Japanese Wallpaper Has Well And Truly Opened Up His World On 'Glow'

The Melbourne chillwaver Japanese Wallpaper aka Gabriel Strum is challenging himself – and audiences – with his debut album, Glow, embracing subliminal indie and alternative influences.

Today Strum is plugging Glow from the road in California, as he winds up a North American tour with Allday and Mallrat. "I'm actually sitting in the car with both of them right now," he reveals. 

The quiet 22-year-old is relishing the camaraderie. "It's been amazing, it's been so much fun going to play with them; playing every night to people who I really don't know, my fans; and getting to go to a bunch of new places."

Already 2019 has been a pivotal year for Strum. In February, he supported Lily Allen, whom he likens to Mallrat. "[It was] a really great experience. Both Lily and Grace [Shaw, aka Mallrat] are really generous and amazing people and great to be on tour with. Both of their fan[base]s are just awesome and really open to hearing new stuff. It was dope. We've had a really great run of support shows this year."

"It was a really incredible, serendipitous thing."

A bedroom prodigy, Strum first generated buzz as a teen, winning triple j's Unearthed High comp. In 2013 he'd premiered with the dream-pop ballad Breathe In, featuring Wafia. It would be synced for actor/director Zach Braff's movie Wish I Was Here. "It was a really incredible, serendipitous thing to happen so early on in my career," Strum says. 

In 2015, he issued a guest-laden eponymous EP. The song Forces, with Airling, is still his most streamed on Spotify. Strum also ventured into producing for other acts, notably collaborating with Allday on In Motion and Don't Wanna Push You Away Anymore. He even remixed Charli XCX's Sucker-era Need Ur Luv, belatedly released in 2018. (Strum, a Charli stan, "really enjoyed" her new Charli, but hasn't played it extensively, being disinclined to vibe to music in downtime on tour.) Simultaneously, Strum began experimenting as a singer-songwriter, 2016's Cocoon (included on Glow) featuring his own vocals.

Three years in the pipeline, Glow stands as an authentic 'artist', not 'producer', album, and is cameo-free. Strum integrates acoustic and electronic elements, yet transcends any obvious comparisons to Bon Iver's folktronica. Surprisingly given his studio acumen, he recruited an external producer in the American Ben H Allen, who has previously liaised with Animal Collective and Washed Out (and mixed Cut Copy). "He's someone who's made a lot of my favourite records in the world and whose name I just kept seeing in the liner notes of people that I've been kinda falling in love with over the last few years."

Strum stresses that the execution of Glow was collaborative. "I did do a lot of it – I guess Ben and I co-captained the ship." 

In fact, the musician had felt "a little bit stuck" with the album and realised that he required "help" – or, at least, a sounding board. "A lot of what a producer brings to a project is just a fresh pair of ears and a kind of objectivity that is really hard to have as a songwriter and a singer. And so, while I feel like I'm a capable producer and I've been working in that realm for a bunch of other people, it was the kind of thing where I didn't really feel like I was able to bring that fresh perspective to the music that I've been sitting with for so long." 

Strum spent a month with Allen in Atlanta, "a really incredible, vibrant city", the pair meeting daily at the studio. "I got so much from being around Ben and it was really the thing that made the record come together."

"It definitely is a vehicle for expressing my emotions and my headspace."

On Glow, Strum expands his sonic spectrum. As with last year's comeback single Fooling Around, the opener Ready/Waiting taps into '90s alt-rock (Strum has covered Bjork's Hyperballad live and latterly performed Phantom Planet's California, the theme to The OC, for Like A Version). By contrast, Imaginary Friends is classic Japanese Wallpaper – synthy, airy and anthemic. "I feel really positive about the evolution of this project," Strum says. "The thing that keeps it exciting for me, and is ultimately rewarding in it, is just the idea of searching for something, as opposed to feeling like you know everything about the thing that you're trying to do." 

Lyrically, the album finds him pondering his "growth". "It definitely is a vehicle for expressing my emotions and my headspace and all that stuff," he says. "There's no big, overarching concept to the album, but rather it's capturing a moment in my life." 

Crucially, Strum talks of defying self-doubt, and "breaking free from the things that I feel like hold me back in art and in life." Tongue Tied specifically deals with social anxiety.

Strum is still producing on the side. He has a credit on his Wonderlick Recordings labelmates Holy Holy's My Own Pool Of Light. However, Strum has established a particularly fruitful rapport with Allday. Might they team up for a full project in future? "Yeah, it's not really something that's been discussed yet, but I guess anything's possible," Strum laughs. "I actually have been writing a little bit with Tom [Gaynor, aka Allday] for maybe a new Japanese Wallpaper record as well."

This month Strum will embark on Australian headlining dates with his band. But, for now, he, Allday and Mallrat have more pressing matters. Strum says bashfully, "We are… looking for some vegan food."

Glow (Wonderlick) is out this month. Japanese Wallpaper tours from 19 Oct.