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Young Jesus announces new album, shares single “Ocean” ft. Tomberlin

Shepherd Head is out on September 16.

August 03, 2022

Young Jesus has risen with a new LP on the way: Shepherd Head, out on Saddle Creek on September 16. But this time, instead of being a record with a full band, the album has frontman John Rossiter going solo.

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This record is said to be a "dramatic departure for the band, delving deeper into the themes that have always fascinated Rossiter—love, loss, and God—approached in a completely new direction." The recording process was also different, with Rossiter working on Shepherd Head for years, recording it on GarageBand with an SM57 microphone instead of heading to the studio. He also takes a more experimental approach, piecing together parts of songs from voice memos and sounds from the street.

"I would pitch things down an octave and add strange reverb,” says Rossiter. "If a dog barked, I would isolate it and make it part of a beat. I recorded a voice singing on the street just walking by a storefront and auto-tuned it. Some guitar parts are just mistakes from voice memos that I chopped, stitched, and looped. I used sounds of rivers, people walking, friends talking. It was a lot of fun. I didn’t care about the fidelity of the recording. Whatever wanted to be in came in."

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With the announcement of the LP, Young Jesus shared the stunning lead single, "Ocean," featuring vocals from Tomberlin. Listen to it below.