Joh Chase takes us track-by-track through their triumphant new album ‘SOLO,’ a breathtakingly bold record of reflection, reconnection, and rediscovery that shines their inner light out on the world through a dazzling mix of tender folk, soaring pop, and intimate indie rock songs.
Stream: “SOLO” – Joh Chase
Joh Chase opens their new album in a triumphant, raw rush of empowerment and liberation.
“Gone, my four-leaf clover,” they sing, ready to make their own luck and take control of their own destiny. “I’m gone with the wind, now.” This moment is a long time coming; anticipation has been building for years now, and Chase doesn’t mind letting their passion or excitement show. This isn’t their debut album, but it is an introduction – a first look at the artist and the person they’ve become over these last few years.
How better to celebrate that comeuppance – their reentry into the world – than with an exhilarating, invigorating new version of a beloved song they wrote long ago, under an old name, in a world that seems so foreign to the one we now inhabit today? “Gone” isn’t a song about leaving; it’s a song about self-discovery, and it’s the perfect way for the world to meet (and promptly fall headfirst for) Joh Chase. The artist shines their inner light on SOLO, a breathtakingly bold, beautifully intimate record of reflection, reconnection, and rediscovery.
Gone, my four-leaf clover
Yeah you’ve gone your own way
Got my red solo
Well the party is over and I’m still buzzed
walkin’ the neighborhood
Damn, my dog is nowhere
But I know she’ll come home
Mom, she misses her daughter
But it’s a chain she loves to liberate
And I’m gone with the wind, now…
Your bed, make its covers
So they fall over every corner tight
And my body
It left its mold where we laid
and watched it all go down
– “Gone,” Joh Chase
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering SOLO (out April 26, 2024 via Kill Rock Stars), a spectacular, soul-stirring ten-track introduction to Seattle-raised, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joh Chase. While not the artist’s first full length effort, this is their first LP under their current name, which they adopted in 2023.
And yet it’s obvious, from SOLO‘s opening moments, that this is the work of a seasoned professional – someone who’s put far more than their ten thousand hours and cut their teeth on and off stage, chasing inspirations and steadily coming into their own identity as a writer, a singer, and a performer. Active over the past two decades, Chase’s extensive resume includes opening for Noah Gundersen, David Bazan, and Robert DeLong – but they’re not focused on the past or what once was, and nor should we. SOLO is their present, and it captures (arguably) everything they’ve been working toward for nearly twenty years.
“This record is a long time coming… songs are from the last decade of my career and the players and engineers were my dream people,” Chase tells Atwood Magazine. “After self-releasing records with smaller budgets, I crowd-funded enough money to make an impact on making a great record, and I’m so happy I did. KRS picked it up, and so it took a little longer to release than I had anticipated, which was already longer than anticipated due to COVID. I really followed my gut every step of the way and I have been rewarded with wonderful collaborators and support.”
“The real vision started when I decided to hire Marc Walloch and Brendan McCusker to play a show with me,” they explain. “Once they played my songs with me, I knew what the record would be. I had provided them with demos of my songs without any backing arrangements and Walloch and McCusker brought in their own ideas and it just made sense. And when I found out Dan Molad was available to mix, everything just got even more exciting. After the crowdfunding, we recorded right away and Dan and I got together to mix over the course of the next year and it was a huge gift to work with him.”
“SOLO is all of me; some deep cuts, some new ideas, my voice doing the things it does to tell the stories,” Chase reaffirms. “That is absolutely what this record is, a reintroduction of who I am.”
Chase describes SOLO as a means to “rebrand myself upwards”; they give their all to every song, holding nothing back and allowing the music to become whatever it needs to be. As such, SOLO is a truly multifaceted musical experience, with gentle folk songs sitting hand-in-hand with smoldering blues rockers, feverish indie/alt-leaning eruptions, and tracks that don’t quite fit neatly (or nicely) into any one box.
For Chase, it’s also a summation of so much time, artistic growth, and living. The title SOLO, they explain, came naturally.
“I had been releasing EPs called Solo.A and Solo.B, and it just felt like those were leading up to this. Also, just doing this work by myself for so many years, putting this record out after years of not releasing a full-length record, it’s like a label on the outside of the time capsule of these last several years.”
Atwood Magazine previously declared Chase a “wellspring of potent, powerful, and deeply moving indie rock,” and those words continue to ring true on SOLO as, with an open heart and exposed soul, they surrender to the music and pour themselves out in song. Highlights include the warm and achingly soulful “Right Way,” the passionate, smoldering fever dream “Common Man,” the sweet, smile-inducing Americana / rock blend of “Smoother,” and the buoyant, bouncy, infectiously catchy heartache-be-gone pop anthem “To Forget You.”
