Aiken Promotions presents
TOBIAS JESSO JR.
The Button Factory
Friday December 4th 7.30pm
Tickets priced €20 (incl booking) on sale this Thursday @ 9am from www.ticketmaster.ie & outlets nationwide
“Meet the new king of heartbreaking melody. When LA-based Tobias first uploaded his demo track ‘Just A Dream’ in August 2013, we hailed it as coming from the same school as Harry Nilsson, John Lennon and Elton John. Tender, heartfelt and true, it’s safe to say that his forthcoming debut album, ‘Goon’ will become one of the year’s most acclaimed.” – NME - 50 Brand New Artists Set To Storm 2015
Hotly-tipped Vancouver singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr follows his sold-out debut Irish performance at the Unitarian Church with a follow-up show this December at The Button Factory.
His debut album ‘Goon’ was recorded over the last two years and features production from Chet “JR” White (formerly of Girls), Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, and Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Sky Ferreira). Pitchfork recently gave album highlight “Hollywood” Best New Track, calling it “the film negative to Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind’.”
“Goon isn’t an album of layers; what you hear is what you get, which in this case turns out to be something special.” – Pitchfork 8.5 Best New Music
Hollywood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEeueAZUVeM
True Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVveuLnoA4
Without You & Just A Dream I A Take Away Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JIVnLhQawE
“Beautifully applied retro-pop vibes with some evocative piano lines to get close to.” – Jim Carroll
“In the middle of 2012, Tobias Jesso Jr. bottomed out. Hard. Reeling from a recent breakup, the Vancouver native was riding his bike through Los Angeles, where he had tried—and failed—to make it as a behind-the-scenes songwriter for a few years, when a Cadillac blindsided him, sending him flying, his hand smashing down on the car’s hood ornament. As the driver sped off, Jesso looked down to see a gnarly gash and lots of blood... and then looked up to see a man pedaling away with his bicycle. “He literally waved to me as he was leaving,” says Jesso over Skype, still in disbelief—he holds up his palm to reveal an emergency-room scar in the shape of a “J.” The next day, as he wondered whether his hand would ever work quite as well as it did before, he found out his mother had cancer. That was it. He moved back into his old bedroom in North Vancouver, utterly lost and dejected, feeling like a failure.
With all of his musical equipment in storage back in L.A., he turned to his sister’s abandoned piano, an instrument he had never really played in a serious way. Though Jesso’s experiences with music up until that point—including stints as the bassist for mid-2000s Killers Lite bandthe Sessions as well as for Avril Lavigne Lite wannabe pop star Melissa Cavatti, and fruitless attempts to write pop songs for other artists—were marked by a youthful desire for success, when he started putting chords and lyrics together at that piano, things were different.
“I felt like I couldn’t play music for success anymore because I didn't succeed,” he says now. “It was a good feeling.” After a few days back home, he woke up from a dream, sat down, and wrote “Just a Dream”, a disarming lullaby about a father’s words to his one-day-old child in the face of an impending apocalypse. He had never felt comfortable with his own casually imperfect singing voice before, but he recorded a hissy demo of the track and posted it to YouTube. “That was the first song I ever wrote where I was like, ‘This is for me, and I'm singing it—take it or leave it,’” he says. “And I got a good response from it.”
A week later, Jesso sent a Hail Mary email to bassist and producer Chet “JR” White, whose band Girls had just broken up, with some kind words and links to his demos. Just a few hours later, White wrote back, which led to a phone call, which—following Jesso’s mother’s recovery—led to recording sessions in San Francisco, and a deal with True Panther Records. “As soon as I walked away, the doors I'd been trying to open the entire time unhinged, and everyone said, ‘This is all right,’” the 29-year-old marvels, flashing a broad, genuine smile outside of his manager’s house in the Hollywood Hills on a recent sunny afternoon.
His forthcoming album Goon, due out next year, features production from White, along withthe Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, the New Pornographers’ John Collins, and studio guru of the moment Ariel Rechtshaid. It also boasts Jesso’s wonderfully plainspoken songs of heartbreak and apprehension, which bring to mind a less snarky Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson, or a more hopeful Nick Drake. On the classic-sounding “Hollywood”, he tells an autobiographical tale about going through the showbiz wringer. “I think I’m gonna die in Hollywood,” he sings near the end of the song, before unexpected horns swell up, suggesting an unlikely afterlife.” - Pitchfork
http://www.tobiasjessojr.com/
TOBIAS JESSO JR.
