Jericho’s Noguera’s first full band record ‘Get It by the Feel’ has been over a year in the making, the track listing ‘Future Project’, ‘What Do You Really Mean’, ‘High’, ‘The Moon Against the Black Sky’, and ‘The Sun’ll Come Up’ features a unique blend of jazz, soul, and psychedelia. The EP was recorded and produced by Jericho at home in Birmingham.
Jericho on the new material from the EP:
‘With the new songs on the EP I’d been worrying that they might take some patience to catch. ‘High’ for example is nearly six minutes long, and builds up slowly over two repeating chords. ‘The Moon Against the Black Sky’ is another one you kind of have to sink into, I think I’m asking the listener to give a lot to the songs, and that’s something I don’t expect everyone to do. I kept things sparse as a result of the limitations I had with recording, most of the songs have full unedited takes on each instrument, so it’s not one hundred percent perfect either. But ultimately I think that’s what’s given the songs their character. As cliche of a realisation as it is, I think it’s the imperfections that have given the songs life. These days people are compressing the shit out of their audio, among other mainstream habits, so I struggled with the idea of sacrificing a competitive mix against one that the songs really need. But I’m over it now, so here’s the record.
When I wrote ‘High’ I’d been feeling pretty low, but out of that came this sense of unrelenting drive. It started as a feeling of general disappointment and apathy towards the world. Day to day in our society I’d felt like people were being made to repress themselves emotionally, like some people were on autopilot, and others were bottling everything up. The adult world can be so mechanistic and lacking in feeling. So with “High” it was like fuck you all, here’s somthing real, this is somthing i’ve felt, you can’t take that away.
‘The Moon Against the Black Sky’ I wrote when I first moved to Birmingham, I was going through a lot of changes in my life, I’d been single for a few years and was making efforts to discover a new person in myself, going out a lot, struggling to find a job, getting over my love life. It’s one of those things where you’re not really happy or sad, the world felt strangely nostalgic, and again there was this drive.The song captures that time in life for me. In ‘The Sun’ll Come Up’ I wanted to capture a vibe. I’d been sitting in the park writing lyrics and couldn’t get the guitar out of my head. It was this idyllic scene of being in the park on a sunny morning on the edge of summer. It was a good feeling, one I don’t want to forget. I think it nods at ‘Future Project’, which is afterall the song that started it all. I hope the listener gets a sense of coming back around in that way, but at the end of the day they’re gonna get whatever they get out of it, and that’s ok.
