Singer-songwriter John-Robert has released “Pelican,” one of five songs on his forthcoming debut EP.
The single comes with a video, directed by Spencer Ford, that has the 19-year-old singer sharing the screen with a papier-mâché version of the titular bird.
“With my head of a pelican / I want to let you in,” he sings. “Gobble you up / just gobble you up.”
John-Robert said he wrote “Pelican” about his first love. “While I was in the process of making new friends and keeping myself accountable for my own happiness,” he explained, in a release, “I couldn’t help but wonder if they were well and/or occasionally thinking of me.”
The song follows the release of “Adeline” and “Urs” and, with “Friends” and “Love Won’t You Stay,” is part of Bailey Barely Knew Me, out May 22.
John-Robert Rimel hails from tiny Edinburg in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. At an early age he was exposed to his father Bob’s musical tastes – including Chicago, Queen and Canada’s Michael Bublé – and sang along to what he heard.
Soon, John-Robert was performing in church talent shows and at county fairs and other local events. He got a guitar for his 12th birthday and started making his own music, inspired by the likes of Ed Sheeran, The 1975, Sufjan Stevens and Canada’s David Foster.
John-Robert’s YouTube videos earned him an invitation to appear on Ellen in 2014, where he covered The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “God Bless the Broken Road.” (He made a second appearance on the show a year later).
After graduating from Central High School, he was set to attend the Berklee School of Music but opted to seek inspiration in Los Angeles.
John-Robert has been living in L.A. since last June – he shares a Boyle Heights pad with several musicians – but went back to Virginia to spend the COVID-19 lockdown with his family.
“I never stop writing,” he said. “I’m messing around with synths, getting more experimental with songwriting and structure, trying different guitar tunings.
“I want my music to feel familiar, but like something you’ve never heard before. That’s the goal.”
Another goal, evidently, is to get a lifetime supply of Swedish Fish, the popular red candy made in Hamilton, Ont.
“All the music I make is dedicated to the company that makes Swedish Fish,” reads John-Robert’s Twitter profile. “They don't sponsor me, but I'd like them to.”
Check out “Pelican” below: