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Posted by James Michael on Tuesday, June 15th, 2021

The best way to overcome a phobia of rollercoasters? Ride one — Mr Jukes teams up with Barney Artist for their new joint album: The Locket

It feels like a long time ago when I asked the question: “Who Is Mr Jukes.”

Back then we learned that Mr Jukes was the solo project of Jack Steadman — frontman of the English band, Bombay Bicycle Club.

What I hadn’t known at the time was that when the band announced their hiatus in 2016 so that the band members could pursue their own individual projects, Steadman embarked on a round-the-world trip tour to do some inward investigation. Part of his journey included an oceanic passage on a cargo ship where he set up a studio in his cabin and began writing his first solo album.

In fact, the name Mr Jukes comes from a character in a book Steadman was reading while traveling on that cargo ship. The book was called Typhoon and the character called “Jukes” was second in command on a ship heading into a typhoon.

The result of that global sojourn was Steadman’s debut album, God First; the first track was called “Typhoon.” The 10-track album was an indie blockbuster with epic singles like “Angels / Your Love” and “Leap of Faith.” But it also included some fantastic collaborations with the likes of De La Soul and the late great Charles Bradley.

A couple months ago, Steadman revealed a new collaboration with Barney Artist and announced their upcoming joint album entitled, The Locket. Their first two singles were released in early May — “Blowin Steam (Open Up Your Mind)” and “Vibrate.”

“‘Vibrate” was the very last song we made for the album,” explains Barney Artist when talking about the new record. “It really summarises mine and Jack’s relationship which is great vibes with a meaningful message.” Barney continues: “the aim [of this album] is to bring hope to people after the maddest year.”

The new track was accompanied by a video that sees both musicians walking around an empty amusement park in England. Originally, the idea for the video was going to be centered around the idea of filming Barney overcoming his crippling phobia towards rollercoasters by climbing aboard one and facing the fear head first.

The two musicians approached a famous fun park in the UK called Alton Towers to ask if they could film on one of their rollercoasters. To their astonishment, Alton Towers gave them permission to film across the entire empty park for the day.