““Young Jesus” isn’t exactly a sprawling moniker, yet it still has a heft to it, don’t you think? Suppose John Rossiter’s solo indie‑rock project opted for something tighter and punchier? What if the name got a sleek makeover? And what if he branded it… Teenjus?
Not totally sure. I’m just tossing around concepts in a mental brainstorm. The possibilities are endless. Rossiter’s most recent full‑length under Young Jesus was The Fool, released in 2024, and a few months later he dropped the benefit EP John Case. Today on Bandcamp he unveils a mythic country‑rock surge titled “The Devil.” He handles every instrument on the track and stacks his voice into a multi‑layered falsetto howl. It’s an oddball piece, to be sure. Here’s Rossiter’s note as it appears in the Bandcamp description:
I used the money I earned from scoring a documentary about Ferraris to buy a violin from Gary Chen at Stein on Vine. I hauled the violin to Hen House Studios, laid down a drone over a drum machine, and wrapped the instrumental parts in a single session. It marked the first time I’d played violin since studying Concierto for Two Violins with Lora Zhizhin about 25 years ago.
Harlan sent me the stems and I wrote some lyrics over them. I’d been dreaming about the devil a lot. In the year since making the tune I’ve run into the devil more and more. For most of my life I’ve shut him out completely or pretended he didn’t exist.
It’s no exaggeration to say I felt possessed playing the guitar solo. I’ve never been able to play like that before or since.
Hear it below.
“The Devil” is out now on Music Sounds Records/Saddle Creek.
