JUST LISTEN: John Errol "Dead Man Walking"

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JUST LISTEN: John Errol “Dead Man Walking”

The Deets:

Who: John Errol
Song: “Dead Man Walking”
Appears On: Citing Low-era Bowie, Blackout-era Britney, and The Downward Spiral-era NIN as primary sources, this is one of three songs Errol will be releasing in 2018 that reflect a larger body of new work—textured and unbridled music that brings a gritty kind of humanness to pop.
Current Location: Los Angeles
Info: John Errol is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles. As former keyboardist of the critically acclaimed alt-folk outfit Starred, Errol got his leg up in the Brooklyn music scene opening for the likes of Psychic TV, DIIV, and Courtney Love. Between shows, Errol studied poetry and literature at Bard College (home to DIY acts like Palberta and Palm, among others), where he completed his thesis on William Faulkner in May of 2015. His literary background remains at the heart of his music project, found in self-reflexive and acidic lyricism inspired by equal parts Elliott Smith and Anne Carson.

Errol has been quietly experimenting with his own material since the band’s dissolution in 2014, accumulating up to three album’s worth of unreleased music. But after the release of “What You’re Looking For,” a demo met with surprising acclaim from publications that include Nylon and Out Magazine (which even dubbed it a “queer anthem of self-love”), Errol devoted Fall 2017 to curating his next offerings, intent on flexing the breadth of his songwriting and production.

“Strange things have happened…is that what people say?” John Errol asks on “Dead Man Walking,” the follow-up to 2017’s mumble-core queer anthem, “What You’re Looking For.” But expect no such catharsis or groove from Errol’s latest solo effort, a bizarre alt-country track that recalls Sufjan Stevens as much as it does Nine Inch Nails, and at times even Fever Ray: “Another dead man walking, / Another one I’ll never save” he concedes.

Eerie is the best word used to describe “Dead Man Walking,” a song Errol refers to as “a formal introduction to the energy, tone, and texture” of his upcoming music. Colonies of voice swarm around humid and nervously fingerpicked guitars; glitches of spliced and splintered audio appear out of nowhere; a meditative groove refuses to settle into its own rhythm. Errol’s lethargic, syrupy vocals sit high in the mix, acting as our vantage point as he peers over the queasy, malfunctioning soundscape. “It’s a study on spectatorship and perspective,” Errol says of the track, “beginning as the observer and ending as the observed.” Much is true of the song’s second half where all hell breaks loose, as if the dead become the living.
Comments: The Sufjan x Nine Inch Nails comment is an attention-grabber for sure. That could easily be taken in different ways, luckily “Dead Man Walking” lives up to the good way; actually a really great way. The track starts sparse, where you hear the Sufjan influence as Errol slowly works in experimental sounds. At times, in all honesty, the vocals brings to mind a dark Snow Patrol from way back when. The track continues to build into a crescendo before ripping into a the more industrial NIN side that totally slays. By that point the song has already got you fully invested, and as things continue to get weirder, darker, and more frightful, it’s a welcome reprieve for the expansive new song from John Errol. The song is a mix of Elliot Smith influenced songwriting, a little bit of country, folk, and into that full on industrial tone; a strange mix that actually works. In other words, this is really f-ing good tho.