Jason P. Woodbury is the voice behind JPW, the self-titled acronym representing the Arizona songwriter’s latest output. The nine-track LP slides in just shy of a 40-minute runtime, featuring a penchant for the psychedelic and mystical that scratches a different itch than the crunching guitars of his rock outfit, Kitimoto. Both are evocative of the desert Woodbury has come up in, but where Kitimoto rides a blazing, guitar-driven wave, JPW wanders on a more incongruous, mystified string. “Halfway to Eloy” saunters between influences like Bruce Springsteen and Todd Rundgren, the artist notes.
“In a lot of weird ways, I don’t quite know what ‘Halfway to Eloy’ is about myself,” says Woodbury. “I want to evoke this out-there ‘State Trooper’ vibe where you don’t get a full view of what you’re digesting, but you get it from a certain point of view. There’s mystery. I like the idea of this song being viewed from this weird lens.”