Let Brothertiger Be Your Guide On The Journey To Living A Life Of Authenticity In ‘Paradise Lost’

John Jagos of Brothertiger; photo credit: Alec Castillo

“I don’t think there was a specific moment,” explained Brothertiger mastermind John Jagos late into our recent phone call discussing the ethos of his latest album, “It’s just something I think about all the time.” Paradise Lost is yet another album serendipitously ripe for the reflective picking that has been delivered to us in quarantine. Although the album wrapped long before lockdown, I’m not sure there’s ever been a moment in the history of humankind where someone isn’t struggling with feeling confident in the defiant decision that’s made daily to live the most authentic version of one’s life. An act which, specifically here in America, is often frowned upon for not falling in line with the toxicity that is American Individualism, when it should instead be lovingly lauded. Jagos has frequently found himself triggered to address this phenomenon in both his everyday life in addition to his time in New York City specifically collaborating with other artists. “I think there is external pressure from just, you know, movies, TV, and just everyday life all around you. It’s just kind of, ‘This is where you should be in your life. This is what you should be doing,’” he detailed. “I feel like I see it all the time. I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of people who I’ve worked with [...] who are very passionate about something yet they can’t really indulge in it because they have to do their *real job*.”

There are moments in Paradise Lost where I find myself convinced that Jagos is indulging enough for all of us, perhaps as a way to showcase a paradise we can all find within ourselves. An album that, in my impassioned albeit humble opinion, encapsulates the essence of retreating to nature for restorative means from start to finish. Opening with “Found”, featuring field recordings of birds chirping atop a bed of gently bubbling synths within the first few seconds, it blatantly signals while gently easing listeners into the flourishing and soothing soundscapes that are about to bless their ears for the next 46 minutes. “I’ve tended to lean more towards synth sounds that are a bit more like natural sounding [...],” he noted. “You know, they sound like a synthesizer but they don't sound super processed. I like when they have errors or kind of mistakes in them.” He adds, “[...] I tend to use a lot of analog synthesizers because you’re not gonna get the same exact sound out of it every time you turn it on because the analog circuitry just kind of allows for there to be randomness in a way. [...] I think with that a lot of the sounds for this album kind of were a bit more, earthy and natural in the sense that they were a bit more loose [...]. Loose to the grid. Loose to tuning. Just like loose to the constrictions of a song made a computer.”

While most of his previous material has been loosely based on friends or other people’s experiences, Paradise Lost comes from a very personal place. He recounted, “For this [album] I really was thinking a lot about where I wanna be and what I wanna be doing. Just about like being a young person and the expectations that you’re kind of expected to fulfill.” Carefully choosing his words, he volunteered the additional heartfelt observation, 

“A lot of friends, acquaintances, and family members, they all kind of just like follow a prescribed sort of path. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure and assumption that everyone kind of follows that path. I certainly haven’t because I’ve been pursuing music and my girlfriend’s an actor and she hasn’t been following that path either. [...] I just feel like it’s a stigma that is a part of our society that isn’t really... cool *laughs*.”

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure and assumption that everyone kind of follows that path. I certainly haven’t.”

— Brothertiger

With that observation in mind, it should come as no surprise how intentional Jagos is with his messaging throughout the album, making sure to convey that no one has to navigate the complexities of finding the paradise within themselves all on their own. When you are ready to shed the stigma for yourself, he is ready to guide you on this introspective journey as the album drifts on to, “Mainsail”, where he doesn’t shy away from admitting that although even he himself feels lost at times making his way through this thing we call life, that the best way to get through those moments is to embrace those feelings head on, sailing into the tidal break instead of waiting for still waters. In the event you ever realize you’ve gone off course, he’s included a metaphorical north star in the form of the album’s lead single, “Livin’”, featuring a makeshift response for listeners to lean on as a morale boost when shedding external criticism: “I’m living my own life. I don’t care how I get mine. I’m living my own life”. All the more determined, he adds: “I keep my eyes to the sky like anyone else. I keep my nose to the grindstone workin’ myself. I put my hands to the fire and swallow my pride. I keep my deepest desires on an anchor line.” 

