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To put it lightly, Jagwar Twin's latest album, 33 is genius. From start to finish, Jagwar Twin, the brainchild of singer, songwriter, producer, and storyteller Roy English, wastes zero time making the most of all ten genre-bending songs, cumulating in something that feels truly epic.

33 takes listeners on a journey through massive, time-warping songs like "Online" to the vibrant "Soul Is A Star" and veers off toward the disco-tinged "Pay Attention," hip-hop leaning tracks like "I Like To Party" and "Down To You," all of which lead up to the stunning, theatrical closer, "The Circle." Jagwar Twin repeatedly proves that he can obliterate our expectations and leave us wanting more. Empathy, community, and creative expression collide equally with beautiful and confessional songs. English dissolves the imaginary barriers between the artist and the audience. 

The Noise was able to catch up with the dynamic artist and discuss the record, what it means to nurture your inner child, and the importance of having fun. 

Ones To Watch: You just played Firefly Fest not too long ago. How are you feeling, and how do you like to wind down and catch back up with yourself after playing huge shows?

Jagwar Twin: I'm feeling pretty peaceful at the moment. Firefly was beautiful, and the set was crazy. After I perform, I like to spend time alone and remember who I am after getting off stage. I always meditate, and I spend some time unpacking the show. I analyze what I could do better every time. I have been trying to do that less and just be present and enjoy it and then unpack, but yeah, I am always pushing myself.

What does the name of your album 33 mean to you? How does its significance seep into the record as a whole?

So thirty-three is the age I wrote the album. It represents peace within and without. That's something I've been working on a lot in my life and throughout the process of the album.

Did you know that you were making a record in the early days recording or was it a more organic process?

It did kind of just happen. "Happy Face" was the first song that ended up being on the album. It was supposed to be released earlier, but through the pandemic, I signed to a major label and got dropped. They hated "Happy Face." They wouldn't release it, and you know it was the best thing that could've ever happened. The whole theme of the album is, in some ways, catalyzing pain. So much pain and heartbreak went into writing the album, but it's looking at pain and trials as these beautiful opportunities to expand myself, and "Happy Face" is one of those. The whole album is about finding peace with all those things that made this beautiful body of work out of those difficult things.

What is inspiring or influencing you at the moment, and how did those things manifest themselves on the record?

I think it kind of just creeps in slowly over time. Even connecting with my younger self in the last few years and trying to rediscover what that little guy liked, you know, that stuff will creep in. Like, I loved Disney musicals, and there are elements of that in a song like "Online," where it's this opera, in a way, run through all the other crazy things that I like. Lately, I've been trying to get out of the way and let things flow through me.

One of my favorite songs on the record is "Soul Is A Star." It feels akin to a transcendental experience. Was there a song for you where you had a moment where you're just like, "Oh my god, I wrote this, and people are going to listen to this?"

I would say "Soul Is A Star" is one of them for me. The album was done, and I was in meditation, and there was that voice that talks to you, and you can call it whatever you want to personify. It is your higher self or your conscious or whatever. It was like, "You have one more song to write. Go write it right now." I was like, "Alright." I've just been trying to listen to that voice more, and that's where "Soul Is A Star" came from. I just sat down and wrote that, and I'm so glad I listened to that voice because that's what flowed through me, and afterward, I shed tears after I heard what was coming out and flowing through me. I was like, "This is going to be beautiful."

If you could name your higher self anything, what would it be?

She has a name, but right now, I call her Vi.

Has your philosophy or creative process changed throughout your career as you've evolved as an artist? Is it something innate or something more constant?

It was innate in me, and it's innate in everyone, but at least for me, I went through a period where I blocked it. When I was young, it flowed through, and then I started thinking more about, you know, "How do I become successful? How do I make money? How do I get people to like my music? How do I survive in the world as an artist?" It's those thoughts that blocked my creativity for a long time and, in some ways, caused me to make music that didn't really matter to me. So it didn't really matter to anyone else. But with this album, it was about reconnecting to your inner younger self and that inner voice that guides you and tells you what to do, and for me, it's like, "what's the truth?" Even in sessions with other people, I asked, "What's the truth?" Like, if we're writing a lyric, what's the truth, at least from my perspective. So that's what it's become about, creating more from the heart and a place of intuition—and then running it through the mind later, but I think if you reverse that, you can get stuck in a prison.

What advice would you give somebody stuck in a creative prison or rut?

