The influence of a blues legend is the perfect place to start in a biography for an upcoming rock band. The story goes as follows, two blues brothers move from Denver to New York to make it as a rock band. In their early high school years, Jon Paul (AKA JP) and Adam Johnson were obsessed with the blues, sneaking into Denver clubs, huffing grits and downing empty shots with players four times their age. One of their first gigs was opening for surf legend Dick Dale; JP was only 15 at that time. But once hormoaning starts, the blues seems like an old man's game. The Johnson boys soon found themselves intoxicated by not just the dreamy sway of Britpop, but Marvelous 3 and Spacehog's ambiguous, aggressive guitar rock. Flash forward eight years. We find Jon Paul and Adam joining forces with Matt Hogan & Aaron Stern who is the former drummer of Matchbook Romance.

Adam and JP were both enamored with Aaron's drum playing on the Matchbook Romance release "Voices." "Its kind of a crazy thought, JP and I were talking about getting someone like Aaron Stern, and all of a sudden he is in the band." Matt Hogan replaced JP and Adam's cousin. The band recently completed work on their debut. This musical journey is being called This road before. God or Julie with help from Aaron Johnson who Co-produced The Fray's multi platinum debut disc. & famed producer David Bendeth (Breaking Benjamin, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus). The group oversaw the production of over 25 songs to choose from for the release.

As principal songwriter, juggling vocal, piano, and guitar duties, J.P. kept spawning new ideas for his muscular band to translate. "I wouldn't say my writing's cryptic, per se, but it's less story-oriented and more about trying to convey emotions," the front man reveals. "All the songs are a little bit on the darker side, but it's not necessarily dark music." Indeed, many of the 12 cuts on This road before... ruminate on relationships both romantic and platonic, often entangling into one poignant outburst. Songs like "Nothing Further from the truth"; "Being Human" and "Say your last goodbye" set the tone of this amazing musical creation.

"There's always some kind of basic verse-chorus melody brought in from J.P.; then we all run with it from there," Adam says. Aaron Stern mentions, "After Matchbook Romance broke up it really hit home how difficult it is to find the right situation, but when I heard God or Julie, I was blown away. They are really taking what I was a part of in Matchbook Romance and taken it to a different level, the next level." Up next for the band is what they hope will be a grueling touring schedule after being on the road for the first part of 2007. "This is a live band, as cliche as that sounds it is the truth" Jon Paul continues "we've been lucky to have a growing fan base and the most important thing that we can do as a band is nurture that, going out on the road is not just about promoting our release but it is about nurturing our relationship with our fans."

This attitude goes a long way in explaining the significance of the moniker; one of the band's closest friends simply writes all of his songs about God or his wife Julie. The name God or Julie was never meant to be a question, it may sound like a question and is incorrectly structured enough to make any member receive a smack on the wrist by their childhood English teacher. God or Julie is simply a musical statement by four kids who songs may be about God, a girl whose name can be Julie, and everything in between that can be summoned up by the creation of a pretty melody.