For the duration of the album you’ll find his eagerness to guide you on your own personal journey shimmering its through on tracks like, “Shelter Cove” (follow down to the river bend, I know the way), even if for whatever reason you were unable to reciprocate the same level of effort as heard on “Cannonball” (I know that I would reach for you. Would you reach for me? [...] I go my own way. Are you with me?). As with any first-class guide, getting you to your destination is a meaningful purpose to him and with songs like “My Canopy” he reminds you that he takes it to heart, perhaps occasionally a bit too much so, in the moments you abandon ship along the way (How could you go away? How could you end me? How could you fall away into the night? I can recover then. I can be anything. I can be anyone that you'd like). One of the most admirable things about approaching this subject matter is how he is vulnerable enough to admit in a song like, “Checking Out” that this quest you’re on together is actually less about the destination and more about the journey, which is ever evolving and requires a commitment to routinely reevaluating the course as a way to ensure it’s still serving its intended purpose (Do I wanna lay an anchor oceanside? Or drift about the open sea?). As always, it’s absolutely your call what you want to do, but he gives you permission to use any hesitations as a moment to steer back on track in the event you’ve wandered off. 

My personal favorite moment in this record is “Pyre”, a swift and very brief switch from mostly water based imagery to pure fire. Given the subject matter of the pair of tracks, it’s fairly obvious to a fellow transplant that they’re about his time living in Brooklyn pursuing a career in music. During our chat he shared the story of his first show in the city in 2010 at the now defunct but well renowned Glasslands Gallery, a place where many SKOA favorites graced with their presence. While he was still a college student in southern Ohio (his home state), upon being given the opportunity to perform at the space, drove 10 hours with the assistance of his girlfriend to the city the night before, performed, and then drove back to campus immediately after the show. As we reminisced about the music blogger boom of that era (which this very site was born during), I found it both admirable albeit a bit confusing to hear that in spite of such a story that he wasn’t convinced that he would have been able to see the same amount of success in his career if he had started his attempt further along in his life. Although his hesitancy is valid given how the evolution of music consumption since those days has resulted in a lot of noise with very little signal to elevate lesser known artists as effectively as blogs did back then, I find it hard to believe that someone so determined to transform himself into the kind of artist that wouldn’t be ignored in a metropolitan area as overwhelming greater New York that he envisions it literally engulfing him in flames in the process was ever going to fall by the wayside. 

I will say this, it was cathartic as fuck to convene for even a few moments of the conversation about our respective longevity in the city and confide in each other that while it’s a possibility that New York might not be our “forever home”, that it doesn’t strip of us of our title of being “real New Yorkers”, a title that people raised here love to weaponize, especially now during the current mass exodus brought on by the pandemic. We were in agreement that it’s more of a state of mind versus the amount of time your body has been within city limits. He shared, “I have a connection to the city. [...] I came here. I struggled and starved at the beginning[...]. I wanted to prove that I could make it work and you know, cultivate something. And I did! So for that, I feel like New York is a state of mind that I can take with me.” Since I went out of my way to double check with him then, I feel like I should make it clear for both of us now: neither Paradise Lost or what you’re reading right now should be interpreted as our own personal, “Why I’m Leaving New York” essays, but from the sounds of things we are both keeping our options open. “I don’t want to be in one place,” he said. “Especially while I’m young. This was a great place for me to be in my 20s and now I’m 30 so you know...time to go! *laughs*” 

“I have a connection to the city. [...] I came here. I struggled and starved at the beginning[...]. I wanted to prove that I could make it work and you know, cultivate something. And I did! So for that, I feel like New York is a state of mind that I can take with me.”

— Brothertiger

Of all the things I’ve come to treasure about Paradise Lost since my first taste, the thoughtful little details that extend beyond the way he wields a warbling synth are definitely some of my favorites. Unbeknownst to most, Jagos has been featuring his father’s oil based paintings as the artwork for his most recent bodies of work, including for Paradise Lost and its accompanying singles, “Livin’”, “Shelter Cove”, and title track. 

As he detailed, 

“[The album artwork is] a painting my dad did back in the 80s. [...] I've always really liked the painting because it's like it's kind of dark and brooding in a way. Him and I have always been…. like we work in a similar way. [...] He recalls events of his past in a way in his paintings, but he also paints his dreams and things like that. I’ve just always had a connection to his artwork [...]. This record was, I feel, very west coast [...]. A lot of these paintings he did when he was living in Santa Barbara, so that’s another thing why it just makes sense. A lot of these paintings are kind of scenes of places I was thinking of in my mind when I was writing. So it kind of just worked out perfectly.”

