The first question that shows up when you tap this musician’s name into a search engine is “How did Jawny get famous?” Such is the Californian’s kickflip-fast rise from skateboarder making SoundCloud beats to bone fide indie pop star with millions of streams, a major-label debut and a bottle-blond-bandana look that suggests a normcore Axl Rose. This combination is, of course, TikTok catnip. Like the bowl-cut viral sensation Oliver Tree, with whom he has toured the States, 27-year-old Jawny – born Jacob Lee-Nicholas Sullenger – seems to be as much a micro-sketch comedian as he is a musician and social media soundtracker.
His breakout tune, 2019’s Honeypie – released under previous alias Johnny Utah – was a lithe, bouncy breeze of falsetto funk that caught the ear of someone who knows a viral hit when she hears one: Doja Cat. And his new first full-length album, It’s Never Fair, Always True, has a broader Y2K moodboard. Strawberry Chainsaw has the bright guitar thrum of the Strokes; other tracks clearly nod to Weezer, Phoenix and Kings of Leon amid Jawny’s boy-next-door whimsy. There’s even a passing of the weirdo-cherub baton on Take it Back, featuring Beck and sounding like something the midnite vulture himself might have written in 1999.
