Last February, Young Jesus (aka: John Rossiter), announced his new LP The Fool. The LP was produced with Shahzad Ismaily, Alex Babbitt and Alex Lappin, and due out May 24th on longtime label home Saddle Creek, the album was announced with a single called “Brenda & Diane”. Today, Rossiter is sharing a second single from the record, “Moonlight,” and like the first single it is accompanied by a non-album companion track, this time a track entitled “Bully (live in Esmont, VA)”.

Rossiter says of the track:

“When I was 20 I started writing about these characters, David and Eloise. There’s a whole Young Jesus album from about 15 years ago about them. Then they left my life and I forgot about them. Or maybe I tried to forget, to move on from them.

They came back on this record– a lot of things wanted to come through that I didn’t expect on this record. Lappin recorded this one, with guitar and voice. We built some sounds around it, but it’s guided by that connection. All these songs started with me sitting down with a friend, showing them the tune on guitar or piano and singing them these stories. I played bass on this one, rare for me, but I’m glad Lappin pushed me to try it.

On “Bully (live in Esmont, VA)” he adds:

“Dawood, Chris, and I were driving through Virginia to play a show on our friends farm. It was cold and Jay had dug out a few fire pits. The folks living in the house made a stew from roadkill and salad and sides for everyone. They fixed my broken glasses with a hot glue gun.

“On that tour, I’d sing bully over a cassette of the piano loop playing out of my mom’s old tape player. I got up to sing and it was too cold up on the deck, so I went by the fire and sang with everyone sitting in a circle chatting. Dawood recorded it with his phone and that’s the tune.”

“Moonlight” & “Bully (live in Esmont, VA)” will be followed by one more pair of singles, “Am I The Only One” b/w “Remember Driving,” which will be out on May 15th.

In support of the release Young Jesus will be playing an LA release show with support from Shahzad Ismaily and Claire Rousay, and a Bandcamp listening party that will take place on May 22nd. Full details can be found below.

John Rossiter (a.k.a Young Jesus) was clearing trash out of a citrus orchard in Tarzana when he received a mysterious email from Shahzad Ismaily.

i was curious to reach out to Young Jesus about Milford Graves. can you please put me in touch with them?

are they still LA based?

kind regards,

shahzad

Milford Graves was an interdisciplinary drum genius who explored connections between improvisational music, the human body, gardening, art, and science. Many years earlier, John had been asked if there were any artists he’d like to meet or collaborate with – Graves was the first name that came to mind.

John had quit music to study permaculture and to work in landscapes and gardens. His last album, Shepherd Head, was too much time spent on the computer. Music had left John tired, jaded, and disconnected. Working with soil and plants gave him some life back. He said, “You know, when gardening, the right decision to make for the landscape is usually the one that is already happening. It just takes time to read what that is.”

So, John left the orchard to meet Shahzad (Feist, Lou Reed, Arooj Aftab) for lunch. They instantly bonded, talking about improvisation, rhythm, the heart. They improvised whenever they were in the same town. John would work in Shahzad’s garden in New York. Back at home in Los Angeles, John met with Alex Babbitt and Alex Lappin to plant fruit trees and build paths from broken concrete. After work, they’d sit at a piano and sing their hearts out.

Songs started to form, songs about shame and grief, love and redemption. They came fast, a song a day for two weeks. It was different from past albums, which felt like years of hammering out lyrics and ideas. Rossiter had to sit and transcribe without judgment: let the ideas grow on their own. Shahzad was in LA one day when John sat down at the piano and played them for him. They decided to record them at Shahzad’s Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn – these songs would blossom into Young Jesus’ forthcoming album, The Fool.

The crew grew naturally from there. Lappin and Babbitt joined them in New York. Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Lonnie Holley) engineered and helped produce the songs. Aaron Roche came and sang. As the week went on, everyone grew closer, talking through the deep darkness in some of these songs. Building trust and friendship. Healing a bit. Rossiter remembers recording the tune “Rich”. How it started so uncomfortably. Too much shame, sadness. No connection between the musicians. But, slowly, people showed up. Lappin’s great aunt and uncle. Uncle Jack asked John if he’d ever talked to a therapist and everyone burst out laughing. Shahzad’s daughter. Everyone shared some food and laughed. By the end they were singing the final line of the song – “back when I was a kid” – together.

Rossiter and Lappin went back to LA to finish the songs. They guided each other in the same way they built those broken concrete paths in the garden – sometimes using a sledgehammer, sometimes using their bare hands. Shahzad and Daniel Littleton (of IDA) happened to be in LA, and they came together to do a couple takes of “Rabbit” with Pete Min at Lucy’s Meat Market. It was deeply connected music and they left the session laughing. Phil Weinrobe and Phil Hartunian (Westerman, Florist) mixed the record, former Young Jesus drummer Kern Haug mastered it.

Inner landscaping requires presence and bravery. It can get pretty dark and strange the deeper you walk into that jungle. And it’s from the absolute pits of that inner landscape that the truest music rises from.

At the end of the last session, Rossiter and Lappin sat down and drew tarot cards. John drew The Fool.

Young Jesus
The Fool
Tracklist
Saddle Creek Records

1. Brenda & Diane
2. Two Brothers
3. Rabbit
4. Rich
5. Moonlight
6. MOTY
7. The Weasel
8. Am I The Only One?
9. Sunrise
10. Dancer
11. God’s Plan

Order The Fool by Young Jesus HERE