Jo Hirabayashi–the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer behind Canada’s Jo Passed–is very much alive, even though his sophomore album, Away, took eight years to come out. You can’t, or shouldn’t, rush a good thing, and this collection of 11 layered indie rockers is as honest and real as it gets. With his 2018 debut LP Their Prime (Sub Pop) long behind him, Away showcases Hirabayashi at his creative best, and is the culmination of a long and arduous road on which he suffered burnout and anxiety as he scrapped various versions before arriving at its final state. “Away is a process record–about processing, about the process of making music, and the process of navigating one's own psyche,” he notes.
Centered around Hirabayashi’s mental health journey and recovery in between releases, the songs of Away range from existential to deeply personal, all with a lighthearted touch and explored via a knotty, dynamic sound that might’ve occurred if Elliott Smith had jammed with Brian Eno in the ‘70s. Hirabayashi leads on vocals, bass, guitar and keys, along with Téa Mei on additional vocals, drums by Mac Lawrie and Justin Devries, strings by Meredith Bates, and woodwinds and saxophones by Andromeda Monk. The resulting album is like an impasto painting, layered on thick then scraped and glazed. The necessary soft cuddle in all this stress and uncertainty unfolds with the standout single "Ico" is dedicated to Téa Mei's cherished 15-year-old Siberian long-haired cat, co-parented by Hirabayashi for five years.
Written during the pandemic, “Ico” chronicles the simple stress-free life of the feline’s day, while subtly zeroing in on the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy and being in the moment, as well as reflections on philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air. “The lockdown era of the still-present COVID pandemic is already a kind of retro-referenced universe, and everyone seemed to write their own songs from that time. This one is mine,” Hirabayashi explains. “But more than that, this song is about my cat–her freedom in repetition, the steady rhythm of her days. Her calm, grounding presence became both a mentor and a lifesaver for me during those years, and I owe everything to her. Sadly, she’s been diagnosed with lung cancer and kidney failure. I'm hoping that I can get this record out and that song out before she passes away. Everything else on the album is this dark, dreary exploration of anxiety and human fixation, and I felt it needed something that was more positive.”
As such, Away heavily plays on themes of ego death, death itself, and general loss. “J Walking” explores the notion of being stuck–paralyzed by imagined external voices peering within and preventing oneself from moving forward. “Precious Word” focuses on a person’s fixation with words and labels while grounding their identity, while “Dizzy Izzy” addresses a falling out with a friend. “Too Much Thought” returns to anxiety and losing yourself in your own thought patterns. Yes, it’s been a long eight years…six of those spent in therapy.
Starting his music career on the West Coast, Hirabayashi became entrenched in Vancouver’s DIY music scene in his late teens before moving across the country to Montreal, then back to Vancouver. He started Jo Passed in 2015, a solo project that always had a dedicated touring lineup. They released a couple of EPs, Up and Out, before coming to the attention of iconic label Sub Pop and respected Canadian indie label Royal Mountain. Recording partly at his home studio, Thor's Palace in Vancouver, then finishing up and mixing at KW Studios, the resultant Their Prime was hailed as “a brilliant and unexpected ride from start to finish” by DIY Magazine, and enabled Jo Passed to tour with Wolf Parade in 2019. “It was one of the first times that I actually got to open for a band that I loved and was influenced by,” he says. But behind the scenes, there were some interpersonal problems. He cancelled a tour and the band dissolved. “It definitely triggered my realization that I was experiencing very hard burnout,” reflects Hirabayashi.
What transpired over the next eight years was a lot of time away from his creative pursuits. Hirabayashi began to focus on supporting other artists through composition, production, and videography/filmmaking. During this time, Away was written, re-written, some scrapped, some reworked, and some left to contemplate then return to later with fresh ears. There was also a year-long break where he didn’t even listen to the album. Yet despite all the challenges, Hirabayashi emerged refreshed.
“One of the biggest factors was taking space to actually find myself creatively,” says Hirabayashi. “I turned a tough time into creativity and found my way back to myself. Two years later, I've got an album I love. Taking that time was worth it, and I hope this record inspires others to be kind to themselves and patient with their own pace.”
