Practicing social distancing, Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels and I interviewed John-Robert over Zoom! #TogetherAtHome
“When you grow up in a town of 1,000 residents, you make your own fun. Backyard football. BB guns. Trawling the train tracks. Pushing flaming sofas off of forgotten bridges. You can only walk around Walmart so many times with your couple of good friends punning about products before you put all your restless youthful energy into becoming a prodigious music talent. At least, such was the case for John-Robert of Edinburg, Virginia, who started slaying local open mikes a cap- pella at age 9 and is now, at 18, launching his career as a proper pop upstart/outsider. On first listen, his is an intimate folk- and soul-driven sound powered by lithe voice, inventive guitar, and real heart. And that's all true, but the perspective is ever so askew—perfectly pleasant bops pushed sideways by sudden distortion, odd effects or the man's wild and often dark imagination.
He still lives there in the Shenandoah Valley, working out of his very minimal studio in his fami- ly’s basement, which he moved into after one too many nights falling asleep at his desk in the bedroom he shared with his brothers upstairs. John-Robert is the oldest of four kids raised by a pharmacist mother and a mostly stay-at-home father. "Mostly" because dad did home deliveries for mom's drug store, which meant the children came with. He also took them on random drives, getting lost on purpose so they could explore the land. That's where our hero found his voice: in a tan minivan on a backroad, howling along to Styx. Naturally, piano lessons and choir followed. Then came cafés, county fairs, and national anthems. But in his heart, the boy knew none of it was cool. So on his 12th birthday, John-Robert got what he wanted most in the world: a guitar." --- Listen on!
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