\u201cWell, I\u2019ve never done that,\u201d Jesso says. \u201c\u2018Goon\u2019 I got from \u2018The Goonies\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s just a brilliant movie.\u201d He laughs. \u201cBut I don\u2019t care. If it sells more records, sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Jesso has a record to sell at all might take some by surprise. Though \u201cGoon<\/a>\u201d thoroughly charmed critics and fellow musicians with its early-\u201970s-balladeer vibe \u2014 many said he evoked the glory days of Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and beard-and-shearling-coat-era Paul McCartney<\/a> \u2014 Jesso didn\u2019t cotton to the life of a sort-of-famous performer and almost immediately walked away from his solo career to write songs for other singers instead.<\/p>\n He\u2019s thrived in that role, penning hits for the likes of Adele, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa. In 2023, he was named songwriter of the year at the Grammy Awards; this month he was nominated for that prize for a second time, with the Recording Academy citing his work with Justin Bieber (\u201cDaisies\u201d), Haim<\/a> (\u201cRelationships\u201d) and Olivia Dean (\u201cMan I Need\u201d), among others.<\/p>\n Yet now he\u2019s back with an unexpected follow-up to his debut called \u201cShine,\u201d which came out Friday. Stripped back for the most part to just voice and piano, it\u2019s an earnest work of introspection from a guy who knows how to make tenderness feel like strength.<\/p>\n Jesso, who grew up in Vancouver and lives in Los Angeles, announced the album just last week with a music video for his song \u201cI Love You\u201d that features the actors Riley Keough and Dakota Johnson, with whom he\u2019s been close since he first touched down here around 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cI hit them up and was like, \u2018You girls think it\u2019s about time I use your fame to get some extra clicks?\u2019\u201d he says on a recent morning at his place in Silver Lake. \u201cThe video opens up on them, then it pans away and it goes to me and you never see them again.\u201d<\/p>\n Says Keough, a former girlfriend: \u201cIt was a very Tobias ask.\u201d<\/p>\n So why return to the spotlight? According to Jesso, he wouldn\u2019t have had it not been for a breakup that left him \u201cthe most depressed I\u2019ve ever been in my life, by far.\u201d We\u2019re sitting in a cozy den that looks out over a lush hillside garden; a bowl of persimmons sits on a coffee table while a copy of \u201cMcCartney II\u201d peeks out from a stack of LPs.<\/p>\n Jesso, whose mop of curly hair has begun ever so slightly to gray, says that when he enters a songwriting session with another artist, \u201cI leave my worries and woes outside the door. I\u2019m there to serve you \u2014 to write the song you want to write.\u201d It\u2019s an approach that\u2019s endeared him to his star collaborators and yielded songs as deep as Adele\u2019s \u201cTo Be Loved<\/a>,\u201d a stunning meditation on the costs of divorce from her 2021 album \u201c30.\u201d<\/p>\n But earlier this year, for the first time in Jesso\u2019s decade of behind-the-scenes work, he found himself struggling to deliver. \u201cI was feeling so in the dumps that I\u2019d be choking on a line that I didn\u2019t even want to say because if I say it, I\u2019ll start crying,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n He cleared six weeks from his busy schedule to process his emotions; the result was a set of songs for himself about heartache \u2014 \u201cI can see the love leaving from your eyes in the form of a tear,\u201d he sings in \u201cRain\u201d \u2014 but also about his mom\u2019s experience with dementia and about the young son he shares with his ex-wife.<\/p>\n To record the music, Jesso\u2019s instinct was to go big. \u201cI\u2019m a dreamer, so I was like, \u2018Imagine all the people I could have help me now that I didn\u2019t have 10 years ago,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI went from so-and-so to so-and-so, trying out studios, making promises I couldn\u2019t keep. But all that stuff over the weeks just kind of flaked away.\u201d<\/p>\n What remained was the beautifully mellow sound of a vintage Steinway piano he\u2019d had restored after buying it on Craiglist for $800. He keeps the piano in a small, uncluttered studio upstairs from the den at his house; that\u2019s where he cut \u201cShine,\u201d singing live as he accompanied himself in real time.