Victor Jones – Concoction of Music, Mental Health & Punk-to-Pop

Victor Jones is not your typical indie pop artist. With inspirations stemming from the O.J. Simpson trial to the opening sequence in “Finding Nemo,” this rising star is a great example of drawing art from basically anywhere.

We sat down with Victor Jones last week at a noisy coffee shop in midtown Manhattan. The shop, Gregory’s Coffee, is right next to the center of everything, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center and the world-class MoMA. In hindsight, this location seems absolutely perfect to meet Jones, as our eccentric interview lasts almost two hours.

Knowing the Best Bar in Brooklyn 

I started our meeting by asking him about the best place for beer in Brooklyn, drawing from the line from his latest single, “I Get Hurt,” in which he states, “I know the best place for beer in Brooklyn.”

“I don’t actually really drink,” Jones explains. “I’ll drink socially, but I don’t love beer.”

Why include the lyric in the first place, then? Victor explains, “The best bar for beer in Brooklyn just kind of feels like a satire of Bushwick Boys. You know? It just feels like something that kind of guy with like a copy of the bell jar in his satchel, would? Yeah, I would say. He’s like, Oh, yeah, yeah, dude, I know the best buffer beer in Brooklyn. We’ve got to go, bro. And then he would bail on the plans…100% bail.”

His latest single, “I Get Hurt,” is what really got me personally into Jones’ music and what made me want to speak to him. The incredible mosaic of sounds and emotions that flutter through his songs is something I knew I wanted to dissect with him. 

Creating Catharsis 

Born in Manhattan and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jones started composing before he hit double digits. By ten, he was writing orchestral scores for short films, and even caught the attention of movie score extraordinaire, John Williams. “He gave me notes on a CD I made as a kid,” Jones laughs. 

The early classical influence and training, combined with a later-found love for punk and dance music, have shaped a true artist who approaches music with precision and play. Drawing further from his tamer inspirations of the Pixies, LCD Soundsystem, and theatre composers like Jason Roberts Brown, Jones shows class act skills in combining intricate classical training with groove-driven experimentation. This is evident when listening to songs like “Love Theresa” and “I Get Hurt”, both of which have bases/intros of orchestral instruments while also incorporating techno. 

Both of the tracks explore the release of panic and anxiety through the body, a common theme of Jones’s music. 

“Long Cold Nightwalk” is like an ethereal chamber shoegaze. “Zookeeper” is like jungle punk,” he explains. Despite the genre jumping, one word will always be constant in his musical sound: cathartic, and his goal is to provoke an involuntary reaction. “Whether it makes you cry or makes you dance, I want there to be release in my music.”

Creative Necessity 

“Zookeeper” has been a runaway favourite, as it has resonated with fans regarding mental health and served as an outlet for them to reflect on their own battles. “Zookeeper…literally about suicide…people who’ve survived near-death experiences reach out to me about it.” Jones has openly struggled with mental health, and sometimes considers it a part of his process.

“I wrote it because I had to,” he admits. “If I didn’t, I don’t know what would’ve happened.” That urgency, that collision between survival and expression, gives Zookeeper its pulse.

“What I think is great work is almost always work that needs to be made, for the sanity of the musician,” Jones says, reflecting on his border of creative philosophy. “It differentiates art that has to get out of the creator.”

As this artist ventures across genres and pushes past the boundaries of normal structure and safety, he’s forming his own lane – a lane that is as authentic as it is eccentric. It is evident that Victor Jones does not just make music; he engineers a full-blown experience for your mind, body, and soul.