In the present day Jack Van Cleaf introduced the discharge of his new sophomore album, JVC, launched Might 9 by way of Dualtone Information. Planting its flag midway between the worlds of indie rock and Gen Z folks, it asks massive questions on identification, residence, and maturity. For Jack, it’s the end result of a journey that started throughout his teenage years.
“This album is all in regards to the vertigo of rising up, It’s about re-defining and re-understanding your self.”
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In the present day he launched a brand new single “Rattlesnake,” a reimagination of his personal viral hit that includes a brand new duet with buddy and fan Zach Bryan. It additionally featured each musician who had appeared on the tune’s first recording, a gaggle composed of Jack’s finest mates from school. Organising store at Electrical Girl Studios, they recorded the center of the brand new manufacturing reside, leaning into intuition and inspiration as Zach and Jack traded off traces within the spur of the second whereas co-producer Eddie Spear captured their camaraderie. Take heed to single HERE.
Watch music video directed by Ivey Redding HERE
On the monitor, Jack said, “Zach began sharing the tune on social media, then finally despatched me a DM that stated, ‘Should you ever need to file a model of this with me, I’m in!’” Jack remembers, including “Zach actually impressed me within the studio. I used to be moved by his dedication to the second and capturing one thing alive, reasonably than painstakingly pursuing perfection with limitless takes.”
Zach Bryan said on Instagram, “To develop into the most effective of mates with folks by means of music within the metropolis. Assume that could be the purpose of all this. Jack & me re-recorded top-of-the-line written songs of all time (jack is a genius) and hope u guys take heed to it.”
Jack additionally introduced an album launch present on Might 8 at The Blue Room in Nashville, TN, with assist from Emma Ogier. Tickets on sale now. For extra info and tickets HERE
Years after penning his first tune as a highschool freshman in San Diego, Jack headed east to Nashville, the place he studied songwriting at Belmont College and launched his debut album, Fruit from the Timber, after commencement. Jack skilled unprecedented early trade debut album buzz, drawing the eye of the likes of Noah Kahan, opening for him on Jack’s first ever main US tour, in addition to touring with artists from Briston Maroney to Madi Diaz. When his single “Rattlesnake” landed him a spot on Spotify’s 2024 Greatest New Artist Listing with tastemaker playlist “juniper,” it drew over 13 million streams, and one fan particularly, Zach Bryan, turned a significant champion of Jack, protecting the monitor on his social media.
This sudden success induced an intense interval of self doubt in Jack, “I used to be shell-shocked,” he remembers. “I’d spent my complete life being informed what to do each single day, and I at all times dreamed about rising as much as be my very own boss. Then commencement got here, and I obtained what I wished… however I spotted I had no concept the best way to perform on a day-to-day foundation.“
He regrouped and retreated to his songwriting, and located solace in creating music in far-flung places like Joshua Tree and the Texas/Mexico border, the place he and producer Alberto Sewald (Katy Kirby, Sierra Hull) created this exceptional physique of labor. These geographic selections had been deliberate, their landscapes evoking the religious barrenness of Jack’s lyrics. “I felt like I used to be staring into an emotional desert after I wrote these songs, experiencing this sense of desolation round me and on the lookout for little indicators of life,” he explains.
JVC TRACKLIST
Life
Off to the Races
Piñata
Nonetheless
Rattlesnake (feat. Zach Bryan)
Utilizing You
Go Residence, Danny
Shouldn’t Have Gone to L.A.
Thinkin’ About It
Inexperienced
Teenage Vampire (feat. Gatlin)
Smoker
Hikikomori
Sofa Potato
Alongside all star collaborations with established stars like Zach Bryan and Gatlin — who options on seize-the-day anthem “Teenage Vampire” — the album additionally options his closest mates, Austin Burns, Ethan Fortenberry, Hunt Pennington, Adam Carpenter, Nathan Cimino, and Aaron Krak – plus Annika Bennett and Heaven Schmitt (aka Grumpy) who contribute background vocals – whom he met throughout his time at Belmont College and stay a part of his closest inventive circle.
Earlier Jack’s confessional and cathartic folks songs have garnered comparability to sparse verses of Nathaniel Rateliff and Gregory Alan Isakov and the directness of Kris Kristofferson and Leonard Cohen. On JVC, Jack takes one other strategy, specializing in blurring the dividing traces between acoustic singer-songwriter and electrified indie music. The result’s an expansive sound, sparse one minute and grungy the following, dreamt up by an artist who’s by no means been afraid to write down songs that shine a light-weight on his personal challenges.
A sharply-written file that measures the lengthy, winding street from previous to current, deftly capturing the vertigo of early maturity, drawing on his personal struggles together with his post-college success and disorientation that adopted. Songs like “Inexperienced” is a climate-conscious tune whose indie rock pop hooks heighten the tune’s activist chunk and moody acoustic rocker “Shouldn’t Have Gone to L.A.” discover Jack in transit, caught between places with no clear anchor. His songs draw on deeply private experiences together with a relentless evolving strategy to faith and the emotional gravity of younger maturity to its full.
With JVC, Jack Van Cleaf turns private expertise into one thing common: a soundtrack to the years all of us spend in existential free-fall, and whereas he finds gravity within the chaos, he has additionally made an album set to determine him as one of many largest breakout singer-songwriters of his technology.
