New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The time between albums for any band or artist usually comes with a few minor twists and turns at a minimum, or in the case of JR JR (f.k.a. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.), quite dramatic ones. Since the release of their last full-length in 2015, the band fronted by Josh Epstein and
Daniel Zott fought their way out of a major label deal, assessed certain lifestyle choices affecting one's mental health, and in Zott's case, fostered to adopt two children only to be surprised with a biological one as well within the span of three months.
It has been a wild ride, and it only makes JR JR all the more proud to announce the formation of Love Is EZ Records in partnership with Secretly Distribution. The newly minted label's first release will be the band's forthcoming double album Invocations / Conversations, due out May 31st. The aforementioned challenges and life events, as well as the calamitous political and social upheaval that has taken place over the past few years, are just a few aspects of the beautiful, complicated, and messy story behind two discs worth of excellent, introspective, and emotional songwriting. The first two singles "NYC" and "Day In, Day Out" are out today and available to hear everywhere.
A double album has always been a bold proposition. Perhaps even more so now in an age where the long-play format feels ever more marginalized by a shortened cultural attention span. Nevertheless, Epstein and Zott feel right about presenting this wide-ranging collection of songs as a two-part whole. "To me," shares Epstein, "the first album (Invocations) was a moment in time where we wrote with the touring members of the band in the Masonic Temple in Detroit. It also happened to coincide with the 2016 election, and feels like that moment." Shortly after writing and recording those songs, they would leave their deal with Warner Brothers following a series of disputes with the label.
Meanwhile, Zott and his wife, having been told it was likely not possible for them to conceive a child biologically, had undertaken the challenging yet rewarding journey of fostering to adopt in order to grow their family. After a few years and a couple of tough goodbyes, they were blessed with the opportunity to adopt two of the four boys they had fostered over that period. Within a three month span in the spring of 2017, Zott and his wife finalized the adoption of their first son, began the process with a second, and found out much to their surprise that they were pregnant with a third biological child, whom they eventually welcomed into the world in January 2018. The experience left an indelible mark on Zott who describes this period in his life as "the hardest thing I have ever done, but it has also been the most fulfilling."
Epstein and Zott were sitting on an album as they began to search for another label home, but they didn't stop writing songs. "The second album (Conversations), says Epstein, "is just Dan and me and a few random collaborators. It's representative of taking stock of the large shifts that had been happening around us and processing it all."
"Invocations / Conversations," as a whole adds Zott "is filled with the thousand little moments of the last three years; moments of joy and sadness, frustration and exhilaration. And is more full of life than any project I've ever done."
Wrapped inside are a collection of songs that straddle the philosophical, political, and deeply personal. In the case of "NYC" explains Epstein, the song looks at the city as "a metaphor for the rapid gentrification and extreme income inequality that we are starting to see in major cities." and the somewhat American compulsion to "to tear down history and rebuild things in their own image every decade or so." "Day In, Day Out" on the other hand says Epstein, "is an homage to
Leonard Cohen and
Prince passing. It's about the notion that we will never live up to the greatest of our heroes, and the feeling of inadequacy or motivation towards self-improvement that stems from that." On a more personal front, "
Wild Child", was written by Zott when it looked as if he and his wife would have to say goodbye to the child who would become their second adopted son. "He had been with us for a little over a year when I wrote that song," explains Zott, "and I wrote it as a kind of the beginning of a goodbye that I knew would break my heart."
Thankfully there was a happy ending to the story behind that song despite the tumult and uncertainty that was its genesis. In a way, it mirrors the journey JR JR have taken thus far. "When we started this project as Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, it was about freedom," the band share in a statement on the launch of their new label Love Is EZ Records. "The freedom to blend sounds from any genre and make interesting pop songs out of them." Invocations / Conversations release on their own terms is the perfect happy ending to an epic few years.
