Q&A with JAWNY
2023 is already shaping up to be a significant year for JAWNY, who just earlier this month released a brand new single, "true", as well as a 22-date U.S. tour. Today, JAWNY book-ends a big month by announcing his brand new album 'It's Never Fair, Always True', coming March 3, offering a whole new slate of infectious alt-pop, including the call-and-response favorite "lalala", which has appeared at previous shows as well as an epic 70s ballad entitled "fall in love".
Having toured in 2022 alongside Beck (who is the sole feature on the forthcoming album) and Oliver Tree and joining festivals in the past like Lollapalooza, Kilby Block Party, and Underground Music, JAWNY has been riding a wave with fearless talent, telling stories of love and life and the ups and downs along the way —while never taking anything too seriously and having a blast doing it. Rising indie-pop artist Wallice will join JAWNY on tour kicking off March 3 in San Diego at Quartyard through April 12 at Phoenix's The Crescent, with major city stops at LA's El Rey Theatre (3/4) and New York's Bowery Ballroom (3/31).
As a talent recognized as a Vevo DSCVR Artist to Watch in 2022, emerging in the same class that saw recent success from Chiiild, Clinton Kane, Mimi Webb, and Grammy-nominated Wet Leg, JAWNY continues to break barriers in songwriting and performance while being a fearless creator across the board from his unpredictable fashion sense to humorous DIY-feeling music videos. He's known for the wildly popular "Honeypie" (which was certified as a Diamond record in Mexico late last year) as well as other catchy tunes like "Trigger of Love", "Take It Back", and "Can Ya" off 2020 EP 'For Abby' and 2021 EP 'The Story Of Hugo'. JAWNY's evolution continues with today's news of 'It's Never Fair, Always True', and having heard a couple of new songs, we are left wanting more from the honeypot. Here's our interview with JAWNY, which took place during a press conference (some of the questions are from other outlets):
IndieWavves: What is the biggest difference between your previous project, 'The Story of Hugo', and your upcoming debut album, 'It's Never Fair, Always True'?
JAWNY: I feel like from 'For Abby' to 'The Story of Hugo' to this, you know, there's always been some sort of change, whether I've intended for it or not. I'm growing every day as a human, getting older, so my tastes change, and the things I'm interested in writing change. But then I think some other factors like music are always changing too. I'm always hearing new melodies, I'm always hearing new chord progressions, new genres, and some form of songwriting, and that would be weird not to acknowledge that; that has had an impact on me as well. For this record, what I tried to do specifically was I kind of had my back against the wall for a couple of years, always making music within my means of what I had.
(continued)
Right now, I have this big opportunity with a big label like Interscope, the number one label in the world, that was gonna give me funding and said, "go make the record that you've always wanted to make". With this record, I wanted to make the dream record that I wish I could have made when I was 17 or 18 that I didn't have the ability to, the funds, the time, or the connections to make. How could I, at 18, get a whole string orchestra on a song? That would be virtually impossible. I also wanted to mix in kind of the indie —the roots that I had as a teenager that I never feel like I fully put into my music until this point, while at the same time, on the second half of the record, showing a little bit of the serious side of my songwriting. I can write somewhat beautiful, serious, meaningful, and emotional songs. But then also making them both exist in the same project in a cohesive way where you start super happy, super tongue-in-cheek, super indie, super fun, and then somehow, by the last song, you've somehow gotten to the saddest place you can get to as a human, and it all makes sense. Kind of like what I did with 'For Abby' and 'The Story of Hugo'.
IW: How did you develop the mentality "who cares what people think about you? Just do what you want to do"?
J: If you're hurting people, or you're a bad person, or hurting people's feelings, maybe care about what people think about you. I meant it more in a music sense—in my experiences with music, but it can really apply if you're a writer, painter, or chef— whenever you're making the things that you are making, you should make it for yourself first, that's at least my opinion. I can admit, I'm not thinking about [supporters]; I'm thinking about myself, what I like, my taste, what I want to do, what's going to hit my ears the right way, what song gets me excited and I'm then going to chase that full speed ahead. That's kind of what I meant about "who cares", but then I think about the external process after, like, alright, now it's gonna go out into the world. That's when I get thoughts like what are people going to think about it, are they going to like it, are they not? But even then, I don't let that deter me. I'm already excited about the art I put out, but when it goes out into the world, you have no real control over it. Whether people hate it or love it, you're going to get a bunch of messages from people telling you that they love it and then an equal amount of messages from people that they hate it; they hate your song, your painting, your book, your essay. But who cares? Who gives a fuck, you know what I mean? You just have to remember that there are as many people out there that will connect with what you're doing and worry about those people. Worry about figuring out how to find those people instead of having to figure out how to entertain the people that don't like the things that you like.
IW: 2022 was the most active touring year for the music business in recent memory. You joined Beck and Oliver Tree on different tours last year. What did you learn from this cycle of touring, either about yourself or another performer?
J: 2021 was sort of a soft launch, and 2022 was the year that everybody was back on the road. I was on the road a lot this past year, a lot of festivals. Probably two-and-a-half months total, which isn't as long as other people, but it's pretty long for me. I liked how much care Beck put into his set from everything from load-in until the point he got on the stage. And by that, I mean during soundcheck. At each show and each venue, he cared a lot about how everything sounded, all the way down to a snare tone, just how everything sounded in the room because he wanted this mirror reflection of his music in his set to be exactly what he hears in his head to the whole crowd of people. I'm assuming, so he doesn't disappoint anybody. I didn't ask him why he did it, but I took that as a level of respect 'cause he's a legend, and I like him. That's something that I've never really done; I'll go out and listen to my mix, but he really put an emphasis of care on how everything sounded and went through everything one by one with the sound engineer. So that was something that I respected from the Beck tour. The Oliver tour —most artists, myself included, all the way up to someone like Harry Styles —somebody's buying a ticket to your show, you only really have to give an hour-fifteen, an hour-and-a-half max, and Oliver was almost doing two-and-a-half hours just 'cause he appreciated his fans and the people who bought tickets, and I thought that was pretty admirable.
IW: Your song "True" is a bit gloomy in the lyrics, but you find a way to deliver with a joyful musicality. What's the process for meshing these two contradicting emotions?
J: I'd like to answer and take credit for it, but it's something I think about that I do, and it all comes together, and I'm this smart guy that really manipulated that situation. But it's really this natural situation where if I'm writing about a sadder topic, I do like to do a spoonful of sugar for the medicine, packaging it in a presentable way that people can still listen to it and maybe bob their heads to, even though the lyric context might be a little sadder. Most of the time, it's a complete accident, and it just happens.
Written by Michael Menachem
Photos by Adrian Nieto