The insatiable itch to create has never been far from Sean Solomon’s reach. His long-awaited debut album, The World Is Not Good Enough, is a medley of his labours of love, owing to the visual spectacle as much as the music inside. 

Sometimes we all have to take a step back, analyse our stock and refresh our surroundings. In the case of Californian singer-songwriter Sean Solomon, a deep breath felt paramount before blessing the world with his debut solo album The World Is Not Good Enough. 

Solomon had stepped away from the mic for a period, making the difficult decision with his bandmates to put his Sub Pop-signed band Moaning on indefinite hiatus and recalibrate after the release of two studio albums, 2018’s self-titled debut and 2020’s sophomore Uneasy Laughter. 

Time heals all, and the way forward for Solomon seems brighter, simpler, as The World Is Not Good Enough, released via ANTI, enters the world. The LP represents synthesis for the virtuoso to combine his musicality with his knack for animation, which he has achieved by bringing the cartoon presence onto the live stage in marriage with tender, cathartic songwriting. “I can wake up and animate a music video or I can wake up and draw a comic, and it’s all going to the same place,” Solomon says. “So performing live with the VHS tape feels like an extension of that”

Solomon has struggled with addiction, and speaking before the release of the album was quoted as saying: “When I was 15, I went to a psych ward. I was doing too many drugs and finally they caught up with me. I haven’t had an episode since, but I think about that moment all the time. It not only changed who I am as a person but also as an artist.”

And now in recovery, The World Is Not Good Enough is like an ultimate care package, a pair of comforting arms to put around the lost and weary. There is never a sense that Solomon’s experiences are beyond its listener – in fact, every track on the album is written with the delicacy and the solace that reflects the familiarity of lived experiences. Take the crushing loneliness of “Postcard”, or the way Solomon breaks when he sings “I’m a black hole, I’ve lost control” on “Black Hole”. You realise this record is tailor made for the unflinching reality of human lives. 

Speaking with Wonderland below, Solomon dives into going solo, how shaping his debut album helped him understand himself better, and how music and healing are intertwined. 

Listen to The World Is Not Good Enough…

Read the exclusive interview…

I’d like to start off by asking about the transition you have made by stepping into solo-singer-songwriter territory. How have you felt since going out on your own?

The reason I love performing solo is that I don’t have to spend as much time thinking about what band I want to be in, or what music genre I file under. I intuitively make things, and because it’s all coming through me, I get the sense it’s a lot more cohesive. It’s felt like the most natural project I have ever been involved with. I just pick up the guitar and start writing songs, and I draw the album covers myself!

Touring has been one of the newest experiences; it’s just me, right, so I can just fly into different shows or I can bring different friends, and it has been so much fun. The tour I’m currently on and the next one actually are with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and because I’m just one guy, I get invited onto the tour bus [laughs].

Do you feel any extra pressure knowing you are the sole outlet for the songwriting process?

I’ve always written the majority of the songs for the bands I’ve played in but with this project it’s been interesting because the album really developed in the studio. Instead of rehearsing with a group and having to figure out the arrangements I went into the recording studio and I have had my friends just coming in and out, and I’ve never done anything like that before. 

I feel like when you are a band you write a song, practise, play it live and you repeat that process. Whereas with this album everything has been arranged in a group so we had time to reflect and observe how everything came together as a group of songs, being able to change things as we were going along. 

A lot of talk around the album release has people attributing this as a comeback to music after a bit of a hiatus, is this something you have paid attention to?

I’ve always been making music, but nobody was hearing it. It is more like I would be jumping back and forth between the different industries so both the animation industry and the music industry, and they are both awful, all versions of art where the objective revolves around making money are really terrible. So I kept doing this thing where I would flip flop, and I’d be like, oh, I hate the music industry and I’m gonna just focus on animation and I would get the exact same feeling. 

I suppose this project is the first time where I’ve put all the things I do and love together and it’s been really rewarding, because I feel like I can put these two different worlds together. I’m able to find an audience a lot quicker, people that love my cartoons can discover my music, and people that love the music will end up discovering the cartoons so it has been really cool.

