JWESTERN

It’s not where you are, it’s where you’re at. These words hold true for JWestern – government ID: John Gooding – a producer/singer-songwriter whose softly slung chord progressions, frictionless beats, and pastel pallet of wavy instrumentation suggest a sound more indebted to South Central L.A. than his bedroom in South Yorkshire. Nevertheless, he combines both to create a woozy rural metropolis where the streets look like degraded 35mm film stock and it is permanent summer. Part indie-adjacent R&B crooner whose soundwaves crash onto the shores of jazz and hip-hop, part mineworker cracking gems at the cliff face of pop, JWestern’s delivery is distinctly British; sardonic asides and northern vernacular dripping from his semi-rap flow.