Songwriter and guitarist Oscar Jerome is in a very different place now to where he was four years ago. On the cusp of releasing his third solo LP, The Fork, Jerome is building on an accumulation of profound experiences, weaving sophisticated and nuanced narratives into the recognisably lyrical guitar style with which he made his name in London’s vibrant musical community. “I've always found that the times of my life when I've been going through the most things have also been when I've also created the most,” he explains. As such, The Fork is Jerome’s most personal record to date, leaning into poetic songwriting and his latent skills as a producer, the roots of which go right back to the beginning of his musical life.

Growing up in Norwich into a creative family where music and nature were ever-present, Oscar Jerome picked his way through adolescence listening to all manner of music – from Jimi Hendrix and Rage Against the Machine to reggae and jungle – playing in bands, making beats on Cubase and learning to synthesise influences into a hybrid sound that remains unmistakably his own. “I love taking elements from different things, mixing them altogether and then creating something new,” he says, invigorated by the potential for musical exchange.

A student at Trinity College of Music in London and a contemporary of many UK jazz artists, Jerome supplemented his technical jazz guitar training with a heady education in cross-genre collaboration, where funk and hip-hop would seep into basement jazz jams and club dancefloors reverberated to the rhythms of dub or afrobeat. As part of celebrated outfit Kokoroko, Jerome cut his teeth on increasingly big stages, touring the world, and was involved in writing their early works, including the group’s instantly recognisable ballad ‘Abusey Junction’.

Because while his music has often been bracketed with the jazz instrumentalists around him, Jerome has always been on his own path. Releasing his self-titled debut EP in 2016, Where Are Your Branches? two years later and LP Breathe Deep in 2020, Jerome honed an articulate, song-based style that draws on his love of literature for inspiration. A keen reader of poetry and prose, from James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain to Elif Shafak‘s 40 Rules Of Love, his lyrics spring from stream of consciousness writing, using metaphors to hint at emotions beyond the reach of direct language.

It is this inquisitive and at times introspective nature which underpinned the concept of 2022 album The Spoon - a soulful and character-driven exploration of the self and the warped reflections that we communicate to the world in search of validation. Performed for large audiences from Japan to the USA, The Spoon was glowingly reviewed, taking Jerome’s reputation to the next level. For him though, it only served to lay the foundations for the next stage in his musical and personal development.

The Fork is the first record that Jerome has produced entirely himself, and is a literal continuation of his previous work in so far as it samples elements of The Spoon. It is an apt metaphor for growth and life-altering decisions encountered like the proverbial fork in the road. “This record is about coming to a reckoning with yourself,” Jerome says. “Letting go of your ego, letting go of this control that we try and have of ourselves, and being able to open up to a completely different way of seeing the world.”

If he’s being oblique, then it’s in part because the emotions that have animated The Fork are both intimate and existential. As much as the virtuoso jazz guitarists Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, this time it is Jerome’s kinship with troubadours of the heart like John Martyn and Joni Mitchell that rings most true. By combining produced beats with a guitar sound reminiscent of Prince and early Carlos Santana, Oscar is taking his work into a new sonic universe.

Featuring a select cast of collaborators, including Anaiis, Hak Baker and poet MA.MOYO, The Fork crystallises around Jerome’s sparse compositions, where crisp beats smoulder in the low-lit moods and hazy atmospheres of his dexterous guitar playing. Given space to breathe, the lyrics reveal hard-earned personal epiphanies and warn against the corrosive impact individualistic capitalist culture has on our capacity for empathy. 

“Since I was really young, I've felt a connection to something bigger than this existence through music, through playing guitar,” he continues. Returning more explicitly to Jerome’s connection with the natural world, The Fork seeks expression for the inexpressible. “For me a chord or a melody can often say a lot more than words can say,” he concludes. As this sense of groundedness has matured in his music, Oscar Jerome is learning that explanations are not as important as the love that you might encounter along the way.