Artwork by @mystupidsketchbook
WHO is he?
“My name is Ben, I work as a visual artist and musician under the name Jinnwoo, and I live in Brighton at the moment. I’m about to release my first album Strangers Bring Me No Light on the 2nd of September which was produced by Noah Georgeson, Ben Walker, Gerry Diver and Weikie. It features guest vocals from Alasdair Roberts, Kami Thompson, Kyla La Grange, Rachael Dadd, Malcolm Middleton, Caroline Weeks, Pam Thompson and Georgia Ruth – and has guest playing from Hannah Peel and The Earlies.”
“As a visual artist I have produced art for the likes of Lucy Rose, Kami Thompson, The Rails, Duologue, Hollie Cook, Amy Studt, Laura White, Kagoule, Nic Jones, and many others. I also draw horrible little self portraits that I don’t know what to do with yet. I store them all in a file on my computer that’s called “horrible little self portraits that I don’t know what to do with yet”, just so I don’t forget.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind his new single Wicked Hare?
“I was having a difficult time – I had just dropped out of Goldsmiths College, and came back to Leicester – I’d taken a job at a Care Home to help me get money things back on track. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had become completely disillusioned by art and education, and was just tiptoeing into music whenever I could find the time between working.”
“I think all the uncertainty triggered me to start struggling with my mental health again, and I was trying to get help. I spent a lot of time going on long walks out in the fields and going over things in my mind – old relationships, and thinking a lot about mental health and how the brain works. This song was the outcome of all of that uncertainty and the rolling thoughts. I’d see a lot of rabbits and hares on my walk, and they became a sort of face of, or icon of the illness. I thought about them a lot at the time – it seems a bit abstract now, but it made perfect sense at the time.”
WHERE did he grow up?
“I grew up in rural Leicestershire, in a village called Barlestone. It’s the sort of place you hate when you’re there, and then miss every day when you leave. There was nothing to do there except walking in fields and woods, but that was actually enough. Driving down long country roads at night with good friends, screaming along to mix tapes. You have to make your own fun there. I live in Brighton now, which is a completely different world.”
WHY the name Jinnwoo?
“Someone told me that’s what my name is, and I believed them.”
WHEN can I see him live?
13th July: Starry Starry Night Sessions, London
31st July: Cambridge Folk Festival, Cambridge
HOW can I get to know him better?
Listen & Watch: Soundcloud // Youtube // Artwork/photography
Like & Follow: Facebook // Twitter
The Five Ws of 