Find what sparks you. Like, you know what's right when the song feels like it's writing itself. Like when you hear this chord progression or when a lyric is right, you're jumping up and down and feeling joy. So if you are thinking about it, you have to ask yourself the truth about what you feel and be able to express that and feel that you have to. I mean, it's just about knowing yourself. At the end of the day, being an artist is about knowing yourself. Being a human is about knowing yourself.

What's your favorite song from the album to play live right now?

"Online!" That song is so fun and so ridiculous. It's crazy playing that one live. At Firefly, it was nuts!

You got to work with the fabulous little luna on your song "Pay Attention." How did that creative partnership manifest, and what was it like working with her?

We'd been friends for close to 10 years before she was even making music, and we'd always been a part of each other's lives. It's been so beautiful to see her blossom into this amazing artist. I love her music, and she's the only feature on the album. I had this song, "Pay Attention," and I was like, "Who would understand what this song is about?" It's like this modern mythology, and I explained the idea, and she was like, "I'm in," and I just really wanted her on the song, so it was great to work with her.

If you could sum up the message of 33 in one sentence, what would it be?

Looking into your DNA. Trying to put anything into one sentence is incredibly difficult, and that's one of the reasons why I became an artist, because there were ideas, feelings, thoughts, and concepts that were almost beyond human language. 

Alongside the release of this record, you put out a bunch of really cool visuals, including the incredibly engaging music video for "Happy Face." How did you develop the concepts for each music video, and what were the most fun or challenging aspects of shooting from your perspective?

"Happy Face" was made in the middle of the pandemic lockdown. I had just been dropped from a major label and had no money or budget to do anything. So my friend Ryan Fleming and I just sat in my house and got a screen. I just pulled random clips of whatever was happening in the world at the time and similar things that had occurred at different points in human history. So we made this crazy thing up for $0.

Yeah, just a mode of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Yeah, as we've gone, we shot a video for "It's Your Time," which was a totally different process. We just wanted to rock out and have a good time. Then we just shot a video for "Online," which is bananas, and I cannot wait for that to come out. It's like a 2001 Space Odyssey, opera, dystopian optimistic play.

Is there one particular song that wasn't released as a single that you're most excited for people to hear?

"The Circle." That song existed way before I existed, in this form at least, and it feels like it's going to exist way after I peace out. It's my favorite song that has ever come through me. I was going to say written, but I don't even feel like I wrote that.

Right, it flowed through you and made its central concept more perceivable.

Yeah, I distorted it through my own lens. I hope I didn't distort it too much!

Throughout this record, you touch on many emotional topics and things that could be tough for somebody to talk about and put out into the world. So when you get into that space where you confront more emotionally volatile topics, how do you stay grounded so that the song's message comes across and there's empathy in it but it's also sonically precise?

That's a perceptive question because I have seen in music, and I don't think it's good or bad, but a lot of times, music can tend to go full on into, you know, talking about darkness and depression, which does need to be talked about too, but it kind of gets stuck over there. Like, what's the pull to the other side? A lot of 33, I call it Trojan horse music. Like, the lyrics for "Happy Face" are completely positive. "Hey, put on a happy face, and everything's okay," but when you pair that with psychotic dark clown music, it means something different. There's a different context. There's a different box that you're working within. Psychologically, singing along with, "Hey, put on a happy face," even if you're staring at dystopian images, it does something. Like, when we released the song, the only way you could hear it was you had to stare at dystopian images and smile for three-and-a-half minutes, or else the whole website would melt, and the song would stop playing. What's crazy about it is it does something in your brain's chemistry, giving you those positive feelings as if you were happy, and there are things you can do to train your mind. And so this is sort of a Trojan horse where I'm aware that I'm going into darkness, but with the purpose of pulling others out, because I've known darkness in myself and deep depression and deep anxiety. And I know that if I can come out of it, anyone can. And hopefully, those songs can serve as a way to pull people out.

What would you say if you could go back to your younger self at the beginning of your musical journey? 

I think I was always talking to myself. Do you know what I mean? When I was a kid, even then, there was still, and we all have that voice in our head that says, "Keep going. You're amazing. Keep going," And I still talk to that little boy now, and I say, "You're amazing," because he's still here with me, too. Time is a strange concept; I think you can speak forwards and backwards.

What are things that you do in your day-to-day now to nurture that part of yourself?

Try to take things less seriously now. When I was even a little kid, I took things seriously, even when I started music. So I'm just trying to have fun.

Jagwar Twin's 33 is available now.