Quirky pop maverick Jawny is following up last year’s standout ‘For Abby’ project with ‘The Story Of Hugo’, one of the most inventive and fun-packed EPs you’ll hear all summer. He doesn’t do boring.

Words: Martyn Young. Photos: Ariel Fish.

Jawny is a man with incredible levels of self-belief. In fact, his levels of self-confidence are so strong that the last time he spoke to Dork he managed to convince us that he was 6ft 9 tall. A giant of pop. Now, we suspect that might not be entirely accurate, but who cares? Jawny believes it, and that’s all that counts. He’s got good reason to be so confident, though. The man who formerly went under the name Johnny Utah and is now making earworm bedroom pop bangers for fun as Jawny has come on quite a way since he emerged from producer obscurity to bona fide alt-pop sensation, and he’s ready to show us just exactly what he can do on his latest project, ‘The Story Of Hugo’.

The confidence to (literally) big himself up hasn’t always come so easily to Jawny, though. Instead, his rise has been a gradual one as he tinkered around with his sound to find something that sticks. Rather than one sound, though, he found that everything sticks. Jawny’s vibe is an eclectic mashup of all sorts of vibrant stuff. “It’s always changing and evolving over time,” he says about his sonic approach down the line from sunny Los Angeles, California. “I feel like in the last year, I’ve come into my own where I’m finally comfortable with who I am,” he continues. “I know who I am as an artist, and I don’t feel I have to be anybody else. I don’t feel like I’m in a competition or fighting for a spot. I’m comfortable and confident in making the best kind of music that I want to make.” This newfound self-assurance is in stark contrast to an earlier period of doubt. “There were a couple of years back when it wasn’t like that,” he remembers. “I felt like I was clawing my way for a spot or constantly trying to be the best or prove that I belonged here. More recently, I’ve felt more comfortable in my skin and my shoes as an artist. That was a huge thing for me personally.”