The Button Factory
Friday December 4th 7.30pm
Tickets priced €20 (incl booking) on sale this Thursday @ 9am from www.ticketmaster.ie & outlets nationwide
“Meet the new king of heartbreaking melody. When LA-based Tobias first uploaded his demo track ‘Just A Dream’ in August 2013, we hailed it as coming from the same school as Harry Nilsson, John Lennon and Elton John. Tender, heartfelt and true, it’s safe to say that his forthcoming debut album, ‘Goon’ will become one of the year’s most acclaimed.” – NME - 50 Brand New Artists Set To Storm 2015
Hotly-tipped Vancouver singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr follows his sold-out debut Irish performance at the Unitarian Church with a follow-up show this December at The Button Factory.
His debut album ‘Goon’ was recorded over the last two years and features production from Chet “JR” White (formerly of Girls), Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, and Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Sky Ferreira). Pitchfork recently gave album highlight “Hollywood” Best New Track, calling it “the film negative to Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind’.”
“Goon isn’t an album of layers; what you hear is what you get, which in this case turns out to be something special.” – Pitchfork 8.5 Best New Music
Hollywood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEeueAZUVeM
True Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVveuLnoA4
Without You & Just A Dream I A Take Away Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JIVnLhQawE
“Beautifully applied retro-pop vibes with some evocative piano lines to get close to.” – Jim Carroll
“In the middle of 2012, Tobias Jesso Jr. bottomed out. Hard. Reeling from a recent breakup, the Vancouver native was riding his bike through Los Angeles, where he had tried—and failed—to make it as a behind-the-scenes songwriter for a few years, when a Cadillac blindsided him, sending him flying, his hand smashing down on the car’s hood ornament. As the driver sped off, Jesso looked down to see a gnarly gash and lots of blood... and then looked up to see a man pedaling away with his bicycle. “He literally waved to me as he was leaving,” says Jesso over Skype, still in disbelief—he holds up his palm to reveal an emergency-room scar in the shape of a “J.” The next day, as he wondered whether his hand would ever work quite as well as it did before, he found out his mother had cancer. That was it. He moved back into his old bedroom in North Vancouver, utterly lost and dejected, feeling like a failure.
With all of his musical equipment in storage back in L.A., he turned to his sister’s abandoned piano, an instrument he had never really played in a serious way. Though Jesso’s experiences with music up until that point—including stints as the bassist for mid-2000s Killers Lite bandthe Sessions as well as for Avril Lavigne Lite wannabe pop star Melissa Cavatti, and fruitless attempts to write pop songs for other artists—were marked by a youthful desire for success, when he started putting chords and lyrics together at that piano, things were different.
“I felt like I couldn’t play music for success anymore because I didn't succeed,” he says now. “It was a good feeling.” After a few days back home, he woke up from a dream, sat down, and wrote “Just a Dream”, a disarming lullaby about a father’s words to his one-day-old child in the face of an impending apocalypse. He had never felt comfortable with his own casually imperfect singing voice before, but he recorded a hissy demo of the track and posted it to YouTube. “That was the first song I ever wrote where I was like, ‘This is for me, and I'm singing it—take it or leave it,’” he says. “And I got a good response from it.”
A week later, Jesso sent a Hail Mary email to bassist and producer Chet “JR” White, whose band Girls had just broken up, with some kind words and links to his demos. Just a few hours later, White wrote back, which led to a phone call, which—following Jesso’s mother’s recovery—led to recording sessions in San Francisco, and a deal with True Panther Records. “As soon as I walked away, the doors I'd been trying to open the entire time unhinged, and everyone said, ‘This is all right,’” the 29-year-old marvels, flashing a broad, genuine smile outside of his manager’s house in the Hollywood Hills on a recent sunny afternoon.
His forthcoming album Goon, due out next year, features production from White, along withthe Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, the New Pornographers’ John Collins, and studio guru of the moment Ariel Rechtshaid. It also boasts Jesso’s wonderfully plainspoken songs of heartbreak and apprehension, which bring to mind a less snarky Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson, or a more hopeful Nick Drake. On the classic-sounding “Hollywood”, he tells an autobiographical tale about going through the showbiz wringer. “I think I’m gonna die in Hollywood,” he sings near the end of the song, before unexpected horns swell up, suggesting an unlikely afterlife.” - Pitchfork
http://www.tobiasjessojr.com/