As much as I was admittedly a little jealous to learn the extent to which his passion was supported by his family, I definitely have to give the man props for not only being able to recognize how beautiful and rare that is at present, and what he chose to do with that perspective in terms of how I assume it informed this record as a result. “Luckily my family’s extremely supportive of what I do,” he said. “I didn’t get any pressure from my family like my parents being like, ‘Okay well like you know you’re doing this it’s great but maybe you should like consider like you know A REAL JOB’ *laughs* stuff like that. They never did that and they still are super supportive of me. [...] I had friends who wanted to do something and their parents were like, ‘Well you’re going to get a business degree.’ It’s just like... it sucks.”

Rounding out the record with the title track, Jagos reinforces how important it is that we all venture out on this journey to becoming the most authentic version of ourselves. He recognizes that although our respective quests may begin during various points in our lives and take us to a variety of places along the way (You and I move through life on a different route. Comes down to the paths we pursue.), that the mere act of chasing the destination will always be what makes life worth living regardless of how long we’re at it (Realize that it takes time to see things through What’s the point of living high without a view?). Although obviously championing how deeply transformative this kind of kind of inner work can be on a person, he is still very adamant that “paradise” is just as much a state of mind as being a New Yorker is, as he clarified,

 “No matter where you live, like anywhere, it’s never going to be *the perfect place*. There’s going to be problems with it. [...] Actual paradise I don’t think *exists* on this earth. But it’s fine. It’s totally okay to accept that. It’s kind of like a call to accept some things for the way they are. And that’s like a personal call for myself[...] If you can take the place where you are, the place where you were, and think of it like a learning experience or think of it as a place where you’re cultivating something then it becomes a sort of paradise for you in terms of like... this is like the only life you have. So it’s like, you know, you shouldn’t think of things as mistakes, just more of learning experiences.”

Paradise Lost is out now courtesy of Satanic Panic Recordings.

[RANT] Finding My Algorhythm

Today I’m happy to report that, somehow in the midst of a global fucking pandemic that I’ve managed to find myself in probably the best mental health state of my life. As much as quarantine has been a nuisance because of being so isolated, it has really allowed me to thoughtfully reflect on things I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to address. Throughout this period of healing, I’ve really come to treasure how my whacky, overworked brain, and big ass heart both truly eat, sleep, and breathe music every second of my day.

I'm not sure how many people who write about music can also say they have not only worked in music but that they’ve worn as many hats as I have while working in music. Since moving to NYC I’ve worked in music publishing and at labels (in both marketing and radio). I’ve been an artist manager. I’ve even been a tour manager. In addition to working in music, I’ve also had the opportunity to work in advertising with Fortune 500 brands doing social media. I am realizing more and more that my unique perspective gained from all of these experiences is probably a lot more useful than I had initially thought.

As I float around the internet I observe a lot. For example, I make it a point to take note in which bands cluster together. I also do really nerdy, data driven things like cross-reference number of streams, monthly listeners, and social media following in order to gauge where in their career an artist is likely at, based on my personal experiences with monitoring those numbers for the artists I worked with. While it’s not entirely how I decide who gets covered in this space, it certainly helps me navigate the complexities of attempting to lend the level of support any particular artist may need.

In the past few months, a data point that I have found myself increasingly more fixated on is the impact of the playlists that listeners are discovering these artists through. Furthermore, who is behind these playlists that are helping to drive the larger numbers. 

Are you surprised to hear that normally if 5 out of 5 of the displayed playlists are all owned by Spotify, that their monthly listeners, followers, and streams  are often exponentially larger?

Didn't think so lol. 

As someone who quite often romanticizes The Algorithm™ but keeps a watchful eye on Spotify, in the past few years I’ve become more aware of their editorial playlisting and its increasingly alarming impact on music, specifically from a community standpoint. I genuinely don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but Especially In the midst of a pandemic, observing bands of all shapes and sizes tripping over themselves to laud streaming platforms (but let’s be honest it’s mostly Spotify) for chucking one of their songs on a playlist so as to stay in their good graces is just…. well, it’s just as weird as it is just really fucking depressing. 

This is all while knowing full well that touring off the table for the foreseeable future. Thus it  makes sense that everyone is collectively scrambling to stay afloat. That said, something about witnessing this just makes the future look so…. bleak. I know these kinds of shoutouts are fairly standard for the industry for other formats. For example, it definitely makes more sense to shout out a radio DJ. The space on the airwaves is limited and there’s a lot of vetting that is involved to take a chance playing an artist on the radio. Something like this I think a DJ is more than entitled to being acknowledged for their efforts. 