For Chase, the most memorable moments are often the most intense ones – both musically and emotionally. “The way that the songs really slam where I need them to or open up when I wanted them to,” they smile. “Two of my favorite songs are ‘Savina’ and ‘To Forget You.’ The lyrics from ‘To Forget You’ are some favorites… and the story of ‘Avalanche,’ the loss is very really for me, there. The outro of ‘Daniel’ is essentially my life mantra from the context of the exactitude of my brother.”
Record making it like saying says it,
you didn’t have a phone, I couldn’t leave a message
Disconnected, dial tone deflected,
holding my breath while I got a bone to pick with
That picket fence tall around your love nest
Iconic protecting those sweet caresses
You showed me lies with your French accent
Pulled me in just to play lesbian
Now I’m waiting for all these feelings to fade out
Go to the beach to forget you, call my mom to forget you
Walk my dog to forget you, work my job to forget you
Sing a song to forget you, say a prayer to forget you
Do all I can to forget you, doing all I can to forget you
– “To Forget You,” Joh Chase
SOLO is stunning.
Joh Chase’s album hits hard and hits home in all the right places, inspiring us to find our own paths just as they are walking theirs. There are moments of pain and uncertainty, reckoning and redemption, wonderment and awe, loss, love, and euphoria; all those extremes and in-betweens that make up a life lived to the fullest.
“I hope listeners who enjoy this type of music feel touched and more in awareness around themselves,” Chase shares. “I hope it brings people light and heaviness, too. I hope people feel part of something and less alone when they relate to something on the record.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Joh Chase’s SOLO with Atwood Magazine as they take us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of their latest album!
SOLO is out April 26, 2024 via Kill Rock Stars.
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:: stream/purchase SOLO here ::
:: connect with Joh Chase here ::
Stream: ‘SOLO’ – Joh Chase
:: Inside SOLO ::
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Gone
The opening track, “Gone,” is a triumphant ode to all the versions of myself that have made me who I am. Neurologists say that we view our future selves as strangers, naturally, for some reason. This song is me befriending my future by paying homage to the me I was.
Right Way
This song is the first of the set of 4 songs from the record that I recorded most of the instruments for. The song’s meaning is one part personal psychology and one part faith deconstruction.
Common Man
I have made songs with Damon Turner since we became pals in 2008. He performs courtesy of his label, Trap Heals. Dan Molad recorded the drums that come in with Damon’s verse and gives the song the power to match Damon’s vocal. The lyrics come from images of California’s farm workers and the back breaking weight of a system that puts profits over people.
Avalanche
A story of three types of belonging and loss and the depth of love that is illuminated by them. A sonic pinpoint of Americana within the topography of the record, this song brings blues and rock to counterpoint the pop and indie tones in the collection.
Savina
This is the oldest song on the record. I wrote this one in 2009 after watching a documentary short about a young girl who made a video blog about the waning ideals of her parents generation who believed women in the Middle East should not drive. Her name was Sabina. Sabina’s journalism sparked this song that I essentially wrote about myself; wondering if I would ever feel settled in love.
When I Got This Place
I wrote this song in a single sitting in my old apartment in Highland Park. Recalling the memories of rooftop hangs, beach breaks in between lessons in Malibu, drives from K-Town to Brentwood on Pico, meandering drives over Mulholland and all the interesting people that I have met living in Los Angeles. It’s one of my favorite recordings from the studio due to the panning of 2 whole-song drum takes by Brendan McCusker and Marc Walloch’s bass playing with the kick up the middle.
TV of Your Mind
This is the most spacious song on the record and the second oldest. I recorded this song many ways before it became this iteration. Dan helped me find the depth and width that it deserves.
Smoother
Proof that one of my favorite songs ever is Mason Jenning’s “Same Say I’m Not” from his Boneclouds record, Smoother breaks up the common chord progressions from this collection of songs and opens up a new bag of worms.
To Forget You
We made a decision to get ‘90s when it felt true to the song and this song, pushing and pulling around the straight downbeat, is one of my favorite to sing. I watched Swiss Family Robinson so many times as a kid and I’m really happy I could use the reference to illustrate my late twenties/early thirties dating life.
Daniel
This version of “Daniel” is really a rearrangement by Dan Molad (mix) of the original way I played this song for years. My relationship with my brother, Daniel, is one of my life’s greatest joys and impressions — I’m so excited that this song is finally coming out.
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:: stream/purchase SOLO here ::
:: connect with Joh Chase here ::
Stream: ‘SOLO’ – Joh Chase
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