Kris Schroeder, otherwise known as Jackmann, has performed a handful of trio of gorgeous acoustic tracks for the latest edition of Rolling Stone’s ‘In My Room’, a series in which artists perform from home while in quarantine.
For those who have paid close attention to the Australian music scene over the last two decades, Schroeder’s name and voice would come as no surprise, with his role as a founding member of The Basics bringing him to global attention.
This year though, Schroeder has been hard at work launching his Jackmann project, offering up his debut album, Low Key, early last month. An exceptional debut that is as eclectic as it is accomplished, there’s no doubting the fact that the arrival of Jackmann might be one of the few pieces of good news to emerge from the year that has been.
In celebration of the release of Low Key, Schroeder was kind enough to invite us into his living room for an intimate acoustic performance, which feaured a pair of tracks from his new album, in addition to a “surprise cover”.
Armed with a vibrant acoustic guitar, and featuring a small glass of wine on the table in front of him, Schroeder kicked things off with a gorgeous rendition of his single “All or Nothing”, a track he describes as being about “wanting what you can’t have”.
As he points over his right shoulder to a copy of Neil Young’s 1970 album, After the Gold Rush, Schroder dives into a performance of the record’s title track. Noting it was “the very first song I learnt to play on guitar when I was a teenager”, he points out the humour in the fact it was originally played on piano, before serving up a version which would make Young himself proud.
Wrapping up his trio of tracks, Schroeder offered up a brief explanation as to the origins of the stunning “3-6-27” and how it came to be. “I wrote it after reading a speech that was made on the sixth of March, 1927, by Bertrand Russell about why I’m not a Christian,” he noted, “and this song is all about that from the perspective of Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Check out Jackmann’s performance in the player above, or by heading over to Rolling Stone Australia’s Instagram page. In the meantime, his debut album, Low Key, is available now via MGM.
