The chronicles of Ayron Jones.

Although his success seemed to come out of nowhere, Ayron Jones had been performing and recording for more than a decade when “Mercy”, from his 2021 solo album Child of the State, took the number one spot in the Billboard Rock Chart and propelled him to stardom. This June sees the release of Chronicles of the Kid, followed by an international tour, starting in the UK and Europe before heading across North America.

Unlike Child of the State, for which recording was split between LA, Nashville and his native Seattle, Chronicles of the Kid was recorded in its entirety at Sienna Studios in Nashville. “So the flavour is a little bit different. The first record had a more Seattle tone, more indie tone, whereas this record definitely feels like a major production.” Work on the new album began even before the release of the previous one, with most tracks co-written with producers Marti Frederiksen and Scott Stevens. However, one song that means a lot to Jones pre-dates the rest: “Living for the Fall”. “I wrote that song with my buddy Greg Fields before I got signed. I was dreaming at this point; I was trying to figure out how I was going to make it all happen. I was going to have to take this leap of faith, jump off this ledge not knowing if I’m going to land safely.” It was a risk that paid off. “I was in Strasbourg in France, in this cathedral, and I remember just thinking to myself: Had I not made the choices I made, the sacrifices, would I be here right now? That’s really what that’s about – giving everything I have for my fans, my family and myself, no matter what, and making that leap of faith.”

The importance of seizing the day also underpins “Otherside”. “When you look around and you see there’s climate change, kids get shot at in schools, all these things that are so fearful, there’s got to be a moment when you stop and say, ‘I want this for myself,’ and you go get it, no matter what.” Musically, it’s Jones’s tribute to the classic rock that is his foundation, such as Deep Purple and Pink Floyd, whose David Gilmour is a particular guitar hero. “The way that he played wasn’t this crazy shredder thing but it meant everything. It’s like a heavyweight boxing match: you don’t want to waste your emotions if they’re not going to be impactful to the fight. You want every note to be meaningful, you want every note to be able to move someone and take them somewhere. You can take it even further back to the blues guys – I’ve seen cats that can shred but they can’t hold a candle to Buddy Guy’s one solo note, where he just spins the note and holds it for five minutes – but I’d say that 60s–70s era of guitar playing is what we are all striving to go after.” With “Otherside”, Jones takes that sound and updates it for a new generation. “I wanted to make a song that was going to reach out to the kids today who are really starting to get into classic rock.” He takes inspiration from all sorts of other music in order to revitalize the genre, such as the hip-hop of Lil Wayne. “That’s a dude I would want to work with. I would love if I could get on a Lil Wayne track.”

“I always have a little bit of this darkness that I carry with me, but it’s not dark because it makes me sad, it’s dark because dark is just a part of life sometimes”

— Ayron

Several songs allude to Jones’s childhood, “Blood in the Water” reflecting on the parents who were unable to care for him while “The Sky Is Crying” considers the long shadow cast by that abandonment. “All that stuff was a really traumatic experience for me, but I learned how to live in a state of positivity no matter what. I always have a little bit of this darkness that I carry with me, but it’s not dark because it makes me sad, it’s dark because dark is just a part of life sometimes.”

Chronicles of the Kid shows how Jones has been able not just to survive the darkness but to thrive – which is what the American Dream means to him, as celebrated in “My America”. Although the 1950s ideal of a nuclear family safe in their white-picket-fenced home now feels outdated, he believes that the American Dream persists in an ability to cling on to hope for a better life in the face of poverty, violence and despair. “I travel quite a bit overseas, and when you have a chance to observe America from the outside looking in, it looks like a wild, crazy place. But as many political differences as we may have with each other, there’s something that makes us so solid, and it’s this idea that there is more out there for us.”

Jones says Chronicles of the Kid is the middle chapter of the story he began to tell in Child of the State – “Chapter Three is yet to be disclosed.” Picking up where its predecessor left off, just before he signed to major record label Big Machine, it is a candid account of the seismic effects of sudden fame on relationships and lifestyle, identity and ego. “Before I got signed, I was home most of the time with my kids, my wife – I had a pretty normal life. There was definitely some cool moments, my indie career was going really well, but it was nothing compared to the tidal wave that would hit me after I went to number one.” The phenomenal, unexpected success of “Mercy” took place during the pandemic so its effects were somewhat delayed, making for an even more dramatic transition to his new life when lockdown ended. “Everything opened up, and all of a sudden I’m travelling, girls want to be your best friend, guys want to be your best friend, everywhere you go. I’ve been sitting at bars plenty of times where no one knows who I am, and then it takes one person just to say, ‘Oh, you’re that famous guy,’ and all of a sudden everything has shifted. We actually played an experiment: I was with my guitar tech and we traded. So as we walked in the room, all I did was, ‘Yo, man, this is Ayron Jones, international rockstar!’ – a tall, lengthy white dude! – and the whole room switched up and everything changed ... until one dude was like, ‘Isn’t Ayron Jones Black?’ I was, ‘The jig is up, we gotta go!’ The price of fame is something that you just don’t understand until it’s at your front door.”

For Jones, the biggest challenge is managing what he calls the “split personality” of the famous rockstar. “You have to figure out how you are going to be both those people at the same time – you’re a rocker, you’re the famous guy on this side, and then on the other side you’re just Dad, you’re someone’s lover, you’re somebody’s friend, you’re a cousin, you’re an uncle, you’re a brother.” While it has got easier over time, he still struggles to readjust when he gets home from tour: “I think a lot of military cats deal with this too, if they’ve been out fighting overseas – you have to re-enter into your regular life. So, I’ve definitely had to balance the two: to enjoy myself without losing myself, and calm down when I’m home. I’ve had to learn how to manage that so I can continue to be successful in my career. That’s what this record is about.”

Chronicles of the Kid is out June 23rd 2023.

Author: Rachel Goodyear