Find your weirdos: A sit-down with Neon Waltz’s Jordan Shearer
The frontman spoke to us about their second album, Honey Now.
Photo: Press
Last Friday marked not only the first day of autumn, but the release of Scottish indie rock band Neon Waltz’s sophomore album, Honey Now. Offering a slew of charged-up, indie rock favourites in the making, and ballads as ethereal as the group’s hometown of John O’Groats, Honey Now promises to be the underground success of the coming autumn, reflecting on themes of summertime love and uncertain visions of what the year’s yet to bring.
I sat down with frontman of Neon Waltz, Jordan Shearer, to discuss the new album. He spoke passionately about how long Honey Now has been in the making, how a global pandemic brought the now four-piece together, where they’d love to play, and how on earth they ended up jamming in Edwyn Collins’ home studio.
How does it feel to have the album out?
It doesn’t quite feel real. I’ve still not really come to terms with the fact that it’s out.
What’s the album about?
It’s not particularly about anything, really. I suppose there’s certain themes that run throughout, about loss and fear of failure, stuff like that. Lyrically, it’s quite downbeat, but I think we’re quite good at bridging between downbeat and something more upbeat.
What were your biggest inspirations when it came to writing and recording Honey Now?
There are certain bands that, especially when I write songs, I feel like a lot of the time I’m thinking, ‘how would they do it’? A band like The Walkmen, who we all love. I always feel like I’m trying to write the perfect Walkmen song. But it ends up not sounding like that, because it’s coming from my brain. That’s probably a good description for how we sound. A band from John O’Groates trying to sound like The Walkmen, but who obviously aren’t going to sound like the Walkmen because they’re from John O’Groats. [Laughs].
How long has this album been in the works?
A long time. Probably from as soon as the first album came out [2017’s Strange Hymns], because there are some songs on it that are like five years old, really. It properly stepped-up during lockdown. We were meant to go on tour in April 2020, touring the first album. We were kind of thinking, ‘why are we touring again, really? We should be thinking about the second album’. And we’d always been writing, anyway. But we hadn’t actually started pooling our ideas together, properly, preparing for a second album. Then the tour got cancelled, and we sort of went straight into putting our ideas together in a big folder. Then, when we were allowed to meet up, we all had different ideas for it. I would say the majority of the songs on the album came from that period.
Are there any songs on the new album which were outtakes from Strange Hymns?
None that were from sessions of the first album. But there are a couple that we had released after the first album, that we just kind of thought, ‘these are too good not to be on an album’. And they fit really well on the new stuff we’ve done.
How did changing from a six-piece to a four-piece and the pandemic change the dynamic of the band? Was it ever touch and go?
I wouldn’t say it was ever touch and go. It was a long time in the making, probably. I think we knew from a certain point it was going to end up just being the four of us. They’re still our best mates, the other two boys who left. They sometimes still play with us. But I think we were quite well prepared for that to happen. And when it comes to recording, one of us will fill in on bass – most of the time, it’s me – and then the keys are covered by me and Darren, the drummer.
Obviously, it has its disadvantages. Because they’re both great songwriters as well. And Liam, the keys player, was an amazing lyricist. But I feel like it’s made the four of us up our game a wee bit. In some ways, it works better because ideas are maybe slightly less diluted. We all have a pretty equal say in how we sound, and when it’s going through six different people… I mean sometimes it works out for the best, because it makes it sound completely unique when it’s been through six peoples’ brains. But, especially when it’s one of your own songs, it can sometimes get really unrecognisable from the tune that you first wrote, which can be a good and a bad thing. But, as a four-piece, we’ve just had to learn to deal with it, and it’s been fine. We’re all best mates anyway.
During the making of this album, you’ve been working with Edwyn Collins. How does that even come about?
So, he lives in a wee town called Helmsdale, which is like an hour south of where we’re from. An hour anywhere else in Britain feels like it’s far away. But for us, an hour away is nothing. Like, we have to drive about six hours to get to Glasgow. So, he lives relatively close to us.
We did a gig in Wick and him and his wife were there. He’s always been a bit of a hero of ours, and we were like, ‘fucking hell, Edwyn Collins is here’. We were speaking to him after, and we knew he had a studio in Helmsdale. I think we might have spoke to Edwyn and his wife, Grace, about maybe doing some recording. And they were totally cool. They were like, ‘just come. Stay’. They couldn’t have been more accommodating. And having Edwyn in charge of your session is pretty surreal. That was a brilliant week. We’ve kept in touch. We did a couple of gigs, two intimate gigs up north around sort of Christmas time. And he came up and sang two tunes with us. We did two of his songs. That was really cool.
