Northern England quartet Jackson Hewitt have crafted an engaging sound that was founded in folk and has progressively increased in heaviness, and they describe as “emotional, organic and driven.”
The band, formed of Ian Hewitt (vocals and guitar), Greg Davies (lead guitar and vocals), Jay Brown (bass and vocals), Matt Welham (drums and vocals), started out as a folk outfit. They swiftly transitioned towards progressive folk rock before becoming, in their words, “a full-on, balls-out rock band.” They began to share ideas for their latest album, Blood+Vitellus, which was released in January, during lockdown and it evolved into a concept album about two tribes.
And describing the sound they’ve honed over the years, they told us: “Organic. Real. honest and naked. No electronic trickery. What you hear on the album is what you hear live!”
To get a taste for this, they sent us Protest Song, which comes from the new album. It opens up with a fun driving riff and rolling drums that drop into engaging high-pitched vocals supported by rolling guitars, before exploding into big vocal cries. Second time around, it drops into rolling drums, which continue under a darting riff that leads into powerful vocals “We see their numbers rising, Their force is palpable, Can you feel it crumbling slowly, Can you feel it falling down” to set up a dramatic conclusion.
On the track, they told us: “Blood & Vitellus is a concept album and is the only recorded history of the fate of the two tribes. Protest Song marks the point in the Blood & Vitellus story when the revolution has finally taken hold and social change is inevitable.
“Expect an intense, power-driven urgency. Shift happens and shift happens fast. The chorus is a chant, the voice of the people ‘Fall Stand Fight.’ And with those three words the Protesters (the Fallen) have a voice.”
The album is packed with more energetic rocky goodness, including The Boy Who Just Falls Down, which features a funky little guitar solo, the lively Baby Soldiers, a personal favourite Ghosts of the Forest People and the funky Kites And Mushrooms. But it’s also a diverse album, with calmer tracks like Father, In Between The Gaps and Fallow.
The Jackson Hewitt has been a long time in the making, as Ian tells us: “I first became aware of music in 1975. I lived in a small town in the north. It had a small record shop that I would walk past. Then one day, something incredible happened. Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols arrived in the shop window display. And there and then, something changed inside of me. I was no longer just watching the world through a TV screen, watching everyone else live interesting lives whilst I trudged through the mundanity of going to school. I felt invigorated at the thought that these crazy rebellious bastards could reach out from London and touch my strike-ridden northern home. ‘Fuck it’ I was going to make a noise. I was going to push my head above the ramparts and take my own battle to the world.”
And on what inspires them to write music, the band explained: “We absolutely prefer to write as a unit. As one entity made of four pieces. Not one of us will walk into the studio with a completed song and say ‘hey guys play along to what I’ve written.’ No, that’s not us. We prefer to prowl around one and other until magic happens. The feeling of entering a room with nothing other than the desire to create, to feed off of each other as artists, is incredibly invigorating and nerve-racking at the same time. Each part of the four expects the other three to be on their game. Yes it’s pressure, but it is mostly a wonderful reward.”
If you like what you heard from Jackson Hewitt, then there’s plenty more to come. The band is already hard at work on album number four with producer Simon Thomas (Foo Fighters, Neil Young, Gary Numan), on which they tell us: “The new songs are sounding awesome… with some surprises also.” You can also see the band live at Northern Guitars Bar in Leeds on Saturday (12 July) then at The Spinning Top in Stockport on 30 August.
And, for a little further intrigue, they added: “How many rock bands’ frontmen do you know who have dug and dragged a SPITFIRE out of and off of a mountain in Norway, to repatriate and rebuild it to flight? Well our singer has! You can read the whole story here.”
You can follow Jackson Hewitt on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify and Apple Music.
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