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A LIVE SESSION WITH THE ARTIST AND HIS BAND FOLLOWING THE spring release of his sophomore record ‘jvc’

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The hardest part of life is sometimes the limbo — the uncertain space between steps, where there’s no blueprint for purpose or roadmap for what’s next.

Shortly after Jack Van Cleaf finished college and released his debut album, he was given a graduation gift from the gods in the form of his first existential crisis.

While an adult on paper, he discovered he didn’t know where to go or what to do. Feeling lost and anxious, he turned away from the world to spend time alone, trying to figure out who he was and what he really wanted to do.

This period of soul searching and footing finding inspired the songs that went on to become JVC: a record that’s simultaneously a product of the artist’s limbo state and — with a record deal and tour schedule — also his ticket out of it.

When it came time to record the album, Jack sought out a landscape that reflected the “emotional desert” where these songs were born, heading to Joshua Tree, and later, West Texas.

Oh, and one slightly less isolated locale: Electric Lady Studios right here in NYC, where he worked with a fan by the name of Zach Bryan to re-interpret 2022’s “Rattlesnake,” the viral track that first put Jack on the map.

JVC dropped in May, and five months later, on the second day of BdBK x AMERICANAFEST, Jack and his band swung by our festival basecamp in Madison to hit the stage at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge.

During this Friday-afternoon session — just one stop on his stacked festival schedule — Jack and his friends played three songs from JVC: “Hikikomori”; “Using You”; “Rattlesnake.” Plus, for the encore, an older one called “For The Birds.”

In between the tracks, Jack and I chatted about the new record, talking tour as a healer, love as a drug and pulling song inspiration from a Box of Emotions.

And yeah, Brad and I might have cried. But just a little.

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Want more AMERICANAFEST? Check out our session with Leslie Jordan.

Follow Jack Van Cleaf at @jackvancleaf and add the music to your Spotify playlists!

Follow I Know We Should at @iknowweshould and subcribe on YouTube.

Credits: Brad Wagner – Video // Juan M Soria – Audio // Jamie Robertson – Lighting // Anna Lindqvist – Production Assistant // Arieh Samson – Production Manager