The Oxford songwriter and producer spent a decade recording his new album himself, and a second record is already on the way.
Some albums take a few months. John Goldrust’s took ten years. Like A Phoenix, released on 2 October 2026, is the Oxford songwriter and producer’s first full-length album, following the EP Travellers In Timing earlier this year.
It is a record about love, loss and the long search for meaning, made by an independent artist who decided the only way to get it right was to do it all himself.
Songs of Experience
Goldrust gives the album a second name: Songs Of Experience. It fits. Most of the songs were written across the same ten years they were recorded, and they document the loves, losses and relationships of that period.
The themes are big ones. The album takes on the battle of good against evil, the hunt for a modern-day Holy Grail, spiritual awakening and personal freedom. Underneath them all is a simpler question: what it means to be human, and to try to thrive, in a difficult modern world.
It is also a record about the artist’s own road. Goldrust describes it as his quest for the meaning of life while living as a struggling independent musician in search of a record deal.
A human sound, carefully finished
Like A Phoenix was recorded and produced at Goldrust’s own studio. He calls his recording, production and mixing methods organic, and sets them against what he hears as an increasingly synthetic, machine-perfect industry sound.
That choice made the final stage delicate. Mastering alone took six weeks of close work with a leading UK mastering engineer. The aim was to meet modern release standards without polishing away the human feel of the recordings.
The underground figure from Oxford
Goldrust has been part of the Oxford music scene for years, working mostly outside London. He has formed bands, written songs, performed solo and built links between the scenes in Oxford, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh and Brighton.
He says several projects he helped start have gone on to last more than 20 years, often without his name attached. He is happy with the underground label but prefers his own version, calling himself an “Underworld Magician”: the person who lights the spark before anyone else notices the fire.
His own music was harder to get on record. In his early years he recorded demo after demo in music shops and professional studios, only to see the recordings used to show off the businesses’ own products and services. He was left without a demo he could use for himself.
So he went independent. He spent the last decade sharpening his recording and production skills, and Like A Phoenix is the result.
Next: The Blue Album
The story does not end here. A partner record, The Blue Album, is due this autumn, with the date still to be confirmed. Goldrust also calls it Songs Of Innocence.
It covers the ten years before work began on Like A Phoenix and collects his solo singer-songwriter live performances, officially released for the first time. Personal trials kept those recordings unreleased when they were made.
Goldrust intends the two albums to be heard together. Innocence and experience, twenty years of songs, and in his words a way of stepping outside time altogether.
Like A Phoenix is out now on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud and YouTube.
Find John Goldrust at
