“The perspectives from which I write, jump erratically and can turn on a dime. Others grow and burn, only to sometimes vanish on the spot, just before the hat drops. . . My intention is to not rob the listener of their own fantasies by describing the annals of purpose which in turn, only unearth a fragile magic. I am interested only in the album’s response by its audience. The album is there to be digested, not by the front of your brain, but by the back. It is for the lover of labyrinths and quagmires.” — Caleb Landry Jones
Over the weekend, Caleb Landry Jones won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in the film, Nitram. Today, the actor, musician, and visual artist announces his new album, Gadzooks Vol. 1, out September 24th on Sacred Bones, and presents lead single/visualizer “Bogie.” The follow-up to his debut, The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 moves from joy to despair, from horror to glib humor. Its sounds range from spider-like wisps of neo-psychedelia through to vast swathes of synthetic chords; it’s thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining as each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. Lead single “Bogie” lurches with brass and tumbling percussion. Caleb’s voice cuts through as he continues to enter new terrains.
Watch Caleb Landry Jones’ “Bogie” Visualizer by Jacqueline Castel
Just a few months after recording The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 was written in Albuquerque, New Mexico while filming the dystopian themed film, Finch, alongside Tom Hanks. “I stole from what was around me, what fell out of the television, what passed below my windows, relationships, old and new. My frustrations, desires, day dreams and fears scattered themselves throughout my writing,” says Caleb. “It is a direct response to the album before it. I felt whatever I wrote next needed to be more consistent. I knew that I wanted to put everything down on tape. I wanted the same players as before but to go further.” He’d idle away his hours on location by focusing on creativity, and when filming stopped, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio.
Caleb would soon link with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, including producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles, and Drew Erickson who handled string and horn arrangements. Together, Caleb and Nic would work 18-hour days, bringing Caleb’s vision into focus. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, reassembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”
Part of a flood-tide of creativity – as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon.
Pre-order Gadzooks Vol. 1
Gadzooks Vol. 1 Tracklist
1. Never Wet
2. Yesterday Will Come
3. The Loon
4. Bogie
5. Gloria
6. California
7. For A Short Time
8. A Slice of Dream
9. This Won’t Come Back
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]
