SPILL FEATURE: TAKE ME TO THAT FIRST GOODBYE – A CONVERSATION WITH JOE NEWMAN (JJEROME87/ALT-J)

TAKE ME TO THAT FIRST GOODBYE

A CONVERSATION WITH JOE NEWMAN (JJEROME87/ALT-J)

Some music interviews are difficult. At times, one has to almost crack open a coconut of guardedness for a mere morsel of something interesting to write. That wasn’t the case when I met Joe Newman, aka JJerome87, the long-time frontman of Alt-J, ahead of his debut solo release, The Canyon.

He’s gracious, loquacious, and open from the beginning, and it soon becomes apparent why: I’m talking to a man content and creatively firing. Newman describes the genesis of his new solo record as being drawn from what would usually be a musician’s creative nightmare: a long tour of a prior album. As he explains it: “I didn’t think much about doing things for myself, but after The Dream [Alt-J’s 2022 album], normally you’re creatively knackered, but I was still drawn to my guitar, still interested in writing,” he said. “It was probably the first tour where I routinely had a guitar backstage, and I was slowly building these riffs, and six months in, I decided it was going to be an album, in some form.”

Newman says he didn’t initially know if it would be an Alt-J album, or a solo album, or even neither, but one experience changed him – recently becoming a father. It’s the through line of our entire chat, and seemingly the record, too. Newman explains his inspiration thus: “You go through this experience, which is one of the most impactful moments of your life, but equally, you know, you, there’s a lot to process, and it’s almost like this bizarre, joyous trauma,” he said. “Then I started realizing that there was a lot here that actually could be translated into lyrics in quite a profound way.”

You can hear this on most of the album, but it’s perhaps most prevalent on “Two Hearts,” a touching and beautiful number that was inspired by his partner’s usage of social media, and a classic riff, too: “I had this riff that was inspired by Procol Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale,’ same tempo, same key, but I couldn’t find a chorus,” he said. “Then my partner posted a picture of herself heavily pregnant with the caption ‘Two Hearts, and One Body’– and then I knew I had the chorus. Honestly, it’s a huge change in my life with the birth of our daughter; it’s been amazing, and I think you’re more exposed to poetic moments that you can borrow.”

THE CANYON ALBUM REVIEW

It’s all there to be seen too – poetry, honesty, angst (directly lifted from the state of the world, particularly the US, that he’s bringing said daughter into, according to Newman), but perhaps most importantly, a sound rooted in blues and soul. Newman attributes this to a simple drift from The Dream in the first place, which already contained more bluesy, slightly less classic Alt-J material in the first place, but also a return to his own childhood of listening to his parents’ favourite albums. “My dad had a soul compilation CD, and it had all the notable artists from the 60s and early 70s on there. I listened to it pretty much religiously! The voices were so mesmerizing, emotive, powerful…and yet timbre-wise, it’s really easy to listen to. That drew me into singing in the first place,” he said. “But also, after becoming a father, I’ve leaned into that style of singing and displaying music, certainly more on The Canyon than I have done with Alt-J.”

Newman seems to enjoy the freedom. He frequently cites how much he loves his band – at one point referencing “revelling in the chance encounter I’d had in Leeds,” when Alt-J formed – but it’s clear that having the opportunity to hold the reins of a project also appealed to him. “I didn’t really feel confident in suggesting that we go back into the studio, but I also didn’t think I wanted that either,” he explains. “I think I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to go into the studio on my own, be autonomous, and just see if I could hold my weight in that room.” Hold weight might be an understatement, as he’s clearly had the drive to see this through from the beginning. He talks excitedly of taking the full reins of production and being able to drive home a full vision of an album, citing his producers Carlos de la Garza and Harriet Tam as a ‘second home’ to match his first with Alt-J.

He’s never far from home, though, citing his band’s drummer, Thom Green’s 2016 effort High Anxiety as an inspiration. “I think it’s interesting for the fans to see a different side of our world, and how they speak by themselves,” he said. “Tom did really well with High Anxiety – cool, lo-fi, dystopian sort of stuff. Without realising, I think it probably gave me the view of ‘one day, I’ll do that for myself.”

While he does confirm that Alt-J will be back in the future (“It’d be silly to cash in our chips now – we want to keep going, I think…” he opines), for now, Newman’s full focus is on the solo record, with him expressing a huge desire to tour the record, particularly because he wants to play the songs live. Some shows are coming up for him in both London and New York, the latter at Bowery Ballroom on October 3, but he’d like that to be a longer tour. “It’s not at the pace I’ve been used to with the band, but that’s not a surprise; I’m a new artist now,” he smiles. “I do hope, though, that it picks up enough that we can do some tours, because it’s great to play live.” Beyond that, there’s even a hint of a second solo record, with Newman saying that he is already writing and demoing new material.

Whatever happens, this all seems to represent a new chapter for Newman – fatherhood, solo work, and the feel that just about everything’s open to him. Clearly, though, he’s thriving in it, and his enthusiasm is palpable. The Canyon proves to be the first signpost on his latest path, and it’ll be intriguing to see what places he calls at on his journey. He certainly seems to have the energy to cover some distance…

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Photo Credit: Zachary Gray