We’re thrilled to feature Jack Symes for our next rotation of the New Moon playlist. Jack is a mustachioed California native who has spent time living and writing in both NYC and LA. His songs catch you immediately with deep melodic textures and a plain-english lyrical style that feels familiar, yet profound. His songs seem to pair perfectly with a rainy road trip through the mountains or a slow morning at home watching the sun dance across a cup of coffee. His song “Overwhelming” from his new album captures our current mood as we look forward to returning to a new kind of normal.
Featured Artist: Jack Symes
Q1: Jack! Where are you and what have you been up to lately? It seems like your new album has been very well received. That has to feel good to be connecting with so many people in the midst of a strange year.
Chase! I am currently answering this from my parent’s backyard in Pasadena, but I’ve been in Brooklyn for the majority of this last year. The first few months of the pandemic were fully dedicated to recording this new record I just released, and my band and I did that in Highland Park (LA) at my bassist and drummer’s home studio. Once we finished that, I hit a pretty long creative drought. Think I was just gassed from finishing “Tompkins Park” and needed some time to breathe. I ended up dedicating a few months there to just a lot of active listening, inspiration hunting. I also drove across the country three times last year for some odd reason, but those trips provided some much needed jump starts to thinking about what is next for myself.
And recently with no touring going on, I’ve picked up a bunch of music teaching gigs which has been an amazing experience. Some independent students and also some opportunities through a new online school my buddy Steven Van Betten started called School of Song. Looking forward to integrating some educational aspects into everything I’m doing coming out of this whacky year.
Q2: The arrangements and thematic focus of your songs have shifted a bit since your first record. How do you think you’ve evolved as an artist over the past few years? Have your changing locales affected that?
Yeah absolutely. A very different sonic landscape on this record than Songs for Moms. It was an active effort to create those wider spaces on the record, a lot of washed out guitar tones, some wonky chorus effects on there and a lot of synth pads, but we also tried to stay true to the songs and keep the lyrics and stories up in front. It was a far more collaborative effort than my first record, which had a few contributors but I ended up playing a large chunk of the parts on it. I don’t see myself going down that road again because I just so strongly prefer working on these projects with friends and building them out together.
I think over the past few years, I’ve made really huge strides in finding my own sound and discovering what it is I want to write about and how I want to do that. A lot of that was accomplished just by hitting the road and playing as many shows as possible and testing a lot of these new songs on those crowds, big and small. So I would say that any noticeable evolution is moreso a result of touring and meeting new people rather than my experience living in New York. However, the lyrical content, inspiration, and themes on Tompkins Park are absolutely New York centric and rooted in some experiences I had in my last couple years living there.
Q3: We read that you were initially repulsed by the electric guitar you were given as a kid and opted to play drums. What shifted your interest to songwriting and melody? Do you think your time on the drumset affects your guitar playing?
Absolutely sickening, was not a fan. Too hard, hated it. Drums came a bit more intuitively to me though. So I ended up staying on drums for about 6 years, but picked the guitar back up somewhere in that timespan. I think that was mostly inspired by my sister Sarah who was learning guitar and was a great singer, still is. She was writing songs and wanting to record them, and being the competitive little brother, I wanted to do the same. She doesn’t really play anymore, but she should!!!!! Sarah!!!!! Peer pressure!!!!
I think my time drumming definitely affected my guitar playing style. I didn’t play guitar or sing with a band until way later in life, so it was always just me playing in my bedroom alone. So as a result of having no accompaniment, I think I naturally just started adding some kind of percussive elements into my guitar playing. A lot of mute scratches on 2 and 4 acting as a sort of snare, and a lot of fingerpicking to add some more rhythmic quality to the guitar parts. But I’ve recently been trying to kick those habits and get more comfortable with empty space in my songs. It’s uncomfortable but rewarding.
Q4: You seem like someone who has a few creased paperbacks near you at all times. What are a few books that you’ve been excited about recently?
I am terrible at finishing books. But I sure do love starting books. A few recent standouts have been Cathedral by Raymond Carver, The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli, Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke, and the last is a book on the Beatles catalog. I can’t remember the name right now, but it covers every track they ever recorded with little tidbits on the recording process for each song. I had a deep Beatles period last fall, looking forward to doing that again soon.
Q5: The music video for your new song “I Need to Be Alone” is so great and really captures the feeling of staying at home for a year. Can you tell us a bit about the video process? Were you involved in the concepting and directing? Was it hard to turn the song into a video narrative? Also, can you dance?
Thank you! Really glad you liked it. It was such a rad experience to develop that music video with Jeff Rutherford, the director. Jeff reached out to me over Instagram expressing interest in working on something together. So we got a coffee in Brooklyn and hit it off immediately. After that, we’d touch base once a week and get another coffee and just brainstorm on concepts. A lot of “so, hear me out” and “okay, but what if…”. We locked in the general concept for the video after 4 or 5 of those hangs, and I kind of just handed it off to Jeff to figure out the specifics. He handled the wardrobe, the crew, his partner Kyra produced the video and they both connected me with Maya Man (thank the lord!) who stars in the video and choreographed all the movement. They all just crushed it from start to finish and it was a wonderful, lovely few days of shooting.
I had a general idea of what I wanted a video for “I Need to be Alone” to center around, but how to execute that was a process. I think Jeff really just knocked it out of the park, so thank you again Jeff if you’re reading this wherever you are, you sweet man.
And yes, I can dance. The world finally knows that Jack Symes CAN dance, and WILL dance in the future and beyond. This video kind of felt like my “I am Iron Man” moment at the end of the first Iron Man. I am no longer hiding behind my musical facade. And it feels really good.
About the New Moon Playlist
On the New Moon, the earth, moon, and sun align making us unaware of the moon’s presence in the sky. Without the visual presence and glow of the moon, other celestial bodies typically hidden now shine brighter. Our chances of seeing the sky clearly are heightened on this day, making it a day of clarity and new beginnings. Creatively it’s the perfect time to set intentions for a new cycle of dreams and goals, and ways of manifesting them.
To honor this monthly opportunity for fresh starts and creative beginnings, we’ve asked our friend and musician we admire, Chase McBride, to curate a seasonal New Moon Spotify playlist.
Follow The Joshua Tree House on Spotify and be the first to hear new playlists. Last season’s New Moon Spotify Playlist featured artist Sam Valdez.
