TC: So you sit down to write this new Del Water Gap record–what’s going through your mind? After all that development in your musical life, what do you decide to explore?
HJ: Well I was starting a new relationship and falling in love while falling out of love with someone else, and that was both sad and exciting. I was also coming of age outside of college, and learning how to support myself, which was an interesting process. A few of the songs are about that. Coming back to reality in the middle of the day alone in my apartment, having people move away, having friends get sick…
TC: An analysis of early post-college adult life?
HJ: Yeah, you know, feeling sad but hopeful.
TC: Is there a new sound you experimented with for this record?
HJ: It’s a little more minimal, and less rock. It’s a little more laid back, influenced by a lot of the new indie music that’s come out over the last few years. A lot of the really important, culture-shifting music. The Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus’s of the world. Really trying to produce thoughtfully arranged guitar music.
TC: I know that, working with a label, there can be a long time between recording an album and its release. Now that the new record is coming out, and you’ve had time to process it outside of the excitement of producing it, what have you learned from it?
HJ: The main thing I’ve learned is that I need to let go a little better. You can spend years obsessing over a song–I have trouble with perfectionism. I’m not a perfectionist, I think that’s the wrong word…
TC: You just appreciate perfection…
HJ: I appreciate perfection, (Laughs) yeah. And I think I’m missing this clean vision that some of my peers have of just knowing when something is right for them. I’m still discovering what that means and feels like. I would like to start working with people again to try and get out of that vacuum. I spend a lot of time working in a very negative headspace and sprinting towards the finish line–which is a necessary part of any process–but I want to try and bring the ratio up on the side of enjoyment and creativity.
“I mean, ultimately that’s the dream, right? To make something meaningful, but also have it change your life.”
TC: Do you know what you’re looking forward to with future collaborators?
HJ: Optimism (Laughs). I think I need cheerful energy, patience, and respect. The same thing everybody else wants. Someone that’s able to see that there’s a point to all this craziness we put ourselves through would be helpful, ‘cause there’s a lot of cynicism in a lot of young musicians. I definitely fall on the cynical side.
TC: What sparks creativity in individuals is so varied.
HJ: It really is, yeah. And I think it’s an interesting thing to start asking people, why? Like, why are they motivated artistically or creatively? Why make the sacrifices that one makes to pursue an artistic life?
TC: That seems like something that can get lost in the conversation about making art or music. I feel like we’ve gotten so comfortable with blasé answers to that question, that people just blow it off.
HJ: I think the really common and somewhat unfortunate answer is often along the lines of “I want to play big shows.” Or “I want to be as big as the 1975.” A simple want of fame is an unfortunate answer, but also it’s hard to not have that be the primary answer, right? Especially when you’re young. Wanting what someone else has. Or the trappings of it. Although think it really hard to go though what you have to put yourself through to achieve the trappings unless something else is pushing you.
TC: Something that’s truly driving underneath the want of fame.
HJ: Yeah. Or maybe you just get really lucky. Want the thing, then get it. But for most people, you do need to find the seed.
TC: Some of my favorite artists have found a way to toe this line between doing things big, but also having something to say. I feel like it’s hard to both have something to say and make it big, but if you do, it’s immediately respected.
HJ: Absolutely, I completely agree. Completely agree.
TC: Hopefully you can find yourself at that point someday (Laughs).
HJ: I mean, ultimately that’s the dream, right? To make something meaningful, but also have it change your life.
TC: So now that the records out, what are your expectations for it post-release?
HJ: Trying not to have any. I hope that people will find it, and that it will find people. I hope to tour. I want the record to be a space for me to make other content like video, which I’ve already started the process of making. I hope people who already know my music will like it, and I hope that it opens up a potential for new relationships, you know? And I hope that once the record’s out, I’ll get some clarity on what I want to do next creatively.
TC: I think you’re heading in that direction. If you keep pushing forward and exploring your own journey through life with your art, you just keep creating more and mo re things that resonate with listeners trying to explore themselves. Congrats on the record. It sounds really great. You titled the album “Don’t Get Dark,” where does that name come from?
HJ: It’s something that the guys in that boy band I mentioned used to say to me before we would leave each other. One lived in Massachusetts, one in New Jersey, and I lived here, so we would all travel quite a bit to see each other. That was always the sign-off. “Don’t get dark! Stay light about all this.” Because we were all scared, you know? I was catering, the one from Jersey was assisting in a studio, the kid in Massachusetts was finishing college because he spent two years touring with a band that fell apart. We were all in interesting spots in our life. So when I was trying to think of what to call the record, I couldn’t think of anything. A friend of mine said “you already know what the record is called, you just haven’t found it yet, but you know what it should be.” I was working on the music the next day and looked down at where I had taken a label maker and labeled my interface with my name, number, and the phrase “Don’t Get Dark” to remind myself of that when making music. I saw that and said to myself “that’s the name of the record.”
TC: And done!
HJ: (Laughs) That's that!