alt-J’s Joe Newman Goes ‘Acid Western’ On Solo Debut

After more than a decade at the center of one of indie rock’s most idiosyncratic success stories, alt-J frontman Joe Newman is stepping out on his own with a suitably strange, cinematic swing under the moniker JJerome87.

Newman has released his debut Mushroom Music Group/Virgin solo single, “Brush Me Like a Horse,” alongside a striking new video directed by longtime collaborator alex takács. The latter describes the song as “an acid western about a man condemned to die in a cruel, humiliating public spectacle. Joe Newman came to me with the vivid image of a state execution via treadmill, and it immediately conjured this whole narrative world. In Joe’s songwriting, the images are layered and nested inside one another: a man is accused, the accused is a horse, the horse is a mouse in a field where cats roam. The track already contained multiple voices and characters; it cut so many strong silhouettes that my job was simply to fill them in.”

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That sense of layered identity carries into the song itself, which Newman says is the “story of a man slowly turning into a horse. This metamorphosis has the world around him forgetting who he is as people begin to care for him more and more like a horse. This song was inspired partly by something I’d seen a friend go through. They didn’t turn into a horse, but their reputation went through a metamorphosis.”

Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Carlos De La Garza, the track leans into a warm Californian palette with hints Motown, blues, gospel and the kind of off-kilter melodic instincts that defined alt-J’s rise. A trio of female backing vocalists and a cast of session players help flesh out a sound that feels both expansive and deeply personal.

Alt-J hasn’t released a new album since 2022’s The Dream and has not played live since December 2023.

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