ve done reviews for the Herald and Scotsman, you’ll find stuff that’s a real gem and you’d not have found it if you’d not HAD to go see it. “
At Xfm Scotland, there’s always something new to discover too.
“I’m surrounded by people who know music, so I trust them, like ages ago Fraser said ‘check out Cubb, you’ll like them’ – and I did… and that happens quite a lot – Jim on Xposure, his taste is a little different, but if he tips a band then you should listen to it, even if you don’t like it you know a lot of people will be getting into it!
“But that’s the good thing about working here, you’re exposed to things you might not ordinarily listen to. He harks back to his theme of learning. “It’s education while being paid – everybody wins!”
It’s the ideal job then. And he even gets to relive his past, and crank the studio volume up.
“We get to play AC/DC and Guns and Roses – I don’t want to listen to that all day, but love it when my favourites come around!”
Like AC/DC, Julyan headed for Australia, though at an older age and for a shorter stay than the Scots-born Aussie rockers.
“I did PR for the Scottish Rugby Union, but got hosed off with washing and ironing shirts and getting ties ready – I knew the 9-5 wasn’t for me.”
So, to Australia on a working visa and a job with ABC – in Perth, then Darwin, Melbourne, and Sydney, on the graveyard shift. “’Transpotting’ was out then, so it was cool to be Scots. Plus the Aussies are like the Yanks – maybe smarter and dryer but they have the same ‘my family are Scottish or Irish’ thing going on.”
Despite fitting in well, his time down under ended leaving a rather bitter taste in the mouth – visas are renewed on a points system – 20 for being under 27 years old, 30 for being English-speaking – “despite the accent” – so Julyan was surprised when he got ZERO points. It transpires that the UK knocked back 40,000 applications from Australians that year, so… well, you can draw your own conclusions. “The appeal is still ongoing!” he jokes, but emigrating is now, out. “What’s for you’ll no go by ye,” he smiles.
So, back home, and to a job with STV on travel show Scottish Passport – though the plumb trips were already taken. “I always wanted Bryan Burnett’s job!” he laughs.
I wonder if his contacts on the inside might be able to get a decent music show on telly? In fact, he already worked on S2live, a weekly magazine show with live bands on, but a repeat seems unlikely, as he’s found, having pitched ideas for similar shows.
“BBC are doing it now with the Music Show, and it’s good, but STV wouldn’t make that because the figures aren’t high enough”. It’s apparently due to the BBC being less regulated by Ofcom, while STV are forced to concentrate on “alternative revenue streams”. Julyan did his degree dissertation on the future of broadcasting in the UK, so it’s a subject close to his heart.
“I fear we’re going the way of the US – 90 cable channels and everything’s shit… though they do drama like 24 and CSI very well.”
So, only selective TV viewing makes for a night in – assuming it’s not a 7-a side night, he plays 3 times a week (“I have to try and stay in some kind of shape”). A night out is Italian or tapas, and maybe a trip to the pictures with wife Simone, when their paths cross – her acting work means she’s often leaving for evening when he gets home from work. Or a night in a non-trendy boozer.
Any pubs where Orcadians gather, I enquire? I get a quick education about the islands.
“You’ll always find Gaelic bars but you don’t get Highland bars – people think if you’re from an island it’s the same thing.”
It seems that Orkney is quite different, and more enlightened than the Western Isles, whose Wee Free and ‘no washing on Sundays’ rules are legendary- though the incidence of heavy metal in Orkney should have been a clue.
“It’s non-denominational in Orkney – or the same as anywhere else, Church of Scotland,” he explains. “We used to belong to Norway, so we’re more Viking than Gaelic, and I don’t know anyone on Orkney or Shetland that speaks Gaelic.
“You can understand why people think that, but geographically, Aberdeen is closer to the Western Isles than we are, and no-one thinks people in Aberdeen speak Gaelic.”
I’d not bet on it, I joke.
“Ah, that’s probably true, once you get out of Stirling it’s all Highland coos.” Hence the patient explanation, and the slogan “you may need subtitles” to get his retaliation in first.
“Yeah, I take the piss out of it – fire-fight it. I’m happy where I come from and am proud of it.”
Julyan Sinclair presents Xfm Scotland’s afternoon show, weekdays from 2 – 4pm.