For Jonathan Searless, “Gasoline” helped forge a path inward. “It heralded a new age for my songwriting,” says the Connecticut-based artist, who records under the Jonathan Something pseudonym. “The process opened a door to exploring my internal world in a way I’d longed for but lacked the ability to express.”
The track is fitting focal point on One More Lonesome Cowboy Song (High Shelter/Virgin), Searless’s hypnotic return after several years away from serious music-making. Entirely self-produced and self-played, the LP draws from the West Coast cosmic-country tradition of Gram Parsons and Gene Clark, filtering it through the intimate, multilayered sensibilities of Elliott Smith and the adventurous prism of Elephant 6 acts like Neutral Milk Hotel.
After an almost manic period of flitting between garage rock, anti-folk, synth-pop and neo-soul, Searless stepped away from music about six years ago. He eventually returned to songwriting amid a period of physical and emotional challenges that prompted intense self-examination. Meditation and Eastern philosophy helped shaped One More Lonesome Cowboy Song, its title character a composite of the darker, more reclusive qualities he’d prefer to leave behind.
Picking apart the illusion of certainty and the self-made realities we construct for ourselves, “Gasoline” hinges on the pivotal line, “You’ll never know if it was real or just a dream when you’re running on gasoline.”
“It’s a distillation of the confusion and yearning I felt while making the record and an exercise in performing succinct acrobatics around universal truths,” says Searless.
We’re proud to premiere Jonathan Something’s “Gasoline.” One More Lonesome Cowboy Song is out October 16.
—Hobart Rowland
