Julian King has been a fixture in the Nashville country music industry for over twenty years and in those years, Julian has accumulated numerous awards, including a GRAMMY and an ACM. Throughout his career, King has been involved in more than 100 number one singles and worked on albums that have sold over one hundred million units!
King has worked with an all-star roster of some of the most notable names in country music history, including Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Tracy Lawrence, Kenny Chesney, Vince Gill, George Strait, Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, John Anderson, Hank Williams Jr., Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Randy Travis, Trace Adkins, Alabama, and the Judds.
More recently King has been involved in the success of rising stars and new artists like Chris Young, Justin Moore, Chris Janson, Brett Eldridge, Tyler Farr, Ben Gallaher, and Travis Denning.
King was raised by educator parents in Charlottesville, Virginia, and later attended James Madison University where he majored in music. King started his way down the engineering path by running sound for bar bands in college. In his junior year, King was offered an internship in Nashville with producer Jimmy Bowen, who later hired him to be part of his production team.
King credits his recording education to engineers Chuck Ainlay, Steve Marcantonio, John Guess, and Lynn Peterzell (who he notes as the most influential). King says, “Everything I know, I learned from watching and listening to those guys and then playing with the gear and the music on my own time.”
Through his work with Jimmy Bowen, King was able to meet and work with top producers James Stroud and Byron Gallimore. King notes that one of his favorite projects from the early years was working on John Anderson’s Seminole Wind.
Julian has caught the attention of the media on multiple occasions. One of the most significant times was a Mix magazine profile by Maureen Droney in which she writes, “It’s notable that even in this generally laid-back atmosphere, engineer Julian King has developed a reputation as a particularly groovy guy to work with.” Recently, Julian was interviewed by Nick Messitte at Izotope (a recording software innovator) and provided his tips for mixing country music.
Not only is King a GRAMMY winner, he has also worked closely with the Nashville Chapter of The Recording Academy. King has served on the Board of Governors for The Recording Academy and has long been a fixture to the academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing. Through this affiliation, King has worked to mentor students and helped build a professional level recording studio at Nashville area high school Pearl Cohn.
A career as lengthy and successful as King’s is not easy to achieve. King has seen the purchasing of vinyl records, cassettes and CD’s turn into music downloads and is now seeing that give way to music streaming services. Recording techniques have moved from analog tape to digital tape and now to computer-based software. King has worked hard to adapt through this evolution and has combined the use of high profile professional studios with less conventional recording environments.
Julian is a loving husband to his wife Jenifer and a proud father to his two daughters Sarah and Emily.
