Hello everyone, it’s your host Oliver from DULAXI, and today I’m delighted to be joined by Noel Johnson NDJ, the Birmingham, United States-based multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and sonic architect behind the original single “Lord Look After Me.” Working across folk, Americana, country, alt-country, and cinematic songwriting, Johnson approaches his music as a deeply personal form of exploration, handling the writing, arranging, recording, performance, and mixing of his material himself. “Lord Look After Me” was released on 8th September 2026 and draws together old southern gospel and hymn traditions with a much darker examination of spiritual alienation, doubt, isolation, and the search for reassurance.
Before we begin our conversation with Noel Johnson NDJ, here’s what you need to know about today’s featured project.
About Noel Johnson NDJ
Noel Johnson NDJ’s “Lord Look After Me” comes from a deeply personal place, shaped by a period in which the Birmingham-based multi-instrumentalist found himself wrestling with spiritual uncertainty, isolation, and the feeling of being lost in what he describes as the badlands. Rather than presenting faith as a simple source of immediate comfort, the song occupies the difficult space before redemption, when the heart is still struggling and the possibility of daylight has not yet fully arrived.
Johnson has developed an unusually independent approach to music. He writes, arranges, records, performs, and mixes his own material, allowing him to build each song as an entire sonic environment rather than treating the recording process as a separate stage from the writing. His influences include Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Fleet Foxes, and Beck, while his wider musical references extend to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Marvin Gaye, and Radiohead. These influences sit alongside his roots in southern gospel and his upbringing in the Southern Baptist church, giving his work a broad musical vocabulary that does not settle easily into a single category.
The song itself grew from Johnson’s desire to write something resembling a hymn, but one that could speak for a person who was still lost. Its central plea, “Lord, look after me,” came from a period when he felt that he was not doing a good job of looking after himself. The resulting song became a confrontation with spiritual and emotional alienation, particularly the feeling of being misunderstood by family and friends while also struggling to trust one’s own intentions.
Johnson’s wider artistic journey has taken him through some difficult territory. After being raised in a deeply religious environment, he eventually questioned the faith he had inherited, explored other paths, travelled, and experienced periods of serious darkness. He describes eventually finding his way back to faith and experiencing what he considers a personal redemption, alongside the life he has built with his family. That history gives “Lord Look After Me” its particular understanding of faith: not as certainty without struggle, but as something that can survive doubt, distance, and difficult questions.
There is also a larger chapter taking shape. Johnson is building toward a new album planned for early 2027, with the forthcoming record bringing more alt-rock guitar and funky grooves into his musical world. After creating a song so concerned with spiritual uncertainty, his next work appears ready to explore a broader and more energetic side of his identity, while retaining the same willingness to let the music lead.
Having this brief introduction to today’s featured project, I’m sure both new listeners and longtime fans are excited to hear directly from Noel. So, without further ado, let’s begin today’s interview.
INTERVIEW SESSION
Oliver:
You describe yourself as a multi-instrumentalist and sonic architect who writes, arranges, records, performs, and mixes your own work. Where did that deeply independent approach come from, and what has doing everything yourself taught you about the person behind the artist?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I was in bands for many years and that’s still my favorite way to perform music live but once I achieved proficiency at all the instruments as well as programming sounds and effects, I get caught up creating a world for a song when I’m working alone uninterrupted for hours at a time, much like a composer would in the old days. Except i write with the studio, not on paper. But i would love to be in a professional studio setting, working with a great producer and other musicians, that’s a goal of mine.
Oliver:
Your creative life has involved a period of spiritual searching and emotional rawness, with your music often exploring darker parts of the human experience. What personal experiences have most shaped the way you understand doubt, isolation, faith, and your own sense of identity?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I was raised very religious and my faith was very real to me, but like a lot of young people, I struck out on my own and questioned everything and learned about other paths and took a lot of psychedelics and traveled to foreign places. And over the years my faith became more my own and less something inherited. But then I spent some long dark years strung out on narcotics and drinking very heavily down in the late-night, dark underbelly of the world, affected by crime and violence, and seeing friends die, even murdered. So life did get very dark for a while. But God heard my cry and pulled me out of that world and blessed me with a beautiful family, so I’ve lived it full circle, all the way back into a real redemption of my own.
Oliver:
You spent part of this creative period alone in a windowless basement room beneath an old church while building your home studio, describing it as a place with no windows and no sense of time. How did that physical isolation affect your thoughts and emotions while you were creating?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Well, it’s good for getting lost in the work, but could also result in the heebie-jeebies sometimes late at night!
Oliver:
Your influences include Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Fleet Foxes, and Beck, five artists with very different approaches to voice, songwriting, experimentation, and emotional expression. What have you taken from those artists individually, and how have those influences helped you define a sound that feels distinctly your own?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Well, that’s a long, long story I suppose; hard to describe in detail. And those were some of the sounds that i feel are akin to this particular piece, but if we’re talking influences, we also have to add Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Marvin Gaye, Radiohead, the list goes on…
Oliver:
“Lord Look After Me” came from a period when you felt as though you were wandering forever in the badlands, surrounded by uncertainty and unable to fully trust your own intentions. What was happening in your life at that point that brought you into that emotional place?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I was primarily inspired by the idea of a song that implored God: “Lord , look after me,” because I often felt I wasn’t doing a good job of looking after myself, especially with the narcotics and heavy drinking.
Oliver:
You describe the song as a cry to the heavens when family and friends do not understand you and when even your own intentions become difficult to trust. What does that kind of spiritual alienation mean to you personally, and why did music become the way you needed to confront it?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Well, I’d say music is the way i would confront most things, and especially spiritual and cultural alienation. The song is that because the feeling was real to me.
Oliver:
The title “Lord Look After Me” sounds like a simple prayer, yet the song exists in a much more uncertain space where comfort has not necessarily arrived and redemption is still unclear. What does that uncertainty reveal about your relationship with faith?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty” – Franciscan friar Richard Rohr
Oliver:
Your description of the song compares it to the soul driving through an empty, smoldering desert while a troubled engine approaches overheating. How did that image help you translate an internal emotional struggle into the musical identity of the song?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Well, I would hope that one could relate to the feeling of driving on fumes, or just hoping you can get somewhere safe before the wheels fall off or the engine explodes.
Oliver:
There is a striking contrast between the old southern-gospel and hymn influences and the darker sense of spiritual despair running through the song. What drew you to that tension between something traditionally associated with faith and a narrator who is still searching for reassurance?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I always loved the idea of writing hymns, but at the time I needed one of a different sort, one for the soul that still feels lost, that gives a voice to that feeling of wondering if you’ve gone too far for God to find you.
Oliver:
The line “Lord, comfort my ma” introduces a deeply personal and vulnerable element into the song, particularly alongside the reference to trying to tear down “this oracle’s stone.” What personal story or emotional meaning sits behind those words, and how much of yourself were you willing to reveal through them?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I spent years staying rather distant from my own mother, so I was definitely thinking of that. But i had recently met the woman who became my wife, and her relationship with her mother was fraught with emotional chaos. And she has some spiritual gifts and insight that her mother seemed threatened by. So that’s also partly her story that went into those lyrics. “But the dark horse has stolen away, Lord, look after me” is how that verse ends. That’s probably my favorite lyric from any song i’ve written.
Oliver:
You recorded the percussion one strike at a time, using your hands and various atypical tools to create sounds rather than relying only on conventional drum techniques. What were you listening for in those experiments, and how did you know when an unusual sound belonged in the final recording?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Man, I don’t know, it just had to feel right against the other sounds. I was playing around with where I was in relation to the mic, and then taking the different sounds and editing them together. You can hear the door creaking shut as one of the hits.
