Bomethius is the baroque pop project led by Jonathan Hodges, a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter based in Chicago. Hodges draws from decades of classical training to craft a mischievous brand of chamber rock that echoes the sounds of Andrew Bird, Low Roar, Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Randy Newman, and Elliott Smith.

Bomethius’ studio records feature a long-standing rotation of guest contributors, including Sam Ahmadi and Phil Hodges (guitar), Maggie Fahey and Caroline Hodges (vocals), Matt Shaw and Michael Minkoff (percussion), Ricky Roshell (woodwinds and horns), Chris Stubblefield (trumpet), and Jeff Tullis (bass). Since 2022, Bomethius' live and studio performances have featured Jeremiah de la Peña on drums, Dan Kristan on bass, Taylor Vos on electric guitar, and Chris Wilson on keys. Together with Hodges’ other collaborators, these talents aptly fill out and refine the sound of Bomethius’ manic meditations and existential audits.

With their energy and zeal, Bomethius’ first two records, Intimatitudes (2017) and As Roses (2018), showcase the songwriter’s tortured wit and impressive command of his instruments to chronicle the internal turmoil of an earnest youth’s coming of age. Full of spry musings on selfhood, love, hope, and purpose, these early releases feature moving confessional ballads, contemptuous snarls at the world’s incoherence, musical parodies, and more to evoke the deepest doubts that attend the alienation and rage of adolescence.

Bomethius followed with the breakthrough release, Sweet Nothings, in 2019. Exploring a range of styles from blues and jazz to minimalism and chamber rock, Sweet Nothings is Hodges’ stirring anthem to his own manic strain of indifference — at turns exalted and heartbreaking — tempered by restless obsessions with home, memory, and time. The album earned acclaim from Atwood Magazine, which dubbed it “a folk masterpiece hiding in plain sight.” 

For Bomethius’ fourth record, Hodges partnered with his uncle, Dave Hodges, on a full-length collaboration titled inadiquit (2020). At once excruciatingly tender and raucously explosive, inadiquit engages head-on the enduring trauma of a troubled upbringing coupled with misguided devotion to toxic religion. Praised by We Are Mirrors for delivering on its “heady concepts, both lyrical and compositional, through a progressive baroque-pop vessel that’s as ambitious as it is humble,” the album represented another significant leap for Bomethius in terms of compositional prowess, emotional fiber, and production quality.

In another demonstration of Bomethius’ growth and stature as a rising bard, Seasons of Limbo (2021) earned further acclaim, especially on the strength of two singles. A sincere folk ballad recorded days after twisters tore through his former Texas hometown in November 2019, “Tornados in Dallas” recalls the early works of Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen to celebrate the mystery and power of disasters, which destroy lives even as they bind people together. Supported by a plaintive violin, “Goodbye, Covid-19” swoons with smooth, breezy vocals and clean electric guitar evocative of M. Ward to trace the coronavirus’ devastating impact on family, ritual, and the future. Gentle variations on the song’s refrain trace personal reactions to the pandemic from dismissal to nightmare to a hopeful acceptance grounded in a love no crisis could thwart — even if one did disrupt the wedding plans.

Following a move to Chicago, Hodges returned in 2022 with Awful, Pompous, & Artificial (APA), Bomethius’ sixth record in as many years. A dynamic exploration of estrangement and the intangible devastation wrought by language in free fall, APA stews and surges with a ferment of earnest, fiery voices that reflect the troubling spiritual mechanics of fruitless utterances — messages that cannot be received, even if they are delivered.

Backed by exquisite performances from Hodges’ largest-ever group of collaborators — Roshell, Stubblefield, and Tullis alongside Ahmadi, Minkoff, and others — APA flows with Bomethius’ fullest, richest, and most nuanced sound yet. The record’s 13 tracks roam a vast range of songcraft that cycles among stringed harmonies, sinister synths, distorted violins, frolicsome whistling, soaring and crooning vocals, dueling guitars that alternate between seething riffs and delicate fingerpicking, and more.

Firmly settled in Chicago, Borrowed Time (2024) marked the label debut for Bomethius. Released on Chicago’s Oakley Avenue Records, Bomethius’ seventh LP since 2017 rolls out a new studio lineup of Jeremiah de la Peña on drums, Dan Kristan on bass, and Taylor Voss on guitar, accompanied by a call sheet of new and longstanding guest contributors on trumpet, pedal steel, and more. It also features several collaborations with Hodges’ sister, Caroline, who lends her haunting, evocative vocals to some of the record’s most poignant tracks.

Picking up where his previous release, APA (2022), left off, Borrowed Time traces the strange, ambivalent aftermath of triumphing over a crisis of estrangement. Since his earliest recordings, Bomethius has been crafting a trademark style of existential audits that explore the deeds and sufferings of alienation and agency. While each release represents a new chapter of the songwriter’s journey and growth, Borrowed Time marks a major departure for Hodges. 

Instead of the fear, anger, escape, and search for sanctuary that fueled his earlier releases, Borrowed Time resounds with the absolution he’d always sung about but hadn’t quite found. It’s as if, despite all his protests, he had still been unwittingly harboring notions and allegiances that were keeping him shackled to the past and to others. With the deft artistry of Hodges and his many spirited collaborators on full display, Borrowed Time is the sound of prosecuting a crisis and emerging victorious — of claiming and championing the freedom and the right to grow on his own terms.

Tropopause is slated for release on June 7th, 2026.

Hodges graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance. He has performed as an improv and studio violinist for Angel White, Adela's, Danielle Juhre, Girl Named Nino, Just Logan, Cardboard Aviator, The Devil Said Jump, and Yna. His former violin teachers include Marla Feeney, Mrs. Fryer, Alexander Serafimov, Ivan Ženatý, Chee-Yun Kim, and Diane Kitzman.