Hayden Pedigo ~ Jens Kuross

Man, myth, master of disguise; un-picker, finger-picker, absurdist, perfectionist. An innovator of the instrumental genre, challenger of the stereotypical, son of a truck-stop preacher. His new album, 'I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away' is, Hayden reflects, not a straightforward solo guitar record, but in a sense “a micro-dose psychedelic album." Unafraid to push the parameters of American primitive, the walls of the album’s world are fuzzed-up and glimmering. Pedigo’s trademark, highly skilled guitar compositions, more intricate than ever, are augmented by influences he’s never been able to achieve on previous records, drawing strongly from the uncanny psychedelia of larger-than-life culture in the American South, so often bigger, stranger, more unnerving than fiction. Throughout 'I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away', moments of genre-defying, unapologetic exuberance are carefully balanced with delicacy and intricacy.

The music of LA-based singer-songwriter Jens Kuross occupies a rare space in the world. Seemingly from a different time and place, his brilliantly unique sound is an intricately built kingdom to which listeners are invited in occasionally to immerse themselves and find a moment of peace and clarity, before returning to the hustle of their own lives.
Over the last 18 months, the multi-talented singer-songwriter has released a string of these hypnotic moments: most pressingly, his latest single ‘The Life Inside’, which arrived in October 2018. It was the first taste of his brand-new EP “Art! at the expense of mental health, Vol. 2”, which serves as the second instalment of his multi-faceted ‘Art! at the expense of mental health’ project and was released later that same month on Jens’ own Dirty Guns label.
‘The Life Inside’ is, according to Jens, a song that deals with “the desire for a creator to stay in the place where they’re most comfortable: within their creation”. But ‘Art! at the expense of mental health, Vol 2’ isn’t a body of work that is deliberately tackling the artist’s relationship with their own mind. While Jens’ music is inherently escapist and dream-evoking through the very nature of the sound, the questions the listener is being asked are less mystical than that; and, by his own self-admission, the title of the EP applies more to the actual “difficulties surrounding the artistic process” and the sacrifices that are demanded when you chose to become a working musician.
The difficult nature of balancing personal health with a career as a touring musician is. However, something Jens has a firm understanding on. He’s spent a lot of time touring, he’s an active member of The Acid, and plays as a session musician on the side too. He calls himself a “musical mercenary” due to necessity and talks openly about the coping mechanisms you develop on the road – and, crucially, the mental struggles involved with having to flip between touring as part of a band of others to touring as a solo musician and being existentially alone for months.
It’s no wonder, then, that this series of EPs is titled ‘‘Art! at the expense of mental health’; and, considering Jens’ formidable talents, it’s no wonder that the music contained within this latest release is a beautifully-measured reconstruction of the complex nature of life as both an artist and a human being in the modern age. It’s straightforward, yet complicated; it’s minimal, yet it’s meaningful; and it’s beautiful, and heart-wrenching, and simplicity at its most arresting. It’s… Well, it’s Art.
‘Art! at the expense of mental health, Vol. 2’ is out now on Dirty Guns. Get your copy here.