Words by Immy McCready
Rebuilding from the Ashes: Johan Lenox on His New Single “When Morning Comes”
Fresh from the dust and fire of past albums, Johan Lenox is back with When Morning Comes, a single that signals both an ending and a new beginning. With its evocative, post-apocalyptic visuals and eerie sonic landscape, When Morning Comes offers a fresh glimpse into the artist’s next era—one shaped by chaos, self-discovery, and a refusal to be boxed into any genre. Watch the official music video below.
A Journey into the Unknown
Reuniting with director Vincent Gianzanno, Johan’s collaborator for the Time after Time music video, the duo took a raw, DIY approach to the video. “This was probably the lowest-budget video we’ve done,”. The team drove hours into the desert, just to find the location. So much of what makes it look the way it does was the way the colour correction was handled. Getting the sand to be super orange, which I really fixated on. There’s a lot of weird features, like the palm trees that have no tops and the house that’s been clearly abandoned. The vision really all came together as we were editing it.
The world of When Morning Comes wasn’t meticulously mapped out in advance. Instead, it formed organically, guided by a specific aesthetic. “The look was clear—I spent days thrifting the outfits and pulling references, particularly Mad Max: Fury Road – “It’s probably my favourite movie this side of the Millennium”.
The End of the World, but Hopeful
Johan Lenox has long been a master of world-building, crafting a sonic visual universe that is simultaneously surreal and eerily familiar. His past two albums reflected a gradual descent into chaos—one capturing everyday anxieties, the next accepting that the storm had fully arrived. But this new project, it’s a bit more positive, It’s about rebuilding. That imagery has been true in a metaphorical sense for years, and what with half of LA on fire recently that’s pretty literal. People don’t want to be sold that vision too directly, they want to draw those connections themselves.
With my first two solo albums, I guess the first one is more day-to-day life-focused, juxtaposed with the world burning or a sense of foreboding. Whereas with I Guess We Will Find Out there is no longer this sense of looming dread, its here. It’s very much a response how the world feels, but also an extended metaphor for my own life. I like to think of this next album as more optimistic, but yes it can be categorised as post-apocalyptic. Sonically I am starting over a bit on this album. It is still a continuation of the same story, but I want to focus on new beginnings. I like to think of it as more optimistic; the worst is over, it’s like you can think about how to rebuild. It’s a continuation, but it’s the part of the story where it’s like turning to rebuilding. So yeah, new beginnings. There is positivity in that. If the worst is over, what comes next? That’s what I’m exploring. It’s still dystopian, but there’s a glimmer of optimism. Sonically, it feels like starting over, stripping things back.
Breaking Free from Structure
Lyrically, Johan is pushing into new territory, stepping away from rigid song structures. “I have always been a pretty literal person, but with my new album, I have tried to stick to a. stream of consciousness style with the writing. Some of my old stuff is a lot more direct, and I am trying to allow room for reading between the lines and letting things make no sense.”
There is a lot of great music that is very literal, take Sabrina Carpenters songs, you can’t have a joke like that without the clarity so I enjoy that music, but I naturally gravitate towards a hazier style, on the last album there’s stuff mumbled to such a degree even I can’t tell what I am saying anymore. There’s lots of audio recorded on an iPhone in little ad-hoc snippets that weren’t clean and crisp. Juxtaposing the messiness with order if you will.
A Sound Without Borders
Johan Lenox is arguably hard to categorise, a challenge he embraces. “So there is a genre of artists and writers that crop up on hip hop albums, take James Blake for example, I think that’s where I get put mostly, which is fun.” I have been leaning more into the piano while on tour, stripping things back a bit. It’s funny though, I grew up listening to a lot of classical music, and even with contemporary classical, there isn’t the same sense of celebrity or fan-driven success, so it’s a perspective I don’t necessarily have.”
You also can’t really control how people label you. It is going to happen no matter what and you can’t predict where it’s going to go. “I’m bad at recognising what sonic triggers evoke a certain genre or artist, I just pull together what sounds good and go from there” It’s funny how often others perspective doesn’t align with what you think you are doing.
Looking Ahead: On The Road Again with 070 Shake
Currently, Johan is on tour for the second time with 070 Shake. “We last toured together in 2022, so it’s been a while, I feel like I am taking the freedom to experiment on stage less for granted as well. It’s a lot of freedom. I used a loop pedal one night, and that’s new tech for me, which was nerve-wracking. I am playing piano in Shake’s set too this time which has been a new experience.”
As they hit the road again, Johan Lenox is focusing on the present rather than dwelling on past successes. “There’s always that debate about what I should take from my discography for live shows —should I play releases that did well on streaming platforms, or lean into what excites me now? I’m leaning toward the latter. Every show is a chance to introduce people to the best of what I have, not just what they already know.”
With When Morning Comes, Johan Lenox is turning the page—closing one chapter and stepping into another, less defined but full of possibility. If the past was about surviving the storm, this new era is about rebuilding from the wreckage. And from the sounds of it, he is doing it on his own terms.
Tickets for US tour are available here.
