Portraits of the Resistance Vol. 10 | Jodie Abacus

Singer, songwriter and all-round good egg.

Aug 01, 2024

You may not be familiar with Jodie Abacus. And if you aren’t, you need to be. He has the voice of an angel and the looks to match.

I spotted this uber-talented singer/songwriter on Instagram. I think it was a meme of some kind that Jodie had posted. To be honest, I can’t remember exactly HOW it was, but it was, that I happened upon Jodie Abacus.

I listened to a couple of his songs on Spotify and was mesmerised. How didn’t I already know about this guy? He’s clearly awake! I sent a DM to try and get an mp3 copy of his song Champagne Kiss to play through a digital DJ setup. I also asked him if he wanted to be a part of this project. He agreed to both, but provided only a link back to the spotify song 😂… I was ok with that.

I was due to shoot DJ Slipmatt aka Matt Nelson earlier the same day. You can read about it and see the pictures here. Jodie and I decided to meet at a pub in South London near one of London’s many public parks overlooking the city, where we would shoot some pictures.

Full-on-mask-hysteria was in force and I believe this was the time of eating-out to help-out and ludicrous debate over what constituted a ‘full meal’, not to forget the classic sCiENce™ of wearing masks while standing or walking in a restaurant (the act of sitting being enough of a deterrent for those airborne dead organic particles and variants of concern to get ya).

This pub, though, seems perfectly welcoming.

We grab drinks. I think mine might have been just a ginger beer and Jodie’s, a Guinness…🤔.

We take a high table set against a window and introduce ourselves. I thank Jodie for making the time and we get down to talking about the world we are currently all trying to make sense of.

Jodie Abacus, South London 2021 © Kerry Murray Photography (Nikon D850, ISO 320, 70mm, f/4.5, 1/125sec)

We’re straight into how our lives have been transformed since the arrival of the so-called Pandemic®. Jodie is looking back at a summer of cancelled gigs. Italy mostly, I’m told. He’d had a lot in the pipeline, only to have plans quashed by the new act in town - the Deadlyglobalsomethingorother that was frightening the life out of people.

Jodie is stoic. He treats it like a minor inconvenience, just a part of the way the game works now. I’m surprised at how upbeat he is about it all. I mean, it’s the equivalent to being laid off for the average 9-5er. Positive and smiley, Jodie tells me about those who thought him crazy for his views on lockdowns, restrictions, masks, politics and let’s not forget the old jibby-jabby. He’s had all the usuals but maintained his composure to the relative onslaught.

Share Postcards from the Resistance

I can tell our volume is increasing by the people at other tables looking over. I can’t quite tell if it’s merely our volume or also the subject matter which is attracting attention. Either way, who cares? The conversation is fluid and engaging. Jodie is the kind of guy you want to hang out with; be mates with.

Jodie Abacus, photographed in South London 2021 © Kerry Murray Photography (Nikon D850, ISO320, 14mm, f/7.1, 1/60sec)

It’s clear to me how switched on he is to how the ‘system’ works. From race-baiting to snitching on the neighbours for breaking lockdown ‘rules’ or the new allergic reaction to anything countering one’s own poorly formed, but ‘acceptable’, options, he’s a man fully aware of the Matrix machine and ready to step out of it.

Jodie works with children for the most part. In a kind of mentoring capacity to them. He tells me it would be impossible for him to sacrifice his moral and ethical stance on the restrictions and treatment we have had to put up with during the pandemic because of the children.

Once we’ve put the world to rights, we decide on a wander through a hilltop park just over the road from the pub for some shots. Much to my delight, the views from here are stunning. We’re overlooking parts of South London I’m not familiar with and the vista provides that wonderful feeling of separation you sometimes get when you’re in London, of knowing you are in the city but feeling that you could be in the country. A kind of antidote to the madness of the rat race below us.

Walking and chatting like old mates, I’ve only a vague idea of how to shoot Jodie. Is this a smiley guy or is it that the broad open smile he shows me several times today is just a façade for the underlying feeling of resentment and anger at what’s become of society now? As fate had it, it wasn’t some smiley photoshoot, but rather a set of images which I think show the man I met full of charm, wit and charisma, navigating his path through these uncharted waters.

Much like the rest of us…