Artist Spotlight - Keegan McInroe

Keegan McInroe’s Neon John frames interpersonal relationships with equal measures grit (“Blackout Beauty”) and groove (the title track). We recently spoke with the Fort Worth-based singer-songwriter about his steller new eight-song collection.

“Neon John essentially is a collection of romantic misadventures,” McInroe says. “Some are personally true happenings that were my therapy on the other side and some are partially imagined. I distilled them down to the eight songs on this record.”

Alt. Country Specialty Chart: So, romantic mishaps often happen to you?

Keegan McInroe: Yeah, I always have these things that blow up in fantastic ways. Great song fodder is in there. I always thought it would be fun to have “Neon John” as the title track since I wrote that. This album isn’t super deep unlike the rest of my albums. Just lighthearted heartbreak. I could have made a dozen albums with all the songs I have because I’ve had many romantic misadventures.

Are these all newer songs?

They’ve been written over the last several years. “Post Wedding Weekend Blues” is the newest song on the album. I wrote that in March a couple weeks before we went into the studio. I’ve had the rest for a year or two or three.

Eight songs is a pretty succinct full-length album.

I kept this one at eight even though we actually recorded a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom” too. That just seemed too far outside. I might release “Dust My Broom” as its own thing. How to release music now is difficult. Some people say release an album, but others say just release singles – or release an album but not all the songs at once. I haven’t found a sweet spot personally, but I do love albums.

Attentions spans are so short anymore.

Yeah, getting someone to listen to a whole album these days is really difficult, but releasing an album with eight songs digitally means you can pitch three or four songs to the streaming platforms in buildup of the album’s actual release. Obviously, that’s not ideal, but that’s how people are consuming music today. Eight songs just seemed practical in getting the most bang for your buck and also as far as the time we had in the studio with the budget I had been given.

No right answer exists today.

One hundred percent. There’s a lot of freedom in there not being a right answer right now. People had been telling me before the pandemic, “You just need to be releasing singles. Dropping twelve songs doesn’t make sense when people are only gonna hear one anyway. I didn’t like that idea. I like the sonic quilt idea with building a concept around an album. I love writing with overarching concepts and strings that people can follow to pick up on little things in the songs. So, I released two singles in 2021, and then people are like, “Nobody takes you seriously unless you release an album.”

So, Neon John…

Well, I figured if I’m gonna get shit no matter what I do so I might as well do what I want. That’s not to say I won’t release an EP and singles, but doing what one guy told me – “You need more content on Spotify” – is exhausting. Also, putting stuff up online that you’re not super proud of just to have content isn’t doing you any favors.

I think albums will comeback the way vinyl has.

Thank god vinyl has come back. I have CDs of my music and always joke, “I have this ancient form of technology called a compact disc, but it can also be known as a coaster.” People give me CDs, but I don’t have anywhere to play them. I don’t have a CD player, my car doesn’t have a CD player, my computer doesn’t have a CD drive. Vinyl records are preserving the form of delivering your art.

– Brian T. Atkinson