But with playlists, especially with how limitless they seem to be, are they really generating enough value? It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that I’ve made a fuckload of playlists in my time on this planet so far. I can tell you that once you get the hang of how you want them to flow that they can be assembled fairly quickly and easily. For these platforms to do this it is not a lot of *work* to throw a metaphorical bone to a band by chucking a track into one of the probably thousands of editorial playlists that exist. To be sure, I am not discounting the overall taste or attentiveness to details of making a good mix, I just know that in-tools like Truffle Pig exist (which I imagine by now they have integrated into the tool they use for playlisting submissions). I am saying that there is no scarcity to the number of playlists in the way that there is obvious scarcity in the example of an artist attempting to get radio play. 

The thing that is concerning me the most these days is - what happens after that song hits a playlist? With the sheer volume of genres and mood-related playlists that Spotify’s editorial team can crank out all while knowing that there are algorithms at play tweaking a good number of these to keep you on the platform consuming and accumulate more data for either them to monetize like they apparently do with data on our moods (ps labels have been using Spotify to gather data on us, too). If I give Apple Music shit for being more concerned with being in the device business and Google the data business instead of solely the music business, then I really  simply can’t ignore the very blatant move on Spotify’s part to be more in the audio streaming business than the music business. I know there are a lot of factors at play here and I’m not tryna have a heated debate right now about streaming royalties because FUCK ME that all is so messy, political and honestly out of my jurisdiction (not to mention Mark Mulligan already has some meaningful thoughts on all that anyway).

For this moment I’d mostly just like to pose the following questions:

Is essentially ⚡️being paid in exposure⚡️ from Spotify’s editorial team actually impactful enough for musicians?

Especially right now, is scrapping for a shot at their reach actually worth it in terms of fan conversion? How does quality vs. quantity come into play here? Additionally, in the wake of how clear it’s become that the music community as a whole has some major cleaning up to do to be a truly inclusive and safe space - are we sure this approach to artist discovery is being mindful enough of that?

Look, I know it’s not the job of the massive industry gatekeepers to both exhaustively investigate and nudge every artist they’ve ever given the time of day to a certain level of success every single step of the way. I also know obviously that individual fans should be doing their own level of due diligence as both consumers and community members upon discovering a new favorite artist. But here’s another question to ask - are the majority of Spotify’s users aware of things like the massive housecleaning of sexual predators underway in the industry right now? If so - where are they learning about this and is it always after the fact and not an opportunity to dodge a predatory bullet? 

Meanwhile, it’s no secret that the state of music journalism is just as disheartening to be a part of. Even before the pandemic hit we all helplessly witnessed massive layoffs at a plethora of publications, including but not limited to music. In addition to the majority of the sites that were crucial for discovery during the Music Blogging Boom drying up, we’re now watching some of the most brilliant critical minds in our community pivoting to personal newsletters while they’re unemployed as a means to contribute to the community while also maintaining credibility. As much as I find this to be deeply admirable, I’m just as concerned with how this will play out in the long term as I am with the gap that I feel is widening between an artist’s initial exposure and career longevity.

So….

….. why the fuck am I saying all of this? 🤔

Well for one, I feel like if I didn’t air the above concerns that I wouldn’t be true to myself or to the community I have loved and lived to serve for the majority of my life. More importantly, and it makes me really uncomfortable to be this vulnerable, I’d like to use this opportunity while I have your attention to acknowledge that for the past few years I’ve struggled a lot with knowing how best to contribute to an industry that honestly has made me feel like I was no longer needed while simultaneously having a slew of strangers begging me to devour an onslaught of music both inside and out of my blogger inbox, form quality rapid-fire reviews,  promote, and maintain relationships with either publicists or artists directly.

Y’all, it’s really fucking hard being essentially an editorial staff of one, especially when your standards for artist coverage goes beyond mostly regurgitating the contents of a press release.  Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult to not let my frustrations of not being respected as such get in the way of wanting to do right by the artists that come into my life in the variety of serendipitous ways they do. I mean fuck, within the confines of my inbox specifically, I am expected to respond to pitches from folks who either have clearly never even looked on my website based on what they send alongside the (let’s be honest) an unnecessary number of frantic follow up emails I get from familiar faces in hopes of coverage. A reminder that, although I am often presumptively pressured to deliver the same output that this specific editorial staff of one is not doing this full time nor am I being compensated for this work. It has taken me literally everything in my being not to rage quit altogether. To be clear, THIS IS ME ✨NOT✨ RAGE QUITTING. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

