Virginia-based rock artist JUST LOUD today released his self-titled debut album Just Loud across digital music platforms via Better Noise Music. The album is chock full of powerful, emotional statements, with songs like new single “Heaven,” produced by David Katz (All Time Low, Katy Perry, Mandy Moore) and Patrick Nissley (YUNGBLUD), “Jackie Chan” and “Ghost.” JUST LOUD, who previously collaborated with Debbie Harry of Blondie on “Soul Train,” worked on “Heaven” with Katz and Nissley to create the upbeat anthemic track. Since the album’s release, JUST LOUD has enjoyed two Top 30 Alternative radio hits and over 11M streams. Singles “Electrified” and “Soul Train” have garnered over 2M views on YouTube, with the former seeing over 8M streams and the latter over 2.6M streams across digital platforms. See below for a full tracklisting. Stream Just Loud here.
On the album’s release, JUST LOUD said: “I am glad to be partnering with Better Noise to finally bring this project to fruition. Thank you to all my fans for your patience and support in helping this record see the light of day. This record is dedicated to you.”
He also spoke on his song “Ghost,” “The first line is ‘I talk too much or not at all,’ and that’s me, 100%,” explains JUST LOUD. “I’m very shy and outspoken — a full Gemini — and that balance is hard when it comes to being in a relationship with someone. Can you handle all of me? Would you go ghost on me once you found out who I am?”
“I knew someone who was on Soul Train years ago—she got kicked off,” says JUST LOUD about “Soul Train.” “When we parted ways, I was like, ‘I’m gonna write a song about that.’ It’s a rebellious record—I want everyone to get up, move, and have a good time.”
JUST LOUD has performed tracks from the album at Bottlerock, SXSW, and Lollapalooza, and had “Angels and Demons,” a song from his self-titled, featured in FoxTV’s The Resident, earning him 60K Spotify listeners and 11K followers over time. Just Loud sees the artist imagine himself as different characters exorcising their demons.
JUST LOUD TRACKLISTING Ghost Say It Right You Got the Moves Will You Still Love Me Angels and Demons Electrified Blue on Blue Soul Train Run for Your Life Masterpiece Heaven Diamonds and Dope Boys It’s a Wonderful Life
ABOUT JUST LOUD In 2015, the artist currently known as JUST LOUD underwent a sonic baptism. Though timid, eager to please, and a perfectionist by nature, the artist’s alter ego, JUST LOUD, unabashedly “does not give a fuck.” And he has the outsize voice to prove it. Like Freddie Mercury, Chris Cornell, and Prince before him, JUST LOUD is squarely rock in spirit, yet genre-transcendent in evocative vocal abilities.
Each of his debut offerings are, in kind, powerful emotional statements. The riled-up anthem “Jackie Chan” is a contact-high of erupting emotions, and the funked-out “Soul Train,” a hit of seductive bravado. In contrast, the sublimely levitating “Ghost” is actually an unnerving imagining of an accidental-overdose afterlife, while his fractured-falsetto cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” just kicks you in the gut. “It was probably one of the hardest songs for me to get through, because it applies so much to my life,” he says of the latter. “I didn’t grow up with that nurturing love. I identify with that song.”
Those demons dig deep, his music a pure expression of what’s been percolating inside him. The gutting “Angels & Demons” is an indie-rock gospel confronting rejection (“I have fallen/Kicked from heaven/Goodbye/My only sin was to watch you”).“I have a big heart that people have used to their advantage. And I’m stuck with the broken pieces,” he says. “From a biblical standpoint, Lucifer got kicked out of heaven, because he had questions. I feel like it’s the same situation with me.”
Its companion tracks are “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a lilting cut with a sticky hook about making bad decisions, and “Masterpiece,” a look back about when he started making good ones. A melodic spoken-word piece set against a reggae beat, it’s artistic repentance for all the pre-Just Loud years, when he stayed quiet as outside forces deferred his dreams. “A masterpiece I threw away,” he sings. “Just an incomplete symphony/So bittersweet/A masterpiece too hard to say.”
