Imagine Ray Manzarek was the frontman for the Bee Gees...

Introducing Joel Sarakula, a UK-based Australian artist who writes, produces, and sings Soulful Pop, gazing out at a contemporary world through vintage glasses, vintage threads, and long blond hair. His music is informed by a rich, 1970s-inspired palette, drawing on soft-rock, funk, and disco influences: sunny, uptempo jams for darker times. Self-aware that he looks and occasionally sounds like the love child of Ray Manzarek and the Gibb brothers, his self-deprecating sense of humour is always there just below the fringe.

Born in Sydney, based in London and international in outlook Sarakula is a songwriter who has traveled the world in search of his muse, experiencing everything from being a victim of Caribbean carjackings to performing in the remote fishing villages of Norway before finally establishing his career in the UK and Europe. Since then he has released albums such as ‘Island Time’ (2023), 'Companionship' (2020), 'Love Club' (2018) and 'The Imposter' (2015) that have racked up plays on rotation across national UK and European radio and got him noticed in The New York Times, The Independent (UK), The Irish Times, Rolling Stone Germany, El Pais (Spain) and Sydney Morning Herald. He has been favorably compared to his peers and fellow Aussies Parcels and Donny Benet as well as Prep, Benny Sings, and Young Gun Silver Fox.

Joel Sarakula is a regular fixture on the festival and club circuit having performed at SXSW, Primavera Sound, Glastonbury, Reeperbahn Festival, and Imaginafunk. Ever the internationalist, he tours with pickup bands sourced from each territory he plays in: a Barcelona band for Spain, a Berlin band for Germany, and so forth. This cross-cultural exchange is another echo of the 1970s when world traveling soul and pop artists from the US did the same and guarantees that his live shows remain fresh, exciting, and absolutely contemporary.