Artist Interview: Joel Johnston of Far Caspian
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
After 2023’s acclaimed The Last Remaining Light, all eyes were on Irish musician Joel Johnston as he looked to his next release under the solo project Far Caspian. Unlike the lively, rhythmic approach brought to his last album, Johnston scales it back with Autofiction, a chatbook of lighter disposition that still sees him tinkering with experimental folk and the ’90s influences of open, roomy indie rock. Featuring his most diaristic lyrics to date, the slow-burn that accumulates over the album’s runtime dips the listener into his vulnerable frame of mind on topics such as mental health, self-reflection, and recovery. It’s refreshing to hear a project so unabashedly direct and personal in a world that continues to be fueled by vanity and falsehood.
I was able to talk with Joel ahead of Autofiction’s release. We discussed the catharsis of releasing an album like this, how setting up his own recording studio and helping other artists has impacted his recording process, and what he pursues outside of music to stimulate his creativity below.
How does it feel to be releasing Autofiction after the acclaim of The Last Remaining Light in 2023? How do you think you’ve grown between the two record cycles?
It feels good. I definitely feel more confident about my work since releasing TLRL, I learnt a lot of lessons making my first record Ways to Get Out and so TLRL was a direct response to that. I wanted to focus everything more and try to have a more cohesive sound. With Autofiction, I tried to find a middle ground between the two previous albums. I wanted to have a cohesive sound but I also wanted to get back to being a bit more spontaneous with how I produce, being free to add as many layers as I’d like to. I’ve always struggled with critiquing myself as I write/record but on this album I feel like I finally broke out of that negativity and was able to write more freely, similar to how it felt when I first started making music 10 years ago.
What inspired the content on the new album? Any specific sounds or artists you really dug into during the creation process?
I love ’90s/early 2000s bands like Supercar, Seefeel, Hydroplane, Slint. I definitely pulled from that sound, especially with drums. I usually go for a dry and dampened drum sound, but I wanted to lean into the more open, roomy sound that was so popular in the ’90s. I was also processing more through my tape machines which always gives interesting results, especially because the machine I was using was a bit wrecked!
The general inspiration for lyrics was simply where I was in life at that exact point. I wrote and recorded the majority of the lyrics the day before I had to submit the final mixes for mastering, so a lot of the songs all come from the same emotive source. I had begun a new treatment for my Crohn’s and was feeling really healthy and pain-free for the first time in a couple of years and so I wanted to rejoice in that feeling and put it in the songs.
I read that you’ve pinned Autofiction as your most direct project to date. What made you want to come at this record from such a strong diaristic point of view? Has it been freeing to write so openly here?
I think it was a combination of that experience I was having at the time with my new treatment but also wanting to push myself to do something different. I’ve always tended to write with more of a focus on metaphors and imagery. I thought it was about time I came at it from a different angle and diaristic seemed like the opposite of what I’d previously done. I love the idea of having a timestamp on this part of my life and somewhere way down the line I’ll be able to listen again and know exactly where I was during the process of making the album.
Over the past two years, you’ve also set up your own recording studio in Leeds, right? What’s that journey been like being able to produce for other artists? And has that had any impact on how the new album was created?
It’s been great. It was originally set up just for my own work but now I’ve started inviting people in. It’s not a commercial studio so I’m not doing loads of random things, it’s more of a space for people I know to come in and be creative without judgement. I took some time off from my own work and produced a few records for other bands/artists. Applying myself in those situations not only taught me loads about being a producer but also how I could approach producing myself differently. It taught me that I’ve definitely been too hard on myself whilst making my own music and not given songs enough time to grow. If something didn’t work within half an hour when I was demoing, I’d usually never go back to it.
The whole point of being a producer for others is to help them navigate a route to get to a finished song they’re proud of. A lot of the time that means sitting around and scratching our heads until something clicks. Thankfully I realised that before finishing this album and went back in with a more graceful approach and re-recorded bits and pieces until I was at a point where I felt I couldn’t give any more to it.
Which song was your most memorable to record? Why?
I actually really struggle to remember much about the recording process. A lot of it just melds together into one big memory of me looking at my computer screen! I do however remember piecing together the lyrics for “An Outstretched Hand/Rain from Here to Kerry.” That was one of the songs I wrote the lyrics to a good bit before I wrote the others in that one sitting I was talking about. The whole premise is about a specific time period in my life around 2014-2015. Not only are the lyrics about a real story from that time but the instrumentation is very referential to then. I played drums in my friend Ben’s band Bare Bear and recorded his music. It was when I was just properly getting into recording and it was all very loose and DIY. Part of the drum take on “An Outstretched Hand” is lifted from what I used to play on one of his songs as well as borrowing the lyric “An outstretched hand on a frostbitten night” from his song “Venice Is Sinking.” We had recorded his EP the same summer the story I sing about in “An Outstretched Hand” happens. I thought it would be a nice sentiment to put some of those musical elements into a new song.
What else do you do that stimulates your creativity outside of music?
I love making videos and designing artwork. I got really into film emulation whilst making the music videos for Autofiction. In an ideal world, I would just shoot on 16mm film all the time, but it’s too expensive to be sustainable. I’ve always tried to mimic film through a digital camera but never got a convincing enough look. For these videos I needed to do more research into the medium and figured out a process that gets me closer. It’s still not perfect and I’m sure it never will be but getting stuck into colour grading and lens selection is something I could spend infinite hours on.
I also love hiking. My partner and I climbed Yr Wyddfa recently and it basically felt like one big dream. We woke up at 5am and drove through the mountain surrounded roads at sunrise to get there. I had yacht rock greatest hits on the car speakers and the windows down. That moment was actually probably better than reaching the summit! But those sort of experiences are definitely the things I need in order to make music. I’m also quite lazy and could happily sit inside for days on end which I actually did when making TLRL, but I eventually realised I wouldn’t be able to come up with many more songs if I kept myself tucked away.
Autofiction is out now.
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Hope Ankney | @heart_vandelay
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