You are Going to Be Fine
Debut album from J. Steinfort, a bittersweet outing of Folk and Americana-inspired nostalgia.
After writing songs on and off over the years while working his day-job in advertising and raising a young family, J. started recording acoustic sketches of ideas and sending them to a guitarist friend (Karsten Jurkschat) living in NYC, who would tinker and send them back. These sketches began to sound quite compelling and when the lockdowns that started happening around the world in 2020, J. found himself with more time for music and quickly brought together the bones of an album.
Recording and engineering most of the tracks from his tiny home studio, he added arrangements, guitar, and keyboard parts recorded by Karsten on the other side of the world, while enlisting the help of other long suffering friends to help bring more colour and dynamics to the preliminary recordings.
Listen on Spotify or Apple Music
Opening with the sound of the waves of Mentone Beach, the album title and title track, “You are going to be fine” was a personal mantra for the bottom of an emotional downswing and the understanding that this too shall pass. Unassuming personal stories are lyrically connected with broader shared experiences in a striking balance of intimacy and relatability.
Dave Moore adds a dark and moody pedal steel to the slow burn “Out of My Mind”, while Max Abrams and Steve Patrick bring their Nashville Brass to the soul inspired “Where I’ve been”. The distinctive sound of the production was developed with the help of mixer Adam Selzer in Portland, OR (M. Ward, Decemberists) and mastering by Jon Neufeld.
The uptempo ‘How I Paid for my First Guitar’, complete with rolling banjo, reflects on the inexperience of youth and lessons learned the hard way through the lens of an irresponsible instrument purchase.
The first single ‘Right in Time’ (Released July 28) spens with a simple rising snare fill, then bursts forth with dirty, but sweet Telecasters, before settling into a laid back upbeat groove. The P bass and drums work together to create space for the vocal which is punctuated by an echoey guitar, pulsing from ear to ear.
Right in time is the first single from You are going to be fine J.Steinfort’s debut LP, a melancholic reminisce in the style of a pop song. Listen now
“It’s about a problem in your life that you need to solve. And even though you want it to be over, you can’t seem to let it go. What’s worse is you know that when it is finally gone it’ll be like it was never there, and that in turn makes you wonder how important it was in the first place.
I guess it’s my version of a pop song.”
Garage rock inspired “Daisy” considers childhood naivety and the loss of a beloved family dog. Haunting “Fight or Flight” was initially penned in the aftermath of the “Black Saturday” fires around Melbourne but in subsequent years has only seemed to gather more relevance. The album wraps with the melodic feedback of ‘Feels like Forever’. Specifically documenting the isolation of lockdown, but more broadly ponders the difference between time as it is experienced or as it is remembered.
Overall the record maintains a fresh yet familiar feeling and a hopeful thread from start to finish. Though melancholic it works as a cathartic release and ultimately you know you are going to be fine.
The perfect soundtrack for a road trip.