JOHAN JERAS (1977)

 

I kind of envy people who make art just for the love of art. For me that's an impassable road, since I am uncurable religious and have an insatiable desire to include this into my work. It somehow feels incomplete or even empty if I wouldn't do so. If there wasn't any amount of faith through the years, I wouldn't even be a singer-songwriter at all. So hereby I give thanks to The Great Inspirer, the Source of all that is good, true and beautiful, the One I adore but cannot contain let alone understand: God. 

  

Then for my more earthly inspiration...It's a tricky business to name artistic influences. So many people made such beautiful music, wrote such beautiful songs or stories, crafted such beautiful art in all kinds of forms. There are the everyday life people who are indescribably inspiring for just being who they are. Some of them are well known some of them should be but aren't.  

To give you something of an idea I would like to name a few sources of inspiration who have utterly interested me over the last couple of years on the subject of composing and songwriting: Arvo Pärt, Sufjan Stevens, David Åhlèn, Patrick Watson and for this project in particular Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788).  

 

As you listen to the songs you could hear folk, classical music, hymns and indie singer-songwriter-stuff. Is it called chamber-pop? I don't know If it actually qualifies for this genre. Call it what you like. I have sought the good, the true and the beautiful and I sincerely hope you get caught up in it and feel the breeze I felt during the making of these songs.