Sometimes an artist comes along who was not on your radar before, and they make a truly profound and lasting impact upon first listen. Such was the result of hearing Spencer LaJoye’s new album, “Shadow Puppets.” The Boston-based singer-songwriter wows and wins with an album full of whip-smart poetic observations, heart, and honesty. It’s already a contender for best of the year. We sat down to chat with LaJoye recently about this sonic and lyrical gift of a record.
Hi Spencer! You have a terrific new album out in February called “Shadow Puppets.” How did these songs come together and what broad strokes can you tell us about the collection?
Well, the songs sort of came together out of necessity. I had dreamt for years about having Chris DuPont produce a whole record of mine, so I texted him out of the blue one day to gauge his interest. After he responded with unreserved excitement, I realized I didn’t have a cohesive collection of songs for him to actually produce. So I took the whole winter to hibernate and write. The result was 12 songs with wildly different personalities, each exploring shadows from my past.
One of the songs on your new album, “Someday You’ll Wake Up Okay,” is really great and stood out to me. What can you tell us about this song? What inspired you to write it and what is it about?
Oh, that song slaps. It’s really a letter to my younger self – so many of my songs are just that, actually – to tell them that someday, they’ll wake up feeling basically okay. This was one song I specifically wrote to be performed with a vocal looper, and I wanted to play with intentionally misplaced syllabic stress so the lyrics function as sort of syncopated percussion. I think I’d been listening to Maggie Rogers’ “That’s Where I Am,” and she does that in the bridge. That effect turned out to be really exciting in a live looper setting, but I wasn’t sure how that energy would translate in the studio. Luckily, Chris is a mad scientist behind the production desk, and I think the song evolved into something super magical.
What was it like recording this album overall? What was the vibe in the studio, and how did this song, in particular, come together?
I gotta give Chris DuPont the most gigantic props here. I was living in Boston, and he was living in East Michigan, when we started recording. So I flew out to spend two weeks in his home studio with him, tracking all my guitar, keys, and lead vocals for all 12 songs. We brought the album’s drummer, Billy Harrington, in for one drum day. When those two weeks were up, Chris and I finished the album remotely. I recorded all my background vocals and some violin parts from my Boston bedroom, Sav Buist and Katie Larson arranged and recorded their string parts from their Nashville studio, and Chris didn’t see the light of day for about five months as he glued these songs together with guitars, bass, piano, synths, and programming. Working on “Someday You’ll Wake Up Okay” with him and Billy on drum day was one of my favorite moments of making this record. We told Billy to play “jungle drums,” and, with no further questions, that guy channeled Phil Collins.
What do you hope this album conveys to those who listen to it?
I really hope this takes people on an emotional journey. It’s not gonna be your go-to sad boy record, because some songs are a real party. And it’s not going to be your go-to feel-good record, because there is some really sad and spooky synth. It’s going to stretch my folk listeners to embrace a pop moment, and it’s going to challenge my indie pop listeners to get down with some banjo. This album was an effort in characterizing my past, and it appropriately came out really colorful and complex. So I suppose if it helps people feel as close to “everything” as possible, I think I’ve done my job.
Since you started out, how has your songwriting changed — both musically and lyrically? Do different things inspire you now? Where do you tend to get your biggest inspiration from these days?
Oh, my first song at age 16 was truly something awful. I guess it made enough sense harmonically and melodically, but “makes sense” is not a very high bar. I was inspired by the Jonas Brothers and Jesus, thank you for asking. These days, I’m inspired by snails and my body and weird things people say on the subway. Maybe that’s the biggest way my songwriting has changed: it’s less about finding inspiration than it is about creating inspiration. I used to sit and wait for God to tell me how to interpret the world; now, I’m digging up worms and bottling drunken sentiments, studying them, and saying, “Ah. There’s God.” Every blank songwriting page says, “Prove it.”
Songwriting can be a really personal endeavor. Is it tough to share that stuff that usually might be private if you weren’t writing a song about it? Does unveiling the songs publicly, when you release a single or an EP or album, make you anxious or is it cathartic to have the songs out there?
I have a somewhat new rule for myself, and that is to never let a song do my relational work for me. If a song’s content is going to be a surprise to anyone represented in it, then I’m making the song communicate something I should’ve just communicated myself. Those songs are okay and even good to write if they help me metabolize an emotional situation, but I won’t release them publicly until I’ve done my own relational work. As long as I’ve done that work, I don’t feel too naked or vulnerable releasing songs to the public. I feel anxious for other insecure reasons, but not because the songs are too personal. It feels good to be known.
It’s not uncommon for an artist to be working on something new while promoting an album. Do you have anything in the pipeline to follow this album? What’s next from Spencer LaJoye?
Ah, I do indeed have things in the air fryer and on the burner. I’m always writing, and I’m doing more and more co-writing these days. There may be a musical on the horizon. But I will say one of the harder parts of releasing music for me is that I don’t get to experience the music at the same time my audience is experiencing the music because I’ve always moved onto the next project already. So I’m really going to try being as present as possible as these song babies (teenagers? High school grads??) enter the world.
Website & Social Media Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerlajoye/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spencerlajoyemusic/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@spencerlajoye
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/spencerlajoye
Website: www.spencerlajoye.com
