Interview with Music by Jeremy

I’m really impressed by the ambition behind Jeremy’s debut. Moving between folk, soul, post-punk, synth-pop, blues and gospel, it sounds like the songwriting is what keeps everything together.

“Be Me” immediately stands out to me as a sharp, driving indie-pop track, especially in the way it tackles the exhaustion of constantly performing a version of yourself for other people. I also love the idea of joyous realism running through the project, looking directly at difficult subjects without becoming hopeless. For me, there’s something genuinely exciting about an artist this willing to be curious and unpredictable from the very beginning!

Interview with Music by Jeremy

"Scenes from a Well Worn Path" spans 24 songs across four releases. At what point did you realise this collection deserved to become a double album rather than a more conventional record?

Soon after embarking on the project, it became apparent that the songs were a journey through my personal history and philosophy. As such there wasn’t a way that I was comfortable to separate them; in fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say they wanted to stay together.

(^)> You describe the album's guiding philosophy as "joyous realism." What does that phrase mean to you, and how does it shape the way you write?

Life is a tough journey. We battle our way through pain, anguish and loss. But it is also brimming with joy and beauty. The album is a celebration of the fact that both of these things co-exist in every moment of our lives.

(^)> The lead single "Be Me" explores the exhaustion of performing versions of ourselves for other people. Was there a particular moment in your own life that sparked that song?

Not exactly a particular moment, more an intersection of events! I think as you become older you realise that you can be a much better, more creative and participating human being if you accept yourself for who you are.

We all spend much of our lives being squeezed into a role, to the extent it can take many years to even realise it’s there. Breaking free has a real cost in old connections and friends, but it’s also an essential for your physical and mental health.

(^)> Your songwriting comfortably moves between subjects as diverse as grief, moral failure, economics and plastic-eating bacteria. How do you make such varied themes feel like part of the same artistic world?

Because the macro informs the micro! Grief and moral failure are very personal things: economics, and the wonderful Ideonella Sakaiensis, are only important - in an artistic sense – because of their impact on our psyches.

I guess the concise answer would be ‘because they absolutely are’!

(^)> You recorded the album independently from your home studio, playing all the guitars and fretless bass yourself. How important was complete creative control to this project?

Very! I’ve been involved in group projects across the years – in fact this was originally scheduled to be a collaboration - but working alone freed me from the creative inhibitions that have held me back in the past. The isolation of my studio has created a kind of ‘rock n roll confessional’ that I couldn’t have done with other people listening.

(^)> One of the most distinctive aspects of the record is your use of generative AI trained on your own voice to realise arrangements you couldn't otherwise record. How did you approach that technology without losing the humanity at the centre of the music?

The vocal work is probably the most painstaking part of the production, not because it is automated, but because it isn’t... My singing voice is adequate at best and certainly wouldn’t have been able to carry the range and power that it can with AI enhancement.

The vocal character across this album has a specific quality - that slightly raspy, conversational, earnest delivery - and it belongs to these songs. A hired singer, however talented, would bring their own instrument and their own interpretation. Some of that might be better in isolation but this way I am using the AI to deliver my very personal emotions.

(^)> Some listeners remain sceptical of AI in music. What would you say to someone who assumes the technology defines the album rather than simply serving it?

The album exists because I made it the way I made it. A "real" singer means finding the right person, scheduling sessions, managing their interpretation of your lyrics, waiting on their availability, and introducing a dependency that could stall or derail the whole thing at any point.

The legitimacy in music comes from the work, not the production method. I have created 24 tracks of original songwriting with genuine emotional depth, strong arrangements, and a coherent artistic vision.

The AI is not a compromise. It is the tool that got the album made.

(^)> Your influences range from John Lennon and Bob Dylan to Randy Newman and David Bowie. Which of those artists do you think has left the deepest mark on your songwriting?

I’m going to misquote Princess Ann in ‘Roman Holiday’ here. “Each, in their own way, is unforgettable. It would be difficult to……. Lennon! By all means, John Lennon. I will cherish his memory as long as I live”.

(^)> Despite the album's scale, your lyrics remain remarkably direct and conversational. Do you spend more time refining the words than the music?

The music usually comes first and not always easily. But once the sound is in place the words literally fall out which is the primary source of the ‘conversational directness’.

For me the Song is everything. Every word and every note exists to serve the feeling behind it.

(^)> Was there one song onethe album that proved especially difficult to finish because it asked something emotionally uncomfortable of you?

Most of them were uncomfortable but ‘So Cold’ on Side Two is the one that I struggle write – and listen to. A raw, unflinching meditation on my own inherited trauma.

(^)> Releasing the project over four instalments is an unusual decision. What do you hope listeners gain from experiencing the album gradually instead of all at once?

It harks back to a time when the ‘side’ of a record with all its pacing, its beginning, middle and ending mattered, and I wanted to re-create that vibe.

As an avid consumer of music - and a person with a thoroughly modern attention span – I find a full album release results in a lot of good songs go unheard. Working with 24 tracks gave me a traditional double album that slotted perfectly into four six track releases.

(^)> After a lifetime of listening, this is your debut release. Why does now feel like the right time for these songs to exist?

The answer to this question is in the opening track (Be Me).

The things that I come out and say here are things that I was never brave enough to come out and say before.

(^)> Throughout the record there's a tension between personal storytelling and broader social observation. Do you consciously try to connect the individual with the political?

This is an album about how I interact with the world around me. My strong feeling is that you can’t separate the individual from the political – in fact I could argue that separating them is where we lose our humanity.

(^)> Looking back at the finished album, did it ultimately become the record you originally imagined, or did it surprise you along the way?

The finished album way beyond anything I even envisioned. I have co-written and produced music throughout my life, but I have never been able to open up to this degree before. We are probably back to intersections. I am at a place of unprecedented love and peace in my life which has given me the strength to look openly at the path I took to get here, and technology has given me the tools to deliver that story with complete honesty.

(^)> Finally, if listeners complete all four sides of "Scenes from a Well Worn Path," what journey do you hope they've taken by the time the final song ends?

I want people to know that the path is worth walking.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Music by Jeremy on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist