Julian Shah-Tayler, aka The Singularity
Born in Leeds and now based in Los Angeles, Julian came up through the British scene with the electro-clash band Whitey under the wing of Creation Records' Alan McGee before relocating stateside to build The Singularity into a singular solo project. His collaborator list reads like a wishlist of art-rock royalty: Mike Garson and Carmine Rojas (David Bowie), David J (Bauhaus), Alain Whyte (Morrissey), Robert Margouleff (Stevie Wonder, Devo), and Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama, Shakespears Sister), plus remix and vocal work with Beauty in Chaos, Wayne Hussey of The Mission, and a Depeche Mode covers contribution that landed on a #1 German covers album.
His 2025 album Honne / Tatemae landed at #2 on New Wave Podcast's year-end list, following his Grammy-balloted 2022 record Elysium and his lauded Bowie tribute albums covering Aladdin Sane, Station to Station, and Diamond Dogs. He's also a fixture on the live circuit as the Alan Wilder stand-in for Depeche Mode tribute powerhouse Strangelove and as Bowie himself in The Band That Fell to Earth, two of the most respected tribute acts working today. Last summer's Am I Late To The Goth Party? live record, captured at The Wiltern, documents that side of his world.
Beyond the music, Julian is an Emmy winner (Actors on Actors), a Golden Trailer Award winner for his work on Disney's Maleficent trailer with Lana Del Rey, the host of the #bowiephiles podcast, and a co-founder of Art Angeles, teaching music to underprivileged kids in Watts. He's currently writing a music-based TV pilot pitched as "Spinal Tap meets The Monkees in a post-AI world" and finishing a new solo album with Robert Margouleff plus a David Chatfield remix collaboration record, Easy To Love, due late spring 2026.
Whether you know him from Elysium, the Bowie tributes, his Strangelove work, or you're meeting him for the first time, Julian Shah-Tayler is one of the most prolific and connective artists in the underground, and this conversation is going to range wide.
What they get into
- Building The Singularity as a solo project across continents and decades
- Stepping into Bowie's shoes (and Wilder's) without becoming a karaoke act
- Working with Bowie's actual band: Mike Garson, Carmine Rojas, and the long Bowie lineage
- The making of Honne / Tatemae and the art of writing across genres
- Life on the road with Strangelove and The Band That Fell to Earth
- Soundtrack work, trailer scoring, and the difference between writing for film and self
- Running a podcast, teaching kids in Watts, and pitching a TV show in a post-AI music world
- What it actually takes to keep reinventing yourself as an independent artist