Alt-J frontman Joe Newman will release The Canyon, his debut album under his JJerome87 solo moniker, on Friday. The project came together following the birth of Newman’s daughter, which had a significant impact on the direction of his songwriting.
“That kind of led to me thinking, I don’t think I’d like to get into a recording studio with the other members of the band, who are both dads, and just exclusively sing about my daughter,” Newman tells ABC Audio. “So I was like, I think this might be a good time to do my own thing.”
As he was writing about his child, Newman found himself revisiting the sounds of his childhood, such as soul and blues music, which influenced the sonic direction of The Canyon.
“It was sounding different from Alt-J,” Newman says. “I knew that I had to go to America to lean into some of these sounds that were inspiring me, I think, and that I had listened to from a young age.”
While The Canyon is musically and lyrically distinct from Alt-J, Newman did want to channel one element of his band that he feels is integral to their sound: his vocal harmonies with bandmate Gus Unger-Hamilton. With that in mind, much of The Canyon finds Newman accompanied by backup singers.
“I knew that when I was writing The Canyon I wanted to have a co-narrator in that sense on this record,” Newman says. “I wanted to walk through the album holding hands with someone else, and I knew that that would be singers.”
As for Alt-J, Newman says there isn’t currently any new music in the works, but his solo project does not signal the end of the band.
“There will be an album in the future,” he says.