So technically it has been a return, but only to the industry not to the world of music. I’ve been writing songs, going to shows and all of my friends are musicians, it’s been close to six years since I officially put out a record with any band or anything. 

Something that caught my eye was this particular quote from the album rollout, it went: “He still heard chords when he went to bed, ached for the feeling that artists like Elliott Smith, The Microphones, and Neutral Milk Hotel gave him”.

Elliott Smith is like a spiritual compass for me. And The Microphones are sonically really inspiring to me, I love the way The Glow Pt.2 sounds. I grew up listening to folk and indie rock, it reminds me of when you watch a cartoon you get this warm and cozy feeling because it reminds you of your childhood. 

Hearing about your influences and these lovely nostalgic sort of associations, I can make the link between a track like “Black Hole”, especially the stripped back nature of it and jot the course between the track and the Microphones influence you mentioned.

“Black Hole” on the record is actually the demo. I tried to record it, and I wasn’t pleased with the end product so I put the demo version on the actual final cut. It was a really personal song I wanted to write to process a feeling. I was talking about a really traumatic experience in my life. It’s been an interesting feeling to share the music with people. It’s actually my favourite song on the record, which is funny because you spend all this time professionally recording, and your favourite song ends up being a demo.

Do you think it’s your favourite because it does the best job of summing up what this record is all about?

I like it because it is the most painfully honest, which feels like the most successful because one of the most important things about making artwork is to be as vulnerable and honest as possible.

I hate playing the song live; it makes me feel uncomfortable. I thought it really brought the mood down [laughs] I normally end with it because it’s the only song yet to make the VHS tape, and it’s a fun way to devastate everyone but I get off the stage. It’s really hard to play live, to be honest with you. For a while, I tried to explain what the song was about on stage, and I remember almost tearing up. 

It’s just kind of a heavy thing to talk about, and when you have a bunch of people looking at you, it can be overwhelming. 

It’s a perfectly natural feeling, a human reaction to playing something so personal and visceral on a stage being watched by maybe a few hundred people. 

I love all of the songs on the album, especially as a whole package. I’m really proud of “Finish Line”, especially the arrangements on that track. “Car Crash” I chose to put first as it is a perfect introduction to what I’m doing, and after that song was done, I really felt like I knew what I was doing and trying to get across on the album. 

“Car Crash” had its own little moment of fame over on TikTok. How did you square that one?

I put it on Tik-Tok when I was in this moment of trying to figure out what to do with the music. I was kind of looking for a record label and I thought that is what you were supposed to do, I then gave up and decided I was just going to put stuff on the internet and go viral.

I told my friends the same thing, and they would laugh at me and just be like “good luck, man!”, then it ended up getting a million views on TikTok and around five million on Instagram. I also think it validated what I’m doing for myself and showed me there is an audience out there; there were so many, hundreds, even thousands of positive comments that inspired me to reach more people with my music. 

Previously you touched upon a memory of childhood, going back and exploring these past memories. Is putting a track like “Overdose” on the album a unique form of release for you?

Sometimes it feels like I’m taking these traumatic moments I’ve experienced and finding a way to turn them into something positive, and that is something very amazing about music. Writing a song about something that was a bad experience for me, but then being able to share it with someone who might feel less alone because of it.

The purpose of the project has been to be there for other people, and I’ve had so many people reach out to me and tell me the music has helped them in some way, whether it has been a breakup or even just family issues. Making people feel less alone by being honest about things people might not want to discuss has been very meaningful to me.

I get the strong sense that you view music as something different entirely, almost healing or transformative. 

Even though it is coming through as these simple songs and cartoons to get an emotional reaction from people, I’ve always wanted to package it in a way that doesn’t leave anybody out. Maybe in the fine art world it can feel a little bit elitist at times, and that is why I am so invested in cartoons and folk music, as it feels like it is catered for everyone, but you can still communicate these complex messages. 

Ending on the most classic of classic questions here Sean, is there anything you would particularly like to tick off the list come the end of the year?

I’m excited to keep touring and meeting people. I’m nervous but interested in headlining more shows. I’d like to grow into a place where I can come to different cities and meet people who are fans of the album. As I mentioned before, a big thing for me is finding the people who resonate with this music and the art. 

Words – Tobias Furlong