Jesus The Dinosaur Photo credit: Miryam Weiss and J Kimball
When Tommy Ng reaches emotional capacity at a party or other intense social setting, they often struggle to find the right words to say to keep up with conversations and pleasantries. But when it comes to songwriting, the Boston artist and Jesus The Dinosaur founder experiences a sensation that’s quite the opposite.
Appealing to anyone who feels overwhelmed and anxious when forced to interact and communicate with others outside their comfort zones, Jesus The Dinosaur release new single “Sweet Nothing” this week, and we are exclusively premiering the track today on The Big Takeover.
“Sweet Nothing” is officially released tomorrow (Friday, March 20) on Bandcamp, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms except Spotify.
With a kinetic acoustic stomp that builds into a heavy, freefalling riff wound tightly around a pop core of catharsis, “Sweet Nothing” is the indie folk band’s first new music since 2022. It’s also the first with a fully-formed five-piece lineup, setting a personal and invitational tone for the group’s forthcoming debut album, Nothing To The Branches, arriving on May 15.
“For me personally, I’m describing what it feels like to be in a social setting while being maxed out on my social meter,” Ng admits. “I have a big people-pleasing problem (working on it), so I’ll keep pushing through social interactions even when I have nothing left to give, so what comes out of my mouth at that point is usually just that: filler, forced smiles, canned responses, bullshit. Just enough to pass as pleasing and agreeable to everyone. It all kind of makes me sick and I need a lot of alone time afterward. But that takes its toll, too.”
Perhaps somewhat ironically, a song inspired by not having the right words to say in a social setting was penned with its lyrics arriving first. Ng, a veteran Boston songwriter who also performs with Chadwick Stokes’ band, is often at ease in relaying emotions through music, conveying a confessional and lived-in tone that tumble and turn like revealed entries from a personal diary.
“I usually write lyrics and music at the same time or music first, but I was experimenting with writing music to words for this song,” they add. “Same as a lot of the songs on this record, I sent over a verse and chorus to the band from my phone and let it evolve from there in the practice space together.”
Soon after, “Sweet Nothing” bloomed into the track it is today, with the new incarnation of Jesus The Dinosaur elevating it to a swirling fit of propulsive energy that makes the listener feel like they’re sitting in with the band. That’s perhaps the direct result of the quintet operating as a cohesive unit for Nothing To The Branches, with Ng (vocals, acoustic guitar) rounded out by Hannah Foxman (electric guitar, vocals), J Kimball (electric guitar), Bradley Robertson (bass, vocals), and Jamie Rowe (drums, percussion).
“Sweet Nothing” was produced, engineered, mixed by Rowe at Rare Signals in Cambridge and The Record Co. in Boston, with additional engineering by Brian Charles at Rare Signals. It was mastered by Ian Farmer and his cat, Onion, at The Metal Shop in Philadelphia.
“I think the songs on this record explore a range of feelings, some of which are pretty tough and uncomfortable,” Rowe says. “In the studio we have the opportunity to put all five of our sensibilities and curiosities together to sonically express some of these complex feels in a way that supports what Tommy brings to the table lyrically.”
What began as an Ng solo and guest collaborator project – releasing a string of singles and EPs over the past dozen years, and earning Boston Music Award nominations in the Folk Artist of the Year categories along the way – has recently shifted into something bolder and broader. In 2022, with the release of their most recent EP …I’m Passing By My Truths as Fixed Points Only to Return, the band had been operating as a trio (Ng, Foxman, and Robertson), but soon enlisted Rowe and Kimball. Robertson says the band was “learning how to write harmonies over wobbly acoustic guitar, plucky bass, and cassette-recorded drum loops,” and wanted to keep playing those songs with additional, full-time players.
Robertson adds: “At that point, with three guitars and a full lineup, we spent a lot of time experimenting and figuring out the space each of us could occupy without stepping on one another in the arrangements. In doing so, I think we’ve learned a lot about how we each play our instruments, how to support one another, and how to communicate our ideas.”
Those ideas also extend lyrically into social and societal issues, as Rowe suggests, which unfurl vividly in kaleidoscopic color across the album. Exploring themes of gender identity, relationship dynamics, and the oppressive forces that denigrate our daily lives, Nothing To The Branches is a statement of purpose and intent. Which is also why the band has decided to not release the singles or the album on Spotify.
On boycotting Spotify, Kimball explains:
“We’re joining the ever-growing community of artists who are boycotting the company. This includes joining our Boston music peers who are doing the same, which is an exciting development toward using our leverage as a music community. The reasons for rejecting Spotify are numerous and well documented at this point, including running ICE recruitment ads, founder and executive chairman Daniel Ek’s investments in AI warfare and surveillance technology, the introduction and flooding-in of AI artists and playlists onto the platform, the lowest royalty payments of streaming platforms… the reasons increase every day.”
What’s also increasing is the confidence Jesus The Dinosaur have in this new lineup and enhanced sound. With “Sweet Nothing,” the band blurs the genre lines of indie rock and folk-pop, with five creative voices all contributing to its organic development, and providing a portal into how Jesus The Dinosaur experiment with sound across Nothing To The Branches. The core of the sound present on the lead single and the album is centered around the experience of the band playing together as a group.
“We have so much fun playing it,” Kimball says. “I still remember the first time hearing Tommy’s voice memo… it immediately felt so fully formed, so exciting, and it was really easy to imagine the rest of the band alongside them. It’s also pretty different from previous Jesus The Dinosaur songs, and even kind of a departure from any other songs on the new album. We felt like it’d be an exciting and surprising way to introduce people to this era of the band.”
New music on the way? Pitch Big Takeover Exclusives.
