Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter
Forever, I’ve Been Being Born is a suite of masterful, emotive songs filled with themes of magical thinking, emotional dislocation, death, and transformation. In the making for ten years, the album centers around the power of Jesse’s transcendent voice, which has never been more beautiful, evocative, and hauntingly intimate. Phil Wandscher masterfully frames these songs with classic and fractured tones, creating a duet of vulnerability and strength often blurring the lines of folk and psychedelia. The album also features exquisite contributions from Marissa Nadler. UNCUT magazine recently picked it as Americana Album of The Month, calling it “rapturous psyche-folk melancholia.” 9/10
“O my gentle chaperone, this is where I stay, but this is not my home”—- J.Sykes
This album is our attempt to create elegant folk and sometimes ragged, cosmic, heart rendered songs full of eulogies and laments. When we started recording this album, I remember saying, “Play the songs as if the edge of a butterfly wing was brushing against your cheek in the dark while you’re holding a small child.” I wanted to connote tenderness and a state of grace in the wake of resolution—paying homage to the creeping knowledge of an emerging, menacing undertone forming in our collective psyche. In hindsight, the delay in releasing this record has been a bit of a blessing, as the lyrics seem more poignant now, transcending our own internal voices and psyches. Maybe because there is an innate fragility on this record, it almost feels like a form of resistance in these times.
As the world shares its collective crisis, so we too, share our songs.
It is with great pleasure and humility that we bring you, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born.
Listen in the dark.
-J. Sykes
“It’s that ancient light that wanders, Rapt in the splendor of your form,
And to this I will surrender, Forever, I’ve been being born, Beneath an overarching,
Melody, so forlorn.”
BIO
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter is the result of the enduring musical alchemy between singer and songwriter Jesse Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher, which began in Seattle, Washington in 2001.
Blending folk, blues, orchestral pop and various psychedelic stylings, their sound culminates in what the New York Times has described as “spellbound music, rapt in fatalism and sorrow.” Known for her dusky, otherworldly vocals and lyrics that touch on the metaphysical, Jesse was once described by MAGNET as being “less like a performer and more like a sage… a truly unique vocalist whose dusky voice is capable of imparting a transcendent, almost spiritual quality to almost any tune it touches”
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter have toured extensively in the both the US and Europe, and have shared tours and stages with artists on opposite ends of a vast spectrum of genres, ranging from SUNN O))), Boris, Nicolai Dunger, Coco Rosie, Marissa Nadler, Black Mountain all the way to Jason Isbell, J.Tillman, Steve Earle, Martha Wainwright, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch.
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter will be touring in 2026 in support of their most recent album, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born.
Sykes is also known for her diverse collaborations—most notably for co-writing and singing the cult classic; ‘The Sinking Belle’ on the monolithic album Altar (Southern Lord), a joint project with art metal bands Sunn O))) and Boris (Japan). Pitchfork called “The Sinking Belle” the album’s “centerpiece and masterpiece” and Sykes claims the lyrics were inspired by Joan Didion’s book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which she had been reading during the writing process. Sykes (also a visual artist) has had her photographic work featured in Vice magazine (July 2010).
Prior to his work with Jesse Sykes, Phil Wandscher co-founded the influential alt- country band Whiskeytown with critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Wandscher wrote or co-wrote many of the band’s most beloved songs from the albums Faithless Street and Strangers Almanac. Wandscher also appears on singer songwriter Marissa Nadler’s acclaimed album July, and has recently recorded and toured with Jon Langford, the leader of the legendary Mekons.
Past and present members include bassists: Bill Herzog (Earth and Joel R.L Phelps) and Rebecca Young, Drummers: Eric Eagle, Kevin Warner and Jason Merculief and Viola player Anne Marie Ruljanchic.
Past and present producers the band has worked with: Tucker Martine, Martin Feveyear, Mell Dettmer, Randall Dunn, Johnny Sangster and most recently Robb Davidson.