PREMIERE | Joh Chase, "Gone"
The dreams, drive and journeys of Joh Chase; photographed by Shervin Lainez.
In the cosmic twilight of winter we witness the shifts of the worlds and the elusive sparkle and light that signals the sea change of the seasons. It is a time of shared experiences, as we all contend with the collective cold and the elements that impact our daily lives as we respond individually to the things that inspire warmth and sincerity. Despite the deluges of rain, atmospheric rivers, snow and sleet we connect to the people and things that give a sense of refreshing renewal that radiate genuine regeneration. While the universe continues its trajectories of change we focus on how we change, how our perspectives change, how our bodies change, desires change, connections change, leaning into the time honored wisdom that nothing is static and that we live in states of constant rebirth.
The gospel according to Los Angeles by way of Seattle artist Joh Chase is the fantastic devotion to the edification of the self with the world debut of “Gone”. The ecstatic opener to the hotly anticipated new album SOLO for Kill Rock Stars, Chase follows up the recent heartland rumble of “Avalanche” with a personal ode to letting go of the trappings that no longer serve or suit you. Having been brought up in evangelical congregations where they began the development of their musical chops, Joh’s journey charts the pathways from leaving the church to find their own calling and place within the myriad clusters of cultural constellations. SOLO is the sound of a wide-eyed dreamer finding their visions manifesting in the material, terrestrial plane. Joh presents the aura of unity in a world that is broken, increasingly divided and presents songs that are fashioned to the tune of home. A place of one’s own. Joh Chase specializes in the statements of sound that are committed to building bridges, paths of friendship, roads of belonging amid a country of obstacles, barriers and prohibitive walls.
The gift of “Gone” from Joh Chase shines bright as an unbridled ode to the elevated, existential ascent and metamorphosis of the spirit and self. A full throttled embrace and abandon into the unknown, a plunge into the uncharted waters and terrain like a trust fall into the night of limitless fog and limited light where who knows what changes will arrive with the greeting of the sleepy new dawn. Chase strums each chord with such power of purpose, each emotive utterance executed with absolute intent, a song that takes the audience along for the adventure. Joh draws pop pictures of the boulevards we walk, what things we lose, what things we gain, what truths we glean and what truths we find to be false. “Gone” is a runaway romp that rages through the City of Angels, observing the things that are shed, the people and things that are left behind while celebrating with a fiery and spectacular frenzy all that is found and gained in exchange. Joh gives the world a triumphant testimonial to finding themselves and their communities while saying goodbye to everything that is swept up in the wild of the winds, and sent upstream in the rivers of life.
The visuals from Wren Warner stylizes "Gone" with some lavish LA art house flair. Joh Chase rocks a shoulder length blonde wig, showcasing a host of inspired window calisthenics, interpretive dance moves in the garden, to singing and soaking in the bathtub while stylized in a grey azure suit. Chase's song of celebrating change is complimented with visuals that exude an energy of eternal growth and embodiment of pure actualization unbound, unleashed and untethered by anything and everything.
Joh Chase provided some exclusive, thoughtful and expansive insights on the new single “Gone”, the making of the album SOLO and so much more:
J’adore Joh Chase; photographed by Shevrin Lainez.
After stumbling into Old Style Guitar shop in Silverlake, my friend Claire fronted the $500 purchase of this beautiful 1910 era Kay guitar with a 70s style humbucker and flat wound strings. I had been recording and performing with a Gibson songwriter for years — its sound was huge and took up space all over the EQ meter. My voice was always fighting for it. Thanks to the new-to-me Kay, my voice was free to take up all the space about the mid range of the thuddy and muddy grit of its accompanist. I took that guitar up to Bothell, WA to my parents house. I plugged it into my older sister’s boombox from the late 90s and shoved it under the 4 steps in the corner of a quirky tiny home my brother and dad constructed. I’ve now had many writers retreats to this little tiny home/studio in Bothell, but this was my first. Back in 2015 or 2016. My hometown friend lent me a SM58 Beta for my vocals and I put a little SM57 on the boombox. I recorded an EP that I toured with. I had named it Solo A.
One of those songs was a mellow version of “Gone”. You can hear a plane pass overhead in the recording. I went to work mixing it myself, playing with the room and reverb. It was the beginning sounds of SOLO. The beginning of me centering my voice over simple chords with words that coagulated into my exact existence over the course of a couple draft writes.
In his studio (Pasadena) in 2019, George Weiderkehr, a fellow Washingtonian from King County, put the Kay guitar through his mid 20th century Marshall stack, relayed the mysticism of the original Marshall paper speaker cones and having told me the history of his French Studer which was used by the Vienna Philharmonic for 30 years before George and his brother bought it, I was ready to download some rock & roll into the machine. I had rehearsed plenty with Brendan McCustker and Marc Walloch and we recorded live simultaneously and fed everything through a 1960s 3M tape machine before printing the files for Dan Molad to mix. The whole thing was soaking in rock & roll folklore and I was bringing my favorite songs to life. After my last LP, I knew I needed a bigger budget to get what I really wanted, so I had crowd funded for the record and was able to afford people who I consider very talented and kind.
Privy streams of thoughts with Joh Chase; photographed by Shervin Lainez.
I took voice lessons from an opera singer and a jazz singer and understood more about what I could do and what I wanted to do with my voice.
Dan Molad found a way to make the crescendo of “Gone” true to that original, live simultaneous recording. It slams. The song pulls at both sides of the knot, creating that dynamic tension between my vocal performance and the band going to town on the last 12 bars of the song.
The band gifted me beautiful parts. George Weiderkehr gifted me absolute and mystic purity of sound in the original recordings. Dan Molad mixed the songs to show their power and the heart of my voice. And I got to allow myself the gift of receiving all of that for very deserving songs that will hopefully help people know what they mean or what they feel.
Lastly, I have been a songwriter since I was a kid and though the church wasn’t a place that I could grow in, it provided me access to many hours of music making, performing and recording in my early years. My praxis for songwriting starts with good films. Good documentaries. Unsystematically inhaling poetry. Writing three pages of free-write every morning before I do anything. Being a part of communities of my own that have nothing to do with music as well as communing with loving fellows inside the music world. I don’t let lyrics be shitty, as much as I can. And I make music because it is my craft, my channel and my delight.
“Gone” arrives February 22 via Kill Rock Stars. Pre-save available here.
Joh Chase’s album SOLO arrives April 26 via Kill Rock Stars.