John Gallagher Jr.’s new EP, Almost Okay, arrives as a live-band reset with direct appeal to anyone who tracks how artists, songs, and side projects get reintroduced after a rough stretch. In a new conversation with Kyle Meredith, Gallagher frames the release as a loose, unpolished snapshot from “an in between stage,” which makes the project feel less like a polished statement than a real-time turn back toward the guitar.
From breakup fallout to a five-piece studio spark
Gallagher says Almost Okay came after “a breakup record” and the hard landing of Swept Away, along with a need to find something that felt good again. He describes the EP as “a little sort of postcard from an in between stage,” and says taking his five-piece band into the studio helped the songs arrive “loose, alive, and unpolished in all the right ways.” He also says, “This is what one must cling to in dark times of doubt.”
A rocker built from scrolling, panic, and dark humor
He also discusses “Tough Spit,” a sardonic rocker written after too much scrolling during the 2024 election season. Gallagher says, “I feel like I’m losing my mind,” while describing the whiplash of promoting a show online and then tumbling into shootings, conspiracy theories, and algorithmic garbage. Even so, he says he finds the joke inside the panic and points to John Prine, Todd Snider, Paul Westerberg, and Jackson Browne as heroes, while admitting, “I love mining the personal for the public.”
Flanagan’s Exorcist retooling adds another lane
Gallagher also talks about having “a small part” in Mike Flanagan’s upcoming “retooling” of the Exorcist franchise. He says Flanagan is “an amazing filmmaker” and adds that it was “really cool” to be on set with him and see him work with “the keys to this big franchise.” Gallagher says people are “going to be really surprised and pleased with it.”
The episode also touches on Gallagher’s work around Swept Away and Almost Okay, and he says listeners can hear the full conversation above or by watching the video below. The next thing to watch is the new Exorcist movie, along with continued episodes of Kyle Meredith With… on the Consequence Podcast Network.
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