<\/p>\n A small handful of other players appear on the album, most prominently in \u201cI Love You,\u201d which erupts near the end with a wild drum fill performed by Jesso\u2019s old pal Kane Ritchotte. The idea for the percussive outburst came to Jesso after he\u2019d consumed \u201ca s\u2014 ton of mushrooms,\u201d he says. \u201cI turned to my assistant at the time \u2014 I wonder if I have it \u2014 and I said, \u2018Record me right now.\u2019 She started recording me, and what came out was that fill.\u201d<\/p>\n He picks up his phone and scrolls for a moment. \u201cLook at this,\u201d he says, turning the screen my way: There\u2019s Jesso in the same room we\u2019re in right now, staring wide-eyed into the camera as he mouths the drum sounds Ritchotte would later replicate exactly.<\/p>\n \u201cThat song is about somebody\u2019s inner child being in the middle of a labyrinth, and you\u2019re trying to find them so you can convince them that you\u2019re in love,\u201d Jesso tells me. \u201cYou can\u2019t get there and you\u2019re wishing that the whole labyrinth would just be destroyed. So when it gets to that part \u2014 \u2018Shatter the cracks wide open \/ And say, \u201cI love you\u201d\u2019 \u2014 the drums are the walls coming down. That\u2019s the shattering.\u201d<\/p>\n Tobias Jesso Jr. at the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023. <\/p>\n (Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Drum theatrics aside, Jesso\u2019s singing is the album\u2019s clear focal point; his pleading, slightly unsteady tone gives the music an emotional intimacy that makes you feel as though you\u2019re sitting right next to him on the piano bench.<\/p>\n Jesso describes his voice as something of a liability, which Keough says has been true since he was ducking the frontman\u2019s job in the various bands he played in when he was in his early 20s. \u201cI always loved his voice, and he just didn\u2019t feel that way for whatever reason,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI don\u2019t know if he felt a sort of shyness, which is really interesting because as a person he\u2019s not shy whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Jesso\u2019s decision to follow up \u201cGoon\u201d surprised her, she says, \u201cI was surprised he released \u2018Goon\u2019 to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n The way Jesso sees it, \u201cMy voice isn\u2019t good enough for the songs I write, which is why I\u2019ve chosen to work with all these other people.\u201d What he\u2019s comes to realize, though, is that \u201cmy voice is perfect for my songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Which doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s easy for him to hear it. Once he\u2019d finished recording, Jesso asked his friend Shawn Everett to mix \u201cShine\u201d; what he got back \u2014 with every imperfection of his voice under a virtual magnifying glass \u2014 terrified him. \u201cIt felt way, way, way too vulnerable,\u201d Jesso says.<\/p>\n He texted Everett and said he was sorry but that he couldn\u2019t put out the record like this. \u201cI told him, \u2018You just brought out more of me than I\u2019m willing to share,\u2019\u201d he says now. \u201cThen I got home, I smoked a big fat joint and I sat on the couch. I was like, I\u2019m gonna wait until I\u2019m high enough that I can press play and pretend this isn\u2019t me.\u201d He laughs. \u201cI put on the headphones, and I have never in my life had such a profound experience with music.\u201d<\/p>\n Who\u2019d you imagine was singing?<\/b> The paradox is that \u201cShine\u201d feels like the you-est possible album.<\/b> \u201cGoon\u201d was a little more elaborate \u2014 more players and producers.<\/b> Given the unhappiness of your experience after \u201cGoon\u201d came out, I wondered whether this time you\u2019d put certain restrictions on what you\u2019re willing to do.<\/b> Maybe this is something I still need to work on in therapy, but by being onstage and singing, I\u2019m basically saying, \u201cI\u2019m a singer,\u201d and I\u2019m not comfortable saying that. I\u2019m comfortable saying, \u201cI\u2019m a songwriter.\u201d So there\u2019s this weird shame that comes in where I\u2019m presenting myself beyond what I know my ability to be.<\/p>\n One of the benchmarks I needed to hit on this record was to be comfortable that I\u2019m not misrepresenting myself, which is why I\u2019m OK if there\u2019s an out-of-tune note here and there or if it\u2019s a little bit fast or slow. But even knowing that I can perform it exactly like it is on the record, there\u2019s nothing drawing me to the stage. I don\u2019t really want to have a relationship with fans in that way. I feel very privileged that this is not my main job.<\/p>\n Between \u201cGoon\u201d and now, songwriting became your main job.<\/b> But not for success per se.