Oliver:
The swirling echo effects and layered southern-gospel-inspired harmonies give the song a mysterious quality while keeping the emotional focus on doubt and spiritual searching. How did you develop those vocal and instrumental layers so they could support the song’s message without resolving the tension too early?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
The harmonies are very much a nod to my southern gospel roots and my upbringing in the Southern Baptist church. I had those in mind from the beginning when I wrote the song.
Oliver:
Because you wrote, arranged, recorded, performed, and mixed every part yourself, there was no separation between the songwriter’s original idea and the person responsible for turning it into the finished recording. How did having that level of control affect the decisions you made during the creative process?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
This song had been recorded on a previous album when I was working with a producer who didn’t have my best interests in mind. Because of his fragile ego, he deliberately worked against me. So I created this version of the song to correct the record.
Oliver:
“Lord Look After Me” does not present redemption as something that has already been found; instead, it captures the moment when the heart remains broken, the darkness still lingers, and the dawn has not arrived. Why was it important for you to preserve that unresolved emotional state rather than give the song a clearer sense of closure?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
You said it, man, it captures that moment; that’s what it’s about.
Oliver:
Your work sits between folk, Americana, country, alt-country, and cinematic songwriting, while this particular song also reaches into gospel and hymn traditions. How do you decide which musical traditions belong together when you are developing a piece that does not fit comfortably into one genre?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
Well, you know, I try to let the song decide for me.
Oliver:
As you move toward an entirely new album planned for early 2027, what has creating “Lord Look After Me” taught you about the kind of artist you are becoming, particularly in the way you approach vulnerability, experimentation, and spiritual themes?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
It has taught me to keep working until I get to the sound that I hear in my head
Oliver:
You have built your work around a very personal creative process, often exploring uncomfortable emotions rather than avoiding them. What do you hope someone who feels like an outsider, misunderstood by the people around them, will recognize in “Lord Look After Me”?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
I certainly would love to think that someone who is struggling would hear it and feel less alone.
Oliver:
Looking ahead to the album and the wider artistic chapter that is beginning to take shape, what do you want to explore next, and what kind of lasting artistic identity do you hope Noel Johnson NDJ will establish through the work that follows?
Noel Johnson NDJ:
My new record has a lot of alt-rock guitar on it and some funky grooves. So hopefully it will be a lot of fun to play live. I hope that when people think of me as an artist, it expands their idea of what it means to go to church.
“Lord Look After Me” is compelling because it refuses to make spiritual struggle neat. Noel Johnson NDJ turns uncertainty, isolation, and the search for reassurance into a musical world where faith can exist alongside questions, discomfort, and the knowledge that redemption does not always arrive on schedule.
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE
What stays with me about “Lord Look After Me” is the honesty of its unfinished emotional journey. Johnson does not treat faith as a simple answer, but as something tested by memory, isolation, family, and personal struggle. His unusual percussion choices and southern gospel harmonies give the song a strong sense of place, while the darker atmosphere keeps its central plea unresolved. There is a clear connection between the person creating the music and the world he builds around it, making the recording feel deliberately personal rather than merely stylistic.
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
CLOSING
Our conversation with Noel Johnson NDJ offers a closer look at the experiences and creative decisions behind “Lord Look After Me,” from its southern gospel roots and unconventional recording process to the deeply personal questions of faith, isolation, identity, and redemption that shape the song.
Thank you to Noel for taking the time to speak with DULAXI and for sharing such personal insight into both the song and the journey that surrounds it. We hope this conversation encourages you to experience “Lord Look After Me” for yourself and to listen closely to the details that make the recording such a personal piece of work.
As Noel continues building toward his new album in early 2027, there is clearly more to come from an artist who is willing to let the song determine where it needs to go. We will be following that journey and look forward to hearing where this next chapter leads.
Thank you for spending time with DULAXI. I’m Oliver, and we look forward to bringing you more conversations with artists from around the world.