I guess this is all to say, if not for the sheer fact that I derive so much joy in sharing music, that I would have stopped throwing money at GoDaddy and Squarespace a long time ago. In my lifetime I’ve found sharing music to be the thing that has allowed me to best articulate my inner world to other people as a means to connect. Even before SKOA, the deep connections I made through music were personally transformative. Still, being afforded this platform has brought people into my life that mean so much to me that I’m in tears at the thought of a life without them. This is my way of making sure it’s known that I intend to continue to honor what music has done for me by doing the work and figuring out in real-time alongside all of you how to best foster a rich community of people who intend to help elevate and champion stories of musicians from various walks of life. I hope to fill in the gaps between that first dopamine hit from a song that grabs you to the second we get back to shows, whenever that may be. With (ugh) no end in sight to quarantine I really have nothing to lose here other than maybe money that could have been spent on records instead of overheard site costs. That said,  If you’re up to indulge me in this endeavor and show support, I’ve created a Patreon which I am open to tweaking to make sure the energy exchange is sufficient. In the meantime, as I find my algorhythm here, please know that I am open to feedback to what you think would be helpful or cool to be a part of.

In the meantime, because it wouldn’t be an update from me without music, please enjoy a collection of a fraction of the songs that helped me get to where we are now.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Brothertiger - "Livin'"

photo credit: Alec Castillo

Today I’m delighted to share the news that one of Brooklyn’s finest, Brothertiger (born John Jagos), will be releasing another album in this hellscape of a year. The aptly titled Paradise Lost is slated for a September 11th, 2020 release courtesy of Satanic Panic. Following up last month’s Fundamentals Vol 1, an album of lush instrumentals, Paradise Lost, explores the shifting nature of one’s expectations, which given the state of *gestures wildly* everything happening around us right now, this record will be the definitive soundtrack to Redefining Your Post-Pandem Life.

Our first taste of Paradise Lost, “Livin’”, is quick to get to a key element in managing one’s expectations, which is to give yourself permission to revel in the power of your own decision making instead of crumbling under the pressure of external forces. “There’s always underlying pressure to be achieving certain life goals at certain ages,” explains Jagos. “The song is about doing your own thing and not worrying about how other people think you’re living your life.”

Paradise Lost is available for pre-order now. Tell you what, that marbled purple vinyl is lookin’ pretty lovely right about now.

Paradise Lost

Release Date: September 11, 2020

1. Found
2. Mainsail
3.Shelter Cove
4. Livin’
5. Cannonball
6. My Canopy
7. Swing
8. Checking Out
9. Pyre
10. Paradise Lost

Pre-Order

[SONG OF THE DAY] Summer Heart - "Buckle Up"

Summer Heart @ Knitting Factory on February 21, 2019. credit for all photos in this post: William Helms, The Joy of Violent Movement

On Thursday night Brooklyn got some much needed summer sunshine when Swedish sweetie Summer Heart kicked off his east coast tour with analog animal Brothertiger. He kicked off the night with my gateway drug to the world of Summer Heart, “Pretty Haze”, rounding out the night with his latest track (and last song of the #12songsofsummer series), “Buckle Up”. It was a packed crowd full of people who were dancing like it hadn’t snowed earlier in the week, additional layers be damned. With this being my first time catching him, I had hypothesized that there would be mainly two types of attendees at a Summer Heart show and I totally nailed it: there are folks who 1)- happily dance and sway basically the whole time and 2) - those who choose to stand on the sides of the stage, head in their hands while resting their elbows on the stage, who just swoon and sing along in their own version of a pretty haze.

Side note: if there were an award for Musician With The Most Infectious Smile the dude David Alexander would win all day every day. His joy performing is infectious, making the whole experience even more enjoyable than you thought it could be.

East coast fam def don’t miss this tour. Dates below for your convenience. 💖

SUMMER HEART ON TOUR WITH BROTHER TIGER

Feb 23 Norfolk, VA - Charlie's American Café

Feb 24 Greenville, SC - Radio Room

Feb 26 Atlanta, GA - 529 bar

Feb 27 New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa

Feb 28 Houston, TX - Continental Club

March 1 Austin, TX - Barracuda

March 2 Dallas, TX - RBC

March 3 Tulsa, OK - Chimera Lounge

March 5 Kansas City, MO - Riot Room

March 6 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen

March 7 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop

March 8 Columbus, OH - Spacebar

March 9 Pittsburgh, PA - Cattivo

March 10 Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA