In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson published Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The effect of the book was so strong on Jojo Orme, the poetically gothic mind behind Heartworms, that a quotation from that book inadvertently became the central theme from which she built her deliciously dark debut album, ‘Glutton for Punishment’.
Reading aloud from a commonplace book that contains all of Jojo’s most soul-defining moments, she delivers the line that represents the fundamental basis of ‘Glutton for Punishment’:
“I have been made to learn that the doom and burden of our life is bound forever on man’s shoulders; and when the attempt is made to cast it off but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and more awful pressure.”
“I wrote this down because I knew I couldn’t forget it,” Jojo excitedly states. “I just felt like he nailed the experience of man so perfectly.”
“I’ve broken into a deeper layer of honesty, pain, and truth”
Introducing herself into a world beyond the post-punk label that was forced upon her after 2023 EP ‘A Comforting Notion’, this album is a nine-track opening chapter that sees Jojo more intimately explore compulsion, connection, and chaos.
Travelling from infatuation in ‘Just To Ask A Dance’, through to an analysis of mankind’s inexplicable need for destruction in ‘Glutton for Punishment’ and ‘Extraordinary Wings’, it’s a record that nonchalantly deals with uncomfortable truths, laying bare the universal realities that can be so easily glossed over amidst the scramble of modern life.
“The album is darker and more emotional than my EP,” Jojo admits, “because I’ve broken into a deeper layer of honesty, pain, and truth that people tend to ignore. We don’t realise we’re punishing ourselves.”
Gothic darkness lies at the centre of Heartworms’ existence, nowhere more so than in Jojo’s lifelong inspirations. Whether it’s Edgar Allan Poe or the aforementioned Robert Louis Stevenson, baroque architecture or military history, it’s from the vulnerability of the human condition that Jojo draws most of her energy.
“I view myself as a poet rather than a musician,” she reveals. “Poetry is like breathing to me, whereas I can’t write music every day; I have to have had a really bad day to be able to make a song.”
“I view myself as a poet rather than a musician”
This is where the Jekyll and Hyde idea really comes to the fore, representing the two interconnected but separate sides of her personality. “I click in and out of Heartworms, which makes it easier for me; it would be too much pressure and too overwhelming to be constantly thinking, ‘Ok, I have to write today, I have to write today’.”
She continues: “I love acting. People think acting is just lying or playing a character, but it isn’t; it’s channelling emotions from your own life and putting them into your performance. That’s what I’m doing with Heartworms, really. I’m channelling what’s inside me through the words and the music.”
‘Glutton for Punishment’ sees Jojo try on all of these different characters, delving into different writing styles and stretching her own boundaries. Not hampered by outside expectations, she used this as an opportunity to properly carve out her niche, refusing to accept a position that didn’t feel truly aligned with where she is internally.
“There feels like there’s a lot of expectation from people around me, but I don’t really think about that. People described me as post-punk because of how I look and maybe because of some of the punky guitar on the EP, but I love writing different styles of songs.”
Jojo proves this across the album, playing with new techniques and genres that elevate her into a different league. Her bravery and self-assuredness permeate throughout each of these nine tracks, nowhere clearer than ominous opener ‘In The Beginning’, a 40-second ode to white noise that knocks you off-kilter and prepares you for an experience unlike any you’ve had before.
“I wanted [‘In The Beginning’] to feel like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff, and you can hear the wind blowing past you. Then, the wind blows past you even quicker as you’re falling into the abyss. Uncertainty draws people into things and keeps them on edge, so I wanted to do something you wouldn’t expect.”
From the moment ‘In The Beginning’ explodes into the almost thrash metal bassline that kicks off ‘Just To Ask A Dance’, the album winds through gritty, grimy dance beats, mantra-like lyricism, and moments of crunchy rock guitar that mimic the uncertainty of an ever more unstable global picture told through the lens of personal scars.
“Obsession is definitely something I focused on in these songs,” Jojo recalls. “‘Just To Ask A Dance’ is fun because people think it’s about love, but really, it’s about that blurred line between love and obsession, and the obsessive nature of thinking out every little detail when I was desperate to even say hello to someone I was totally infatuated by.”
“There’s then ‘Jacked’, which is the fear of loneliness that can become a monster that you can’t escape, or the obsession of finding someone to fall in love with in ‘Mad Catch’, or just plain narcissism in ‘Celebrate’.”
At no point, though, does Jojo try to fix anything. As someone who grew up in a household that was desperately strict and insecure, she has grown used to finding comfort in chaotic scenarios, learning that there’s more to be gained from observation instead of interjection.
“There’s only so much that I can change or control,” she posits, “which is something that it took me a while to learn. We all think we’re obliged to make a difference or to state our opinion and then persuade people that we’re right. I prefer to see the world play out before me and question it, not force myself upon it.”
This more considered approach allows Jojo to not only illuminate minute personal details with remarkable clarity but also to tackle the uncomfortable topics of global warfare and socio-political conflict that remain so prevalent even after hollow cries of ‘never again’.
“I feel that sometimes people think I like military history because I like war, but it’s the total opposite. There’s a Mark Twain quote: ‘History doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes’, the same things reoccur just in a different form. I remind myself of war every day because it’s important, people ignore it because of how it makes them feel, but it needs to be remembered.”
Understanding the emotions flowing through her is Jojo’s real strength, one which manifests itself both lyrically and sonically to create an authentically composed and wholly original project. She is also not afraid to acknowledge her own limitations, with the creative process being as much a light shining on her growing abilities as it was the personal traumas she has felt throughout her life so far.
“I write some terrible songs,” Jojo freely admits. “There were three others that didn’t make the album because I hated the way they looked and sounded; I couldn’t see myself playing them on stage. I’ve never been great at theory, sometimes I just can’t figure out a chord even if I can hear it in my head, but every sound that’s on the record means something, and I love creating random structures, even if they’re not technically perfect.”
By doing away with tradition, Jojo was liberated, taking time with producer Dan Carey to feel her way through a song instead of planning it out step-by-step and note-by-note. Nowhere was this more prevalent than with ‘Extraordinary Wings’, an anti-war song that unlocked the album’s huge heart.
“When I had all the songs, I put them together, and they just all felt so out of place. I was getting so frustrated because I couldn’t figure it out, but then Dan just put these chords on ‘Extraordinary Wings’ and it turned it into this beautiful piece of music. That was the moment that I decided it was going to be an emotional record.”
“I was stuck on ‘Smugglers Adventure’, too,” she continues. “I was ready to give up on it, but it’s such an important song to me, and for the record, with the way it crescendos and suddenly cuts off just before the final track. I ended up playing it live with the band, no click, like Nick Cave did on ‘Jubilee Street’. We were all just breathing through the song, and, yeah, I love it now.”
“Most of my inspirations are things I’ve read, but I struggled to read when I was younger”
Jojo is keen for ‘Glutton for Punishment’ to be viewed as an introduction, giving listeners a hint of what she can do without overwhelming them. Partly, it’s a matter of leaving them wanting more, taking her cues from long-time idol Prince, but the other reason is her constant desire to evolve. As an adult, she is living all the experiences she wasn’t allowed to during her childhood, taking time now to learn in the way that best suits her.
“Most of my inspirations are things I’ve read, but I struggled to read when I was younger,” she reveals. “So I’m still discovering words all the time; I make up my own words, too. I really think that independent learning is much more rewarding because I get to read and explore things that actually interest me, and that’s letting me evolve Heartworms.”
The evolution continues with a tour around the UK and Europe that sees Jojo travel to new places and continue her personal educational journey, with a first-ever trip to Germany’s Rhineland befitting the dark, mysterious nature of this Heartworms debut.
“I can’t wait to see the gothic buildings in Köln,” she says, eyes sparkling. “I’ve always been inspired by architecture, the beautiful little details, the spires and gargoyles that evoke feelings only they can access.”
The common theme throughout the rich variety of inspirations that have gone into forming Heartworms’ identity is, apart from the glaringly obvious fascination with malevolent forces, the importance of minutiae. The rhythm of her favourite poetry, the fearful glint in the eye of demonic statues, the fine details that finally saw warplanes spark to life in World War II — all of that process is what makes ‘Glutton for Punishment’ such a staggeringly accomplished work.
Sitting on the runway, ready to take off with the release of this album, Jojo has set her course for the stars as she looks to the year ahead. “I’d love the Mercury Prize,” she manifests, “but I also want to revel in the album, to be in the moment and feel every second of it.”
For an album so defiantly unique, it’s ironic that it proves an old cliché: pain truly does create art.
Taken from the March 2025 issue of Dork. Heartworms’ debut album ‘Glutton For Punishment’ is out now.
Leave a Reply