Introducing: Jaayns

Leeds based singer-songwriter Jaayns defines her sound as ‘alt-electro pop music.’ She creates her music in her home studio, and since the release of 2017’s Bright White Yellow EP she’s released regularly collaborated with other artists. The release of Real Things, which saw her link up with producer Ben Matravers, made