J Mahon - Everything Has A Life [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: TGR039CD  
Barcode: 0765453480839 
Release Date: 15 Sep 2023
Genre: Indie/Pop 

*vinyl ltd to 500 copies*

"If you can imagine a love child between MAC DEMARCO and SPARKLEHORSE, then this would be what you're ley with." - SO YOUNG MAGAZINE

Raised in North Queensland, Australia, Jarrod Mahon is not one to shy away from bold new endeavors. Once par[ng ways with his previous record label in 2019, Mahon chose to go fully independent, reloca[ng to Berlin in 2019 (where he s[ll resides), despite having no contacts at all in the country. What’s more, having recorded/performed under the pseudonym Emerson Snowe for over a decade - during which [me he home-recorded five albums and 13 EP’s, toured with the likes of King Krule or Ariel Pink, played showcases SXSW and the Great Escape, the works - Mahon took that brave, most uncommercial decision to release under his own name and start almost totally anew.

“There was never really a concept to that name [Emerson Snowe] other than having some kind of separa[on from who I was as a person,” Mahon explains, “using a moniker gave me that confidence to push myself further mentally and to give myself some kind of a freedom”. And through the process of crea[ng what would become his debut album, Mahon saw that he had outgrown the need for this protec[ve persona. ‘Everything Has A Life’ was meant to be the debut Snowe album”, he admits, “but ayer I finished mixing it with Syd [Kemp, co-producer] I realized that I had actually grown a lot and was much more comfortable with who I am and what my personal beliefs are.”

The choice of ‘Everything Has A Life’ as the album [tle, pulled from beauteous opening track ‘All I Know’, neatly summarizes this new outlook: moving on from ‘selfpity’ of the past-self by becoming present for the loved ones around you, improving understanding of one’s own self, via the wider world at large.

That track marks the first wri`en during a lockdown s[nt in LA where Mahon wrote and recorded every day for 2 months, produced nigh on 250 demos and birthed the bulk of the record. It also brought Mahon back to his all-[me favorite, SuÖan Stevens’ Ilinois and its blend of widescreen orchestral landscapes and more candid, naked acous[c-leaning varia[ons - an important influence for the album's stylis[c contrasts. Another key inspira[on for the record too brought Mahon back to his roots - those full-bloom strains of his Mum’s Beloved Neil Diamond, an annual Christmas irritant to Mahon as a child, yet an ar[st he’s come to respect in adulthood. “Whatever the reason, with age I came to love the big show band sounds,” he says, “the idea of a performer on stage with a massive orchestra with strings was amazing to me.” With the help of producer Syd Kemp (Ulrika Spacek, Vanishing Twin), such grand designs could be met. - “When we first met, he asked me if I would like real strings on it. I said of course.” Enter Magda Mclean on violin (Caroline/the Umlauts), and Gamaliel Rendle Traynor on Cello (Sweat, Fat White Family), whose strings helped liy the record to roman[c new heights.

He con[nues: “I said to Syd that the only thing I wanted to achieve with this record was that I wanted it to make me cry at one point. And we got there eventually.” The final culmina[on of all these strands, ’Everything Has A Life’ is indeed a treasure trove of emo[ve riches. Locking into that bi`ersweet, quintessen[ally ‘pop’ combina[on of triumphant rhythms and confessional, stream-of-consciousness lyrics plucked straight from the heart, Mahon faces up to years of substance abuse with a series of gorgeous, blushing melodies: “I was using, I was drinking, I was lying to my friends, I was messing up again, I was hiding from myself”, he joyously chants on ‘The Growing’.

A banquet fit for an indie king, Everything Has A Life is loaded with psych-pop lusciousness (‘All I Know’) and anthemic glam fuzz (‘Death Of The Ladies Man’, ‘Deadstar’, or ‘Sonny is my Best Friend’); recalling that founda[onal SuÖan Stevens influence too with shambling flecks of country (‘Charly (Roman[c Heart)’). There’s also those lo-fi crepita[ons of ‘My Man’ and ‘I can’t’ harking back home-recorded demos that lie at the core of Mahon’s crea[ve process.

Tracklist: 1) All I Know 2) Street Names 3) Death Of The Ladies Man 4) Deadstar 5) Charly (roman[c Heart) 6) My Man 7) Every Part Of Me 8) Pet Cemetery 9) Mother 10) Sonny Is My Best Friend 11) The Growing 12) I Can’t