In the age of bedroom pop, intimacy is an oft cited emotion. Anything quiet and halfway confessional is labelled intimate, anything crafted via iPhone mics and computerised drums as personal, as though only in the immediacy of compromise and imperfection can authenticity be found. Some are successful, for sure, technology going some way to democratising music, but the danger is that the signs replace the real thing—’intimacy’ in inverted commas, just another genre tag.
The music of Jo Schornikow stands in opposition to this. As shown on latest album Secret Weapon, her first solo release since 2012, Schornikow presents intimacy in its intrinsic, intangible sense, a pure intimacy that cannot be reduced to any sound or style. “A secret weapon is a hidden source of strength,” reads a line in the album’s description, capturing something of its modest power. “Unpretentious good work, a reminder of what to aim for.”
Jo Schornikow’s history is not the average story. Starting out as a church organist and jazz pianist, she went on to play with Hugh Jackman and Lana Del Rey before eventually becoming a touring member of Phosphorescent, which is led by her partner Matthew Houck. The pair had two children in 2014-15, and Secret Weapon explores the experience of motherhood, an upheaval that far outweighed any experienced as a touring musician.
Released last month on Keeled Scales, the record is intended as an antidote to turmoil and restlessness of the period. “In direct contrast to the chaos that child-rearing amidst a music career can be,” the label explain, “Secret Weapon pours from a deeply situated place of profound quiet, a place of restraint, contemplation, and healing.” The album’s brevity speaks to this, twenty-five snatched minutes amidst everything else. Think of it as a space carved out in the middle of time’s flow—a conscious attempt to reflect on what might otherwise prove a breathless blur, and to communicate honestly about a period all too often reduced to rose-tinted ideals.
Opening song ‘Alright’ explores this directly, grasping at the terror and joy of parenthood. “Light of mine, o love required / divine love, terrified,” Schornikow sings, “love is just a lot of time / love is just a child of mine.” Dawning slowly with vivid grace, the track has a devotional quality, like some hymn drawn from above then sent back skywards, its beauty always drifting off, as though too light for this world.
yet love is love and born of love &
love is never enough
it’s just a mother’s call to quiet
love I know, it’s all alright
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Schornikow’s songs belong to the same lineage as Phosphorescent’s. Synths bring an otherworldly modernism to the uniquely hopeful lonesome vibe of traditional folk/county. In contrast to the bedroom genres, Schornikow’s music is intimacy in a timeless guise, the blurring of genres allowing her to avoid any reliance on tropes, the genuine human heart behind the sound allowed to beat through.
‘Incomplete’ is a good example, a track which melds Schornikow’s country songwriting with minimal contemporary pop, creating something downbeat but richly emotive. ‘Only One’ is similarly sparse though dappled with a golden hope, just as spring sunlight is caught on the surface of a lake.
There are solely folk songs too, like ‘Will You Miss Me’ which is built of mostly just guitar and Schornikow’s voice, the words those of the sentimental wanderer which has populated these songs for decades. ‘Martingale’ too is rooted in the traditional, piano and guitar intertwining as the lyrics face the themes of love and death with a classically wry tone. “The oldest joke,” Schornikow sings, “is getting old.”
‘Ghosts’ is a hushed but emotionally intense, striving for connection to the present while being haunted by the spectres of the people you used to be, while ‘Home’ is a direct and plaintive love song that swells with an understated majesty, a grand organ in a dilapidated cathedral. Finale ‘Interspecies’ has an even more otherworldly atmosphere, glimmering synths swirling like the cosmos as Schornikow sings of unrealistic expectations.
Oh how I made you God’s perfect image
A perfect stranger, a perfect plan
Now that it’s later I see the mistakes
I made when I drew ya with my own hand
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In many ways, Secret Weapon is something of a prayer, an album of tender words drawn from love and fear and tied in an awareness of time’s passing and the beauty of things. Perhaps the secret to Jo Schornikow’s intimacy is the intention behind its creation—her opening up not intended as some final answer or complete reveal but rather more like a question. This is how things are, how things were, how things might be.
Secret Weapon out now via Keeled Scales. The LP bundle options are pretty special for this release too. Choose to add a baseball cap or a Petrichor & Eucalyptus scented candle for a few extra dollars.
