Jo Dudderidge spent a decade with The Travelling Band, helping to take their uniquely British take on Americana to remarkable heights. Over time, though, each member of the group developed their own individual voices, and their own solitary commitments. During the recording of the 2017 album ‘Sails’ the energy seemed to dip – except in Jo’s case, songs came pouring forth. With the band essentially paused following the final summer of their first chapter, in an act of defiance he got some friends together “to work on some stuff that I’d be ruminating on really,” he recalls. “There was no real expectation about how it would sound. It was a bit of an accident, in a way.”

That’s how Later Youth came into being. If The Travelling Band was about craftsmanship, unity, and songwriting, then his solo work dials into the essence of what a song can be. Ideas are presented in sketches, with maturity and confidence allowing Jo Dudderidge to take a step back.

Take his first Later Youth release ‘Nuclear Love (Demo)’. Placed online in the opening weeks of 2020, it found the artist relishing the experience of being exposed. “I’ve always been in bands, and to an extent you’re always protected by friends,” he reflects. “It was done relatively quickly, so it felt quite fresh. There’s no band on there – it’s all me, or it’s programmed. It was great to start fresh. It was more a marker in the sand.”

Another single landed on Valentine’s Day, before the growing impact of the pandemic presented itself. His plans torn to shreds, Jo was able to take a step back, working on himself and his art. “I feel sorry for anyone who released music around that time,” he says, “because it was all a bit strange, wasn’t it? I actually enjoyed the first lockdown – in a way – and I wrote tonnes of stuff, and it forced me to reflect on my past.”

Old trauma rose to the surface, while some of the challenges of adulthood presented themselves. Jo’s parents went through periods of illness, while his personal relationships went through periods of change. “I’d never stopped. I didn’t realise I was growing old, because my behaviour hadn’t changed since my early 20s… but everything around me was changing. And that impacted on my relationships, the way the world sees me, having to grow up. Everything.”

Struggling to adapt to full-time life in London, Jo Dudderidge moved between the capital and his studio base in Manchester. Opened alongside his bandmates in The Travelling Band, the journeys from London to Pinhole Studios (and back again) afforded him space to unpack some of those emotions. “It’s a harder way to work as a writer. It’s quite exposing. I couldn’t have done this when I was younger, as I was still working on my craft,” he says. “Lyrically, it’s a lot less abstract than my work with The Travelling Band. It’s quite self-deprecating, and I’ve learned to laugh at myself. In the band, maybe I would hide behind metaphor but now my lyrics are much more up-front.”

Debut album ‘Living History’ is a bold statement. The first page in a fresh solo chapter, Later Youth has a totally distinctive character. Sure, parallels with his previous work exist, but it occupies a unique universe of its own. “In The Travelling Band it’s a wall of sound; a sound we developed on the road. With this, it’s more minimalist, it’s about building arrangements where everything gets a space to shine.” Take ‘The Wave’ with its evocation of the ghosts of his past, or the wry, self-deprecating ‘The Lurker’ with its tale of being caught probing the social media feed of your ex. Indeed, love – and the complexity of relationships – is one over-arching theme on the album. “Love isn’t easy,” he points out. “There’s a lot more nuance to it. Sometimes taking a photograph of a moment, and describing those feelings within the context of the moment, can be really interesting.”

Album standout ‘Hollow’ was written in a stream-of-consciousness style – just moments before Jo had taken a difficult call with his parents, concerning his mother’s health. “It was a really upsetting thing to do,” he admits. “The song is about dealing with bad news, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Lyrically stark, the record has some playful sonic elements. Friends old and new contribute, with Jo mixing up his studio recipe, citing the melodic hip-hop soul of Jurassic 5 as a cut ‘n’ paste reference point. “They would sample Ike Turner piano parts and slap really great beats on top of it. I wanted it to have that kind of feel.”

Indeed, Jo almost finished the album last year but then “life got in the way,” as he freely admits. A fallow period followed, as he was distracted by continued health problems in his family. “Last year was hard,” he says. “Right at the end of the year I sat down and thought: I have to finish this.” “I think my reticence about making music was just feeling like I wanted to make a bigger body of work, and release it when it was ready. It’s been a drawn-out process to get this album over the line,” he admits, “but given how it’s turned out, I don’t actually mind that.”

His first solo album, Later Youth’s debut is a key moment for Jo Dudderidge. It’s there in the title – ‘Living History’ is his take on the role of the songwriter, “almost creating stories around the myths of your own life”. Jo explains: “Any form of art is your own type of therapy. The more challenging songs I’ve written definitely help. Sometimes they’re the easiest songs to write, but the hardest songs to sing… and sometimes also the most uplifting, as well.”

But this is only the start. Moving between band unity and solo expression, the next few years will be vital. “It’s about being able to build a platform,” he says. “It’s partly about being able to move on, but it’s also about finding my rhythm as a solo artist. Releasing this is a hugely important thing for me.”

With Later Youth, this is about embarking on a journey of absolute truth. “I’m trying to be as true to myself as possible. If you’re going to put yourself out there as a solo artist then you need to give people as much of your personality as you can. I’m very heart-on-sleeve in these songs, quite brutal at times.” “It’s not solemn,” he points out. “It’s like: these are my experiences… take it or leave it.”