How fatherhood rewired JJerome87’s creative brain

One thing that comes up again and again on World Cafe is how having a child can completely reshape the creative process.

That’s one reason we loved this conversation with Joe Newman, co-founder of alt-J. Hearing him describe the excitement, fear, vulnerability and overwhelming love that came with becoming a father provided a deeper understanding of one of life’s most profound experiences.

That journey is at the heart of Newman’s solo debut, The Canyon. Today, Newman — who performs as JJerome87 — talks about the birth of his daughter and how it inspired “Two Hearts,” the most personal song he’s ever written.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.