In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up & coming stars on the planet.   

This time we investigate the wonderfully assured yet haunting songwriting of Idaho-born, LA-based troubadour Jens Kuross.

Having studied Jazz drumming at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and toured as part of RY X’s band (in addition to ancillary outfits Howling and The Acid), 2016 saw Kuross embark upon his own sonic venture, trickling out ghostly hymns of internal conflict via Brixton’s Aesop Records (also responsible for the rise of such luminaries as TĀLĀ, SOHN and Klyne).

An eponymous debut EP set the stage, showcasing Kuross’ natural talent for timeless songwriting alongside his truly beguiling vocal palette, and featured the warm yet deeply melancholic lead single ‘Steadier’. However, it is on recent single ‘We Will Run’, with its sublime B-side ‘Eclipse Apollo’, that Kuross truly comes into his own.

The ‘We Will Run’ single is a strikingly stripped back affair, almost to the point of austerity, fostering a stark, rugged form of balladry, and an intensely intimate listen. Indeed, as Kuross has claimed before, perhaps “it takes a little ugliness to make something truly beautiful".

We had the great pleasure of catching up with Kuross and here’s what he had to say…

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TMR: Your immensely wry Twitter and Instagram accounts suggest you are the “last of a dying breed”. What is the breed that you feel is dying?

Jens Kuross: I don't think I'm so sanctimonious as to take that label seriously. I'm probably not the last of anything. Although I do get the impression that there is a shortage of quality song-writers these days. Not producers, not top-line writers, not beat-makers, not someone who sits at a laptop all day and massages the perfect tone out of some 808 samples, just good, honest, song-writers with a decent understanding of harmony and lyrical subtlety. Those seem to be a rare breed. Wait, maybe I am that sanctimonious.

TMR: You began life in Idaho but have now relocated to your current base of LA. What prompted this move? Are there things you miss about the Gem state?

JK: Well, what makes Idaho so special is the fact that it's so sparsely populated you could basically walk from my front door to the North Pole without ever having to see another living soul. There's something precious about that kind of solitude. In LA the only way to walk anywhere is to step on top of a line of massive SUVs stuck in a traffic jam. Good for networking cause some of those SUVs are being driven by incredible musicians but bad for inner peace because most of them are not.

TMR: You’ve travelled far and wide both solo and as part of RY X/Howling/The Acid. What is the best show and/or place you’ve visited on your travels?

JK: I still consider the best show I ever played to be my 6th grade talent show, where I performed the drum solo on ‘Wipe Out’ by the Surfaris with a progressive post-punk duo called Kittenhead. We were victims of our own success however, and our nascent career was doomed to failure as we were never able to outshine the brilliance of that initial performance.



TMR: What are some of your biggest musical and non-musical inspirations?

JK: Non-musical - confusing emotions usually relating to women and an assortment of existential and spiritual crises. Musical - I think these must be fairly obvious but I'll give you one: Randy Newman.

TMR: Your music is profoundly emotive but it’s not always clear where this feeling originates. Is your music autobiographical? Whereabouts does the music come from?

JK: Of course my music is autobiographical, I would feel dishonest writing about anything else. And if the origin of the emotion in my music is elusive then I think I must be doing something right. I don't think you can really love a song that isn't asking you to keep searching for its secrets. Songs that require no explanation, songs that make perfect sense on the first listen and hide nothing about themselves don't interest me.

TMR: How do you settle into writing? Do you try to create a certain environment or have certain tricks to get you in the right headspace or is it looser than this?

JK: Well it's certainly nothing magical. As far as environment all I need is a relatively in-tune piano. After that all I need is solitude, time and the discipline to sit there for hours, days, weeks, months, years and force myself to write and play until a song comes together. I think artists and their fans alike want a more romantic explanation than that but they're kidding themselves. Making good music is work. Hard work.



TMR: You have a Jazz drumming background. Does this affect your solo work now? If so, in what ways?

JK: Yeah well jazz drumming has certainly gifted me with an affection for rhythmic complexities and they've managed to sneak their way into a lot of my music. I think even more so in some of the newer stuff I've been writing and recording. You can give a song a lot of depth if you manage to add that layer of complexity in a subtle, and non-distracting way. It can become a really special element that you don't notice at first but that the song reveals to you if you dig a little deeper.

TMR: Rather than production wizardry, your music relies heavily on your voice and the real touch of playing an instrument. Furthermore, you write intimate songs that really sound so. How do you achieve this and what is the ideal recording situation for you?

JK: Simple really, I just record myself performing and then I leave all the mistakes in. My ideal recording scenario then is someplace where I'm relaxed enough to be comfortable with my imperfections. Also somewhere that has nice mics, nice outboard gear, and a proficient engineer who can read my mind, set everything up just the way I like it and bring me food without me having to ask. He'd also be willing to work for free.

TMR: We know it used to be just you and a drum machine but what can we expect from a Jens Kuross live show nowadays?

JK: Well I've played a bit with an amazing band in LA and if you want to know what that's like you can check out our show at The Blue Whale on YouTube. But bringing that kind of talent on the road isn't cheap so until my fees increase you can expect me and a slightly older drum machine.



TMR: We’re a blog specializing in new music so are there any up-and-coming bands you’re really enjoying lately? 

JK: I've had the pleasure of being on the road with this German artist, Josin. She just put out some music on the Swedish label Dumont Dumont. If you want to know how heart-stoppingly beautiful sadness can sound go listen to her song ‘Evaporation’. I just learned how to play it on organ and I'm totally going to be ripping it off at some point in the future.

TMR: What does 2017 hold for Jens Kuross? 

JK: For starters I'm going to finish recording this record that's been developing in my head for the past 8 months or so, then trying to find a label that wants to put it out. Other than that I'll be on the road with my old drum machine.

‘We Will Run’ is out now via Aesop Records.

-Karl Jawara