Check Out Julia & Vince Barriquand’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia & Vince Barriquand

Hi Julia & Vince, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Vince and I met back in November 2022 at an open mic in Bordeaux, France. I, Julia, am an American who moved to France back in 2021 to pursue a master’s in international finance (after getting my undergrad in Music Education and teaching high school for 1 year during the pandemic) and ended up continuing to work in finance in France until I met Vince and left everything for music. Vince was a contestant in two TV different singing competition shows in France, one in 2008 and the other in 2011 and he has been performing and touring all over France with various groups since 2011. After his return to Bordeaux he started his country solo project Vince Songs and shortly after that we started our country/americana duo May Bell.

Vince and I started touring originally as Julia & Vince all over France, performing in cities such as Bordeaux, Paris, Toulouse, & Montalivet. We performed in all sorts of venues ranging from bars to wine festivals to holiday events such as Fête de la Musique. After touring for a year we decided that we needed to branch out from France and move our way over to the US as there’s a bigger scene for county music. We decided that we needed to save up some money and have a stable income so we decided to look into performing for cruise ships. We contacted a booker who asked us what we were looking for and were informed that there is a need for country duo’s on ships! A couple months after we had our wedding we got the email to perform on the Carnival Sunshine for 3 months and that is currently what we are doing. We perform country music every night between Charleston and the Bahamas and so far the experience has been great but our big dream is to head out to Nashville so that’s exactly what we are doing!

Vince and I plan to move to Nashville and start our career as songwriters within the next 6-8 months. We were really inspired by the documentary ‘It All Begins With A Song.” We’ve been slowly gathering up contacts, putting together demos and other various materials as well as setting up tour dates and booking gigs with those we’ve met on the boat. We’re so excited for what’s in store for us and to make our childhood dreams come true.

Hopefully everyone can stay tuned for big things from May Bell and Vince Songs!!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, not at all. By the end of our touring in France and the long year wait to get a contract on a cruise ship, money was extremely tight. Just traveling from France to the US we had issues with loading our dog on the plane and ended up shelling out an extra $350 which for us was a huge dent in the very little savings we had. Another big issue we ran into was that Vince is French. Despite us being married, the process for a green card is expensive, hard and long. There are a lot of restrictions as to what he can and can’t do and having a visa for a cruise ship doesn’t help us. Another bump in the road which originally lead us to make music in the US in the first place was that France does not have a country music fan base and are not extremely open to the idea of change. While France has so many amazing things to offer, they tend to be very stuck in tradition.

Despite all of the struggles we’ve had we are extremely grateful to be surrounded by the most amazing friends and family who really push us to do what we love. Without them we wouldn’t be where we are today. Another great thing amidst the struggles is that our marriage is extremely strong and we’re very very lucky to be such a great team and support each other through all of the up’s and down’s we’ve been through.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I, Julia, have worked in music in a lot of ways. As I mentioned before I did my undergraduate degree in Music Education (and French) at Arizona State University. I was involved in all sorts of things in college such as being a part of Sigma Alpha Iota a music fraternity, and we did all sorts of volunteer work surrounding music. I then went off to teach High School Choir and Guitar which was my dream. I was so lucky to have gotten multiple offers to teach at various high schools around the Greater Phoenix Area especially for me being only 21 and having no real teaching experience outside of my internships. However when I went to teach it was during the pandemic which was hard on all of us especially teachers. Being a music teacher during this time was especially hard because how are we supposed to form a choir individually at home? We did a lot of theory and sight reading and I had to get creative with assignments and teaching and tried to make it fun and grasp their attention all at the same time. For guitar it was also difficult because not every kid had their own guitar so I had to change the strings of 42 school guitars that were beat up and destroyed and send them home with kids to practice. After this I decided to pursue my dream of moving to France (which I wanted to do since I was 16 years old). I ended up changing careers due to the stress of being a teacher so of all things I decided on a Master’s Program in International Finance in Paris. It was extremely difficult but I ended up getting a job in my dream city Bordeaux which lead me to Vince. Something that sets me apart from others is my ability to make my dreams come true. If I have a dream I am going to accomplish it no matter what. My dreams trump any obstacle in my way.

Vince has had a plethora of jobs. He’s worked at McDonalds, Galleries Lafayette in fashion, selling construction materials, doing construction work, he’s worked at a pool, he’s been in the kitchen as a sous-chef. Vince is truly a jack of many trades but definitely a master at music. A fun fact about how he learned guitar is that he was grounded from TV for an entire year so in all of the time he had he learned how to play guitar, so this grounding was a huge blessing in disguise. As mentioned before Vince was on the French version of American Idol in 2008 and was on X factor in 2011. Participating in these TV shows they tell you what to do and what to sing and they had asked Vince to sing in French which is something he does not do, (he’s always sung in english and has a huge love for British and American culture and music) and he, being his true self and not willing to stray away from who he is he said no and stopped participating in the TV shows. Vince has been in multiple groups performing multiple styles and being in multiple positions such as drummer, a guitarist and a lead vocalist and styles such as metal, rock, pop and grunge. Vince finally quit his job in 2022 to pursue music as a full time career. He toured with his solo project all around France and everyone around him always pushed him to pursue his dream of becoming a musician in the US which is finally coming true. Something that he’s most proud of is the connections he has with others. Vince is someone who can make friends with anyone due to his caring nature and truly pure soul. Anywhere we go Vince always has friends. Something else that he is proud of is that he has to profound passions one being music and the other being cooking. For him it’s the same end goal, you create art to share and you create these things to share with other people and harbor good feelings.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The music industry is always changing and we have to embrace the changes, now a days we have to take all of the tools that exist to be comfortable in what we do. First and foremost music in not a competition despite it being pushed that way.

What’s a little difficult in today’s world and a shift that we’ve seen over the past decade is that you need to be your own booker, your own manager, your own videographer, graphic designer, merch handler, etc because we can do everything from home. And I think this will continue to grow this way. Playing and mastering an instrument is becoming less due to the increase of electronic music and being able to create everything on a computer. However the computer will never be able to replace live music and live creations.

A trend that we’ve been seeing in the industry is that a lot of pop artists are turning country/americana. Or artists are flipping genres, For example Post Malone went from rap to pop to country, Beyonce went from pop to country as well as her rnb albums ect. Jelly Roll went from rap to country. Teddy Swims is on the way from going pop to country. The list goes on, we think artists are breaking out of their mould and aren’t just sticking to one genre which is a shift we think will continue to happen to reach wider audiences and to show the versatility that we have in all of these amazing artists.

Pricing:

• Recording Studios (amateur level) – between $600-#1500 for a day

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maybell.off/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Julia-Vince-Acoustic-Duo/61553159597919/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MayBellOfficial
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ErcAT8G2DH6DAHIDhfu7D?si=5bUlAY5cSgWVZPllf0g8Ow