Gary Jules first gained notice through his 1998 album Greetings from the Side, which revealed him as one of the decade’s standout songwriters. Poor handling by the record label ultimately buried the project, leaving it overlooked by listeners who never had the chance to discover it. Three years passed before he returned with Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets, issued independently and even more accomplished, fulfilling and extending the promise of his debut.
Born Gary Jules Aguirre in San Diego, the artist adopted his professional name to pay tribute to his Texan grandfather who used that shortened form. His parents encouraged him to begin acoustic guitar lessons as a child, yet dissatisfaction led him to abandon instruction after the first recital. He later picked up the instrument again in fifth grade, this time teaching himself and switching to electric guitar under the influence of John Lennon. During high school, Jules and longtime friend Michael Andrews launched an early version of the Origin; the group later signed with Virgin and issued two albums in the early 1990s, but only after Jules had departed and relocated to Los Angeles. In 1987 he enrolled for a year at UCLA, where he started the band Kofi. The following year the group paused briefly, allowing Jules to travel through Asia and occasionally perform on the streets to earn meals. Upon returning, Kofi resumed activity and built a modest local following in Los Angeles before disbanding in 1990. Jules moved back to San Diego that same year and formed Ourtown Pansies, which issued a limited, locally distributed CD before splitting in 1992. He then headed to San Francisco, where the Origin had already settled, and once that band dissolved he and Andrews resumed playing and recording together. During this time Jules composed many of the songs that would later constitute most of his first album and produced numerous demo tapes. Andrews went back to San Diego in 1995 to join the Greyboy Allstars, prompting Jules to make repeated trips to Los Angeles in search of a recording contract.
By chance, Zeke Piestrup—one of the few people familiar with the Ourtown Pansies album and a former roommate of a high-school acquaintance—had become a DJ at Los Angeles station KROQ. Using his industry influence, Piestrup secured Jules a deal with A&M after the major acquired his indie imprint Metro Ride. Jules enlisted Andrews as producer, who brought in engineer J. Bradley Cooke, recently involved with Counting Crows’ Recovering the Satellites. Working with rented equipment from that band, the trio recorded the acclaimed Greetings from the Side in Andrews’ basement studio during spring 1997; Tchad Blake later handled the mixing. A&M delayed the release until fall 1998 and chose not to issue any single, so the album vanished without a commercial opportunity. Its title track did appear in the film Digging to China. The label soon dropped Jules, and he remained out of sight until 2001, when he issued Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets on his own. After gaining traction through strong European and Australian distribution plus domestic word of mouth, the album became his first commercial success. His atmospheric cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” was released as a single, reached number one in the U.K., and earned gold certification. Jules subsequently toured England and Scotland through spring 2004.
