Caleb Landry Jones is an enigma. Known to most as a character actor in such films as Get Out, X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and the breakout film from the Safdie Brothers; Heaven Knows What. But while his presence on the silver screen can be characterized as slippery and mysterious, the music that he creates on the side only adds pieces to the jigsaw puzzle that can either point to the full picture or perhaps, throw you off course even more. With his new album Gadzooks Vol. 1—out Friday, September 24 via Sacred Bones—the mystique grows deeper.
Released one year off of his dazzling theatrical debut The Mother Stone, his second album muddies the waters in a gratifying new way by adding a sense of dread and aggression that was only bubbling under the surface. His uncanny sense of Beatles-indebted, ‘60s psyche song structure is still present, with his whimsical faux British singing accent in tow. The album is full of short and shifty pop songs and ends with his most ambitious recording to date, the 20-minute opus “This Won’t Come Back.”
Aside from releasing this brand new album, Jones is set to star in three films in 2021 alone; alongside Tom Hanks in Finch, The Forgiven, and Nitram which he was awarded Best Actor for at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
In this conversation, Jones discusses his early musical influences, balancing his busy life as an in-demand actor with writing and recording, Jim Jarmusch putting him in contact with Sacred Bones after hearing his demos on the set of The Dead Don’t Die, and perhaps most importantly, his love of the Gordon Ramsay cooking competition show Masterchef.