On The Record with JaysWays

The first vinyl record I bought was an LP called Dreamstone by a Bristol, UK producer called Sorrow. It’s an incredibly detailed and emotive cut of electronic beats that sound like living, breathing organisms instead of programmed beats. A bit like Burial in the way that it doesn’t sound like something a human has made with a computer, but more like a soul speaking the language of electronic music in an effortlessly fluid way.

2. The Last Record I Bought

The last record I bought was an EP by a kid called Jacques Emery, You Keep Me. It’s so refreshing to hear something so heartfelt and completely removed from ego. It’s just a young composer/multi-instrumentalist whose output is so widely varied and deeply conceptual, for the first time making music that expresses love in a completely honest and beautiful way based on rich overdubbed improvisations. It can feel quite invasive and confronting just because of how raw it is, which is what makes it so touching and impactful.

3. The First Thing I Recorded

When I was 13 to 16, I was in a commercial pop-rock band with a few other kids. We had to play music which was chosen and written for us, but eventually we got opportunities to write our own music and record tracks in professional studios, which made it worth it. There was this kid Christian Anthony, who’s now doing really well in his indie pop-rock group Chase Atlantic, and him and I used to write cheesy pop songs about young heartbreak and things like that. It was as cringeworthy as you’d expect, but we always had fun and I wouldn’t trade those experiences.

4. The Last Thing I Recorded

Last time I was in Melbourne I stayed with this producer called Elkkle, who released an EP with a singer-songwriter Woodes last year. She and I wrote this really nice track together, which is a lot sunnier than my regular stuff, like a melancholy recollection of bittersweet love in the summer. It’s on this album I’m working on, which is more inspired by tender moods in the autumn/winter.

5. The Record That Changed My Life

To just name one, I’ll say Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Honestly, I only heard this album about a year ago, but it affected me in ways I can’t explain. The first time I listened to it was this one moment I became deeply in love with someone, my emotions blurred into one another and I felt so weak, so afraid of it what it could do to me. I felt everything at once – love, joy, pain, suffering – and it almost forced me out of my body. I don’t often return to the album because of the sheer weight of its impact on myself and my emotions. I wrote a song about that moment as a way of confronting my feelings and just letting them take me, which I’m yet to release. I’ll never forget how powerful it was at the time.

Photo:Greg Holland Photography