Tarek Musa also helped in the production of this album. Was it a case of letting them do their thing, or did you guys get involved in that area, too?
It was all pretty collaborative, I would say. He obviously took the lead, but he’s just a great guy to work with. He kind of wants to know exactly what we want, you know? Yeah, it was a really fun experience. We were all sort of pushing for the same thing. There was no, like, egos or anything. But him and another guy, John Hucks, they kind of co-produced it, I suppose. Between the six of us, we were all pitching in with ideas.
Is there a track on Honey Now that you’re most proud of?
For me personally, it’d probably be ‘All in Good Time’, which is probably the most personal song I’ve ever written. I don’t think it’s the best song on the album. But, for me, it felt like it took balls to write that song. For it to be on the album, it still gives me the fear a wee bit. But I’m proud that it’s on it, and I’m proud of that song. It means something, you know?
The title track of the album, as well, Honey Now, that’s probably my favourite song on there. And I’m really proud of Darren for that one, because that was basically all him, with my voice just stuck on.
You decided to use mostly the demo for that song on the final album. Why is that?
It’s one of those things. The version that’s on the album is basically the demo that Darren had sent to us during lockdown, as one of his songs that was added to the pile. I remember the first time I listened to it, it fucking blew me away, you know? I think it blew everyone away. But because it’s a demo, you always have a thing in your head where, like, ‘imagine how good that’s gonna sound when it’s recorded in a proper studio’ and all that. I feel like we’ve done this a few times, where we’ve ended up using the majority of the demo stuff.
So, we just stuck my voice on it. We did loads of takes when we were in the studio and listening back, we comped it and stuff. And it was just nowhere near as good as what he did. I’d forgotten we’d used the demo vocal take as well. There was just a magic in it that you just can’t recreate.
The recording process of this album sounds so hectic! One of the pieces was recording in a storeroom during a lunch break, and some of it was done in a Scottish castle. Do you think that kind of chaos added anything to Honey Now?
It’s not quite chaotic at the time. When we recorded in the wee storeroom, it’s like the same thing I was talking about with Honey Now. We didn’t go in there thinking, ‘this’ll be an album take’. It was just to record what we thought would be a demo. And then it ends up coming out really good. We tried to re-record it in the studio, and it’s just not got the little magical ingredient that the demo had. It probably sounds more chaotic than what it was in reality. It wasn’t planned that way.
We’ve worked with a couple of different producers for this one. And the castle… we’re so used to playing in that place anyway, because we’ve practised quite a lot in there, and used to have parties in it when we were kids. So yeah, it wasn’t too chaotic, I would say.
What’s the plan next? A tour? Another album? A break?
We definitely don’t need a break now, man. [Laughs]. We’ve had a break for fucking – how long? — six years or something, it feels like. We’re going on tour in October, from the 3rd to the 12th. There’s new dates coming... We just hope to tour it quite a lot now. And we’re always writing anyway, so it’s just a case of making a big batch of tunes that we can sift through when the time comes for number three.
Is there a particular city or venue you’d love to play?
Well, it would be nice to go to America. We haven’t done stuff outside the UK, really. We’ve done a gig in Amsterdam. It would be good to just get out of the UK. But our favourite city to play is Glasgow, I would say. We’ve never headlined it, but there’s a venue called the Barrowlands [Barrowland Ballroom] in Glasgow, which is amazing. It would be nice to headline the Barrowlands.
What music inspired you when you were growing up?
The first band I remember being obsessed with were the Libertines. They kicked off when I was about ten. That was like, ‘wow’. That made me want to be in a band. And from the age of about twelve, I’ve been in bands with my mates. That opened up a whole world of… everything. That was the band that properly made me obsess about music. Decision made from that point. I’m going to be a band guy now. [Laughs].
Who would Neon Waltz collaborate with if you had the chance?
That’s a tricky one. Recently, I watched Dig!, the film about the Brian Jonestown Massacre. You should watch it, it’s unbelievable. He’d be quite a cool guy to work with – Anton Newcombe, the singer of them. That would be interesting.
What advice would you give an aspiring singer-songwriter?
Probably just do exactly what feels natural to you and not take on any pointers from anyone else, really. It’s got to be true to you, because if there’s any kind of fakeness in your music, it’s easy to spot. People will be into it, no matter how weird your vision is. There’ll be other weirdos that love it. It’s a wanky answer, but… [laughs] it’s just a case of finding them.
Honey Now is out now via Fierce Panda Records.