Foto-© Universal Music

Dank einer herausragenden Fähigkeit für nachdenkliche, außergewöhnliche Texte, einer Stimme so kraftvoll wie zerbrechlich und dank eines komplexen Gitarrenspiels gilt der schottische Singer-Songwriter Jacob Alon in UK schon als eines der größten Talente seiner Zunft. Und wahrlich zeigt sein Debütalbum In Limerence (VÖ: 30. Mai), das von Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Fontaines D..C.) produziert wurde, Jacobs komplette Gefühlswelt, geizt nicht mit Intimität und Tiefgang und gehört jetzt schon zu den spannendsten Debüts des Jahres! Der zeitlose Sound, oft mit Künstler*innen wie Jeff Buckley und Rufus Wainwright verglichen, durchdringt die Luft mit kraftvollem, eindringlichem Gesang, komplexem Gitarrenspiel und nachdenklichen, poetischen Texten.

Wir sprachen mit Jacob Alon im Rahmen seiner Tour zum Debütalbum.

Hi Jacob, I’m glad we finally got a time in, it’s great to have you!
Thank you! I am very glad to be here!

I managed to listen to a few tracks on your album the other day, I was feeling slightly melancholier than usual, but your music wrapped me into a beautiful cocoon and enveloped me with some warmth and comfort, it felt like a deep, satisfying exhale. It made me curious about – if this album was a letter, who would it be addressed to?
Thank you so much, I am glad you felt that from the music. That’s a good question – I think there are definitely a few people that would be cc’d in! One is definitely my inner child, my younger self and I think I could have saved myself a lot of pain, but then again, those lessons were and are necessary. There are patterns and discoveries that I’ve made through making this that could have been very useful to the young part of myself. I think for anyone else, it could bring comfort to them, or whatever comes naturally to them without judgement… even if it’s completely different to where I was at, we’re all different and always evolving.

Absolutely, we’re always evolving, how are you evolving with your audience? Are there any different ways that you are connecting with your audience now?
It’s been so nice to feel – especially with songs coming out into the world – people come to the shows and they have a personal relationship with it. It’s like woah this [music] is bigger than me now and what it means to them is so precious and special. It’s such a privilege. Also to bring together the queer family, it feels amazing especially with what’s going on at the moment – it’s time to be with my people and it’s nice to feel a sense of community and togetherness and that is so cool. It makes me feel so content to be a part of a community because it’s as much their community as it is mine.

There is a lot of strength in community, it’s beautiful that your honesty and ability to be unapologetically vulnerable has created this. I was reading the messaging behind some of your songs and they touch of various different themes of sexuality, lust & love and despair. I wonder how you channel the raw emotion into something so beautiful? The song I particularly liked was Don’t fall asleep, despite it having such a sad story behind it.
I think I’d be lying if I said if I knew how it all works, but I think with these records, they’re quite vulnerable in a lot of ways and there are a lot of emotions I am discovering in myself within the creation of the music, which is an interesting challenge. At first it feels like you have to trace your fingers along the scar tissue of the wound and peel some of the healed layers just to get back into some of those feelings. With some of these songs (I had this with fairy in the bottle) it took a bit of time to perform it and I think you’ve got to give it a bit of space for that wound to close over.

Definitely, I guess you could say this is almost like your therapy. Are there any songs on this album that you have more feelings towards than others? Or songs that you prefer to play?
For me, I really love the instrumental track called Home Tapes because I can just improvise the magical moments. I just don’t know how it happened.

Oh yeah! That was an interesting story actually – you had some home videos and you were able to extract the audio and get them collated together?
Yeah! I got them digitised and sampled some moments and put them on a keyboard to be triggered and I just sat and played guitar with a little microphone and whispered into it with the samples. To be honest at the end I was so emotional, because it was like I stepped back in time to connect with that younger self / inner child and I sat with them and talked to them. I am whispering along with them and its like we are the same thing, and the two worlds are coming together. That’s why its special to me, but I think other people will still feel something from it .. perhaps some nostalgia, even if they cannot connect with the younger child in the samples.

I also love Of Amber – I didn’t have the lyrics at first, but I came in with the chords and I said I really like this progression I have made so kept working at it. The whole time I was like “I love this one, it needs to be right!” and I think it was 4am in the morning of the day I was meant to go into the studio and I finished it, it was the last track to be completed. For me it was the opener, so it was the mouth of the record that introduces the ideas that occupy the rest of the album, so its really important and I was so happy it came together.

I am looking forward to listening to those in more depth. How do you build on your sound knowing what you know, and how do you stay true to your artistic identity, but still push the boundaries?
So, when I was learning, I would try something completely random that was out of my comfort zone, so that I didn’t know where everything was and I loved that! I still try that as much as possible, I find it so precious. I don’t fully understand what’s going on but it just makes me feel so good. I would just love to keep going in that direction if I can and learning from people that inspire me like Nick Drake, Adrianne Lenker and Rufus Wainwright.

Getting lost in music sounds the perfect tonic. What colour does your favourite chord feel like when you’re playing?
Ooh, favourite chord is a rich purple, feels like a guilty satisfaction when I hold onto it. The other chord is a yellowy golden – that one is more of a guilty pleasure to me, it’s a bit cheese coloured! I love that chord.

Oh, great colours! Are there any other places or spaces that have inspired you for this album?
I think the places are all quite different, I think there are a lot of bedroom moments. There are a lot of places where I am alone and this is where I feel most comfortable being with my emotions. I’d like to get more comfortable with people for that, but that’s another step it’s like group therapy in a way! In terms of spaces, instinct is to say woodland areas – they’re places of mystery and magic. I would often go out into the trees and try and disconnect with the forms of human society and just go back into the chaos and natural order of nature, that to me is really where I feel I breathe the deepest.

Nature is healing isn’t it and I just want to end on this, as I think this album has the potential to heal it its own way, with listeners seeking comfort in the themes that you have touched on due to their relatability. The sound is delicate and intricate and gently guides the listener on a journey of discovery. Jacob, I am wishing you all the best and it’s been lovely to speak with you.
Ah, thank you so much Louise, it’s been so lovely to speak to you too and that’s made me so happy to hear.