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Tiny Library Records

Autofiction

by Far Caspian

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited edition white 12" vinyl pressing of Far Caspian's third album 'Autofiction' with gatefold gloss sleeve, 600x900mm foldable lyric and image poster.

    This product will be shipped from the UK but available globally at international postal rates.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Autofiction via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £24.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited edition translucent red 12" vinyl pressing of Far Caspian's third album 'Autofiction' with gatefold gloss sleeve, 600x900mm foldable lyric and image poster.


    This product will be shipped from the US at local rates but available globally.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Autofiction via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £24.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Digipak CD version of Far Caspian's third album 'Autofiction'.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Autofiction via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

      £7 GBP  or more

     

1.
Ditch 03:28
fill up the time that you’ve missed bury your eyes in a fist passing rain through while you’re drifting awake most of nature tries bought myself a tape all your chances that you keep for free by my side leave keep all the force that you missed bottle your faults and your fears i was right there on your phone list cut off the leg from a death fished out myself from a ditch and all your choices that allow you free disregarding
2.
First Day 03:32
in the morning awoken by the rain so dimmed by the clouds so often the last forgotten ray on your first day i drove you to the road and off you walked into a building something neither of us know
3.
you step into the loft i feel it when you say i never wanted all the useless things we take the lights are turning on so distant from it all i swear this time will take the sound of changing place and this sinks so calcified those calluses begin the last remaining light is stretched across your skin decide to sellotape the boxes one by one i know it’s cold and dull the sound of changing place the sound of changing place the sound of changing
4.
Window 03:24
all in a defined state or so you call it up when it’s time lost in it drowned by my lines and it starts howling out at the wind it’s rough to go if i’d say everyone calling you out and you say calling it up by the window shredding the time spent follow following out to bloom all in a defined space or so you thought it up when it’s time lost from it, binding that fire how it stops folding out in the wind we’re lost to ground if i’d say everything walking you down you say calling it up by the window shredding the time spent follow following out to bloom
5.
Lough 01:52
resolution taken from me a flower bloomed beside the lough buried eyes don’t see anything i swear to you i’ve got a heart call it a day 45 ‘til it’s gone your mind changed from a fear to a song i’ll try change without death as a chance offer the pain up to someone else
6.
Here Is Now 03:42
Into the light promising never to be terrified waiting miles and miles spoke to the fear leaving it, leaving it to tear down i could get used to this again all the pain you’ve pulled through repelled they say it’s full a box of all your fears gone threw in by the wayside today given up to all your breath giving up the loneliness all for the times live without something that’s always pulled you down taken by surprise to know here is now spinning cycles overhead don’t feel down it’s just there to tell no all the pain you’ve pulled through lets go sleep by the peace lose control
7.
Into the light promising never to be terrified waiting miles and miles spoke to the fear leaving it, leaving it to tear down i could get used to this again all the pain you’ve pulled through repelled they say it’s full a box of all your fears gone threw in by the wayside today given up to all your breath giving up the loneliness all for the times live without something that’s always pulled you down taken by surprise to know here is now spinning cycles overhead don’t feel down it’s just there to tell no all the pain you’ve pulled through lets go sleep by the peace lose control
8.
let’s go homeward and settle down before it falls sleight of hand reaching out and now you know buried deep in the lines now you’d hope left for something bleeding out let’s just sit here losing time before you go an outstretched hand on a frostbitten night this time moves slow buried deep in the lines and now you’d hope left for something bleeding out i sit by your side rain from here to kerry soaking feet soaking wet dissolved again buried beneath a shade of night that only august brings as sun begins to peak amongst the birds we speak amongst hushed tones you say “don’t sleep” as your second red bull depletes and i realise we’ve driven five hours flat how long until we see the bridges? the cats eyes still lit broken antenna supplies the silence our feet and heads still wet from the walk the air conditioning powering through such a long night shift it’s like ourselves are the only two awake there’s been rain since carrauntoohil but as we reach the fermanagh sign the sky exposes pink and orange
9.
Autofiction 03:41
i see you by the phone box you called in all the words that you say i feel close as if you’re here beside me don’t feel bad to stay delicate colouring book by your front door caught in a haze when you call pointing out all the things that you said i’ll return to a death all of which we use as a homepage cut the line from the desk delicate reasons to run out of the room caught up in all that you do forgetting all of the times we never knew i’ll be around i’ll be around i’ll be around when it’s not so soon
10.
Whim 05:17
got the mess off of my head everyone’s feeling clouded trace the lines back to your steps under the lights call it luck or anything i don’t know much about it beat the flesh right off your face holding hope out and it goes and so for the first time heading back to see recall all the landscapes that go out to sea out to everything i’m so scared of feeling bones underneath the table clasped my grip and tore it off as i was sat lean before my life begins under this splitting sunlight trace my eyes back to your steps now i can find any more then it’s calling running back to see find all the feelings that could fill it in calling around here to assimilate lean on a whim that’s lead to everything
11.
End 04:38
i remember when it tore us apart sleepless in disrepair all the pain stopped you when you said “everyone knows” how you could fade away, all the pain goes at the end of the day it will all fall apart at the end of the day it will all fall down i returned the tape, bringing offered change building kits in a box by your bed while i wait talking while you sleep, it’s like you know that you could comfort me, trust in some kind of way at the end of the day it will all fall apart at the end of the day it will all fall down

about

On his new album Autofiction, Far Caspian’s Joel Johnston is learning to make peace with the cards he’s been dealt. Following his Crohn’s disease diagnosis in 2021, Johnston felt stuck mourning the loss of his life before, and struggling to cope with not only his new reality, but also an ongoing battle with OCD and anxiety. Autofiction finds the Irish musician discovering the tools he needs to keep moving forward. “I’m now at the point where I don't really let it define me,” he says. “The lyric ‘your mind changed from a fear to a song’ [on ‘Lough’] is my expression of freedom: to no longer be held down by something you’ve got used to. I’m trying to not even make sense of it all, but just live in it, and be grateful for the things I do have.”

The lyrics across Autofiction—which dive deep into mental health burdens, self-forgiveness, recovery, and gratitude for supportive, uplifting partnership—are Johnston’s most direct, diaristic and literal to date. As such, it’s also his most vulnerable release yet. “I just wanted to get the message across,” he says. “People will sometimes comment on songs of mine saying ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ I wanted to make a record that was a bit more heard. I even made my vocals louder than I usually do.” Freeing himself from any internal judgments or inhibitions, Johnston wrote songs for Autofiction with a simple motto: “I’m enjoying this right now and therefore it’s good enough.” The process helped him reconnect with the joy of music, the reason he started making it in the first place. It felt like the first time he made an album for himself, rather than an audience. “The fact that I was less self-critical and worried about others' opinions–I think that’s why the lyrics became more straightforward. I didn’t feel the need to dress them up or hide behind something.”

In between Far Caspian’s 2021 debut LP Ways To Get Out and 2023’s acclaimed follow-up The Last Remaining Light, Johnston established his own label–Tiny Library Records–to release music from artists he often collaborates with, including 22° Halo, SOMOH, and Niall Summerton. Shortly after, he also set up his own recording studio in Leeds, UK (his current place of residence), where he produces and mixes for a number of UK-based acts. This work with other artists, while unrelated to the album, proved to be a vital step in the making of Autofiction. While Far Caspian is performed live as a six-piece, Johnston has spent years writing, producing, and recording a full band production for it all on his own, and that began to take a mental toll. With a mounting feeling of stress and pressure, he nearly decided to quit his own project; but after producing albums for Green Gardens and Ellur, Johnston’s spark for Far Caspian reignited. Newly inspired to enjoy the process, he returned to some demos he had started for Autofiction and completed the majority of the album in January 2025.

Johnston used his new studio experience to approach the making of the album with a fresh mindset: “After producing Ellur, I was able to just say to myself: ‘I’m going to produce this Far Caspian album now. I’m presenting myself with these demos I’ve had for a while. Let me see what I can do with them as a producer, not as a songwriter.’” With influences ranging from Broken Social Scene to the Japanese band Supercar, the instrumentation of Autofiction feels light, textured, and always energetic. It was recorded entirely in Johnston’s studio, where he himself produced, mixed, engineered, and played every instrument heard on the LP.

Found towards the top of the record, “First Day” sounds sunny and bright, with warm guitar riffs and uplifting percussion laying the foundation for a heartfelt love song. “I wrote ‘First Day’ one morning after dropping my partner off at her new job. She was in a transitional period where everything felt so daunting and raw. At a similar time, I was starting a new medication for my Crohn's disease that required me to go to the hospital and get infusions every 8 weeks,” Johnston shares. “The first time I went, my partner was the one to drive me. I wrote this song as a reminder of how we have each other's backs and best interests at heart, regardless of how unsure we may be about what's ahead.” A simple song about enjoying time in a relationship and wanting to soak it all in, the chiming and fast-paced “An Outstretched Hand” is also a love note to his partner—who then contributes vocals to the hooky and tender title track.

As the album begins to wind down, “Whim” looks back to a memorable night in 2014 spent with friends. They had plans to camp out on Carrauntoohil–the tallest mountain in Ireland–but a rough storm eventually sent them driving 8 hours back home through the night instead. “I remember my friend who drove asked me to promise not to fall asleep so that he had company the whole way. So I sat in the passenger seat while the others slept in the back,” Johnston says. “We were forced into it, but that drive ended up being really special. It felt like one of those moments in life that will always be with you.” A decade later, Johnston now realizes that night laid a foundation for him to experience life and its present-day obstacles through a more hopeful, mindful lens. The lyrics of “Whim”–such as ‘Recall all the landscapes that go out to sea’–act as both a metaphor for this and a direct reference to that formative experience. It’s an enveloping, multifaceted track about getting out of your head and into the world.

Autofiction is an album that ultimately reconnected Johnston to his love of making music–a refreshed joy and sincerity that’s evident in every track. He shed expectations and pressures on his songwriting and in turn created the most authentic and striking album of his catalogue. Standing at the beginning of his thirties, he’s looking to move forward similarly in his personal life. “I was always told as a child that I was just a worrier—that was just my label. Eventually I decided not to believe that, to rid myself of that label and say ‘No, I don’t have to be. I can be brave, or whatever I need to be.’ I’ve found a bit more ease within myself.” Autofiction marks his choice to live in hope instead of fear and just enjoy the ride.

credits

released July 25, 2025

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Far Caspian Leeds, UK

Far Caspian is the project of singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Joel Johnston. Choosing to record with a DIY approach - recording, playing and mixing everything himself - his sound is a deftly combined blend of chiming guitars, rich harmonic melodies and crisp rhythms. ... more

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