Jon Batiste’s last studio album, Beethoven Blues, reimagined the iconic composer’s work. Less than 12 months later, the multiple Grammy Award winner is back with BIG MONEY – a record that blends Americana, R&B, Gospel, jazz and roots.
In a nutshell, a far cry from his chart-topping 2024 effort.
Speaking to Rolling Stone AU/NZ, the 38-year-old songwriter, who also boasts an Oscar for Best Original Score for his work in Pixar’s 2022 hit Soul, says there is no real reason for bouncing between genres and seamlessly as he does, he’s only interested in creating.
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“I’ve never followed the industry trends or the cadence of release or the rollouts… It just doesn’t match with my natural creative rhythm,” he explains.
“I follow the muse wherever it takes me and I don’t refuse.”
With BIG MONEY, Batiste wants to explore “the real currency of life” – subjects, cultures and traditions in the past and what is still to come. It’s a theme he’s held in his music for many years, or what he describes as “social music”.
“A lot of it is thinking about the origin of things, and specifically in America and Americana, this umbrella of our national sound, the essence of who we are, our mythology. If there’s gonna be an umbrella for Americana, a lot of things were left out in the first place, and I want to redefine that term and reimagine it so that there’s a new Americana that includes gospel, jazz, blues, early proto rock and roll.
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“I love the rock and roll that we know today as rock and roll, but the origin of that comes from sharecroppers and farmers in the South and black Americans who created the sound. It’s really important when we look back at history, how we define things because it is what creates the future.
“So, history is constantly changing because our relationship to the past is changing and the meaning of things is changing and what we learn about things is changing. We’re in this moment now and social music really has been about my philosophy and thinking of how we can take all the things of the past and use them as elements to how we build the future.”
Batiste also told Rolling Stone AU/NZ that he is planning to head to a Australia for a headline tour in 2026 to promote the new album.
“I’ve been planning it for, like, over a year,” he says.
“We’re really excited to come. I want to see everybody out there!”
BIG MONEY is out now.