<\/b> I mean, that\u2019s almost certainly the case.<\/b> I went back and looked at <\/b>something I wrote<\/b><\/a> about a show you played at South by Southwest in 2015 where you had to start your song \u201cTrue Love\u201d five times.<\/b> But it\u2019s not like anybody in the crowd was mad about it. People thought it was cute.<\/b> Keough shares Jesso\u2019s assessment of what\u2019s put him in a different position today versus 10 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWith \u2018Goon,\u2019 he would have put pressure on himself\u201d to jump through the hoops required of a performer, she says. \u201cHe was a barista straight out of the coffee shop. \u2018Shine\u2019 is straight off all his Grammys and his big songwriting career. He\u2019s able to be more free as an artist now because the stakes are lower.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet not so long ago Jesso reckoned he might be close to burning out in the pop realm. \u201cI was kind of getting ready to dip,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I don\u2019t like going into a room and saying, \u2018Oh, this song is blowing up \u2014 let\u2019s do the same thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Tobias Jesso Jr. at home in Silver Lake.<\/p>\n (Ian Spanier \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n He clarifies that he\u2019s not talking about working with an artist like Dua Lipa, who recruited him as a writer for her 2024 \u201cRadical Optimism<\/a>\u201d LP. \u201cDua was great,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m talking about going into pitch sessions and sitting with a bunch of writers and figuring out how to get a song pitched. That\u2019s never really worked for me, and the higher you get with producers, the more into that formula you\u2019re putting yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763897298_424_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know \u2014 like a 50-year-old dude or maybe a 20-year-old girl who\u2019s got a low voice? It didn\u2019t matter \u2014 it wasn\u2019t me, so I wasn\u2019t listening with judgmental ears.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no tricks. I didn\u2019t auto-tune, I didn\u2019t cut anything together, I didn\u2019t do any of that. It\u2019s me singing a take, and it\u2019s the best take I got. Whereas with \u201cGoon,\u201d there were a lot of elements that maybe weren\u2019t possible for me to do.<\/p>\n
Which was tortuous because I\u2019m like, \u201cHow do I recreate this thing that I didn\u2019t even fully make myself?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/uu1Ko02P7vk\/hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say right off the bat: I\u2019m not touring \u2014 no way. I\u2019ve met enough artists who say, \u201cI feel totally myself onstage,\u201d to know that there\u2019s a natural state in which people feel comfortable up there. And I\u2019ve tried every which way \u2014 by which I mean drinking and not drinking \u2014 and I just can\u2019t. It\u2019s not me.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t have to take this as seriously. The parts I do take seriously \u2014 the art \u2014 I\u2019m willing to put in the work for.<\/p>\n
Exactly. This is weird to say, but there were moments where I was toiling over this record \u2014 listening to Take No. 73 and being like, \u201cWait, what was the other one?\u201d \u2014 and the thought would occur to me: I could go to work today instead of do this and potentially create much more wealth for myself than this album could ever do.<\/p>\n
In comparison, \u201cShine\u201d is meaningless in terms of success and potential. And yet I was still drawn to doing it, which made me feel like I was making the right choice for myself. But when it comes to the stuff I don\u2019t think is important, just try to get me to do it. It ain\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n
Oh God.<\/p>\n
I feel like if I was onstage now \u2014 and everything\u2019s pointing to I probably should play a show or two \u2014 I\u2019d be able to see the value in vulnerability. It\u2019s human, and I like that about it. But at the time I wasn\u2019t able to cope with the people who wouldn\u2019t see it that way. Because I wasn\u2019t seeing it that way. I was seeing it as: I\u2019m trying to pretend I\u2019m OK with this, but I\u2019m actually forgetting my song because I\u2019m such a s\u2014 performer. Yeah, the crowd loves it, but I go offstage and I\u2019m not looking for the comments saying, \u201cIt was so funny.\u201d I\u2019m looking for the ones that are like, \u201cThis guy\u2019s a joke.\u201d And I\u2019m like, f\u2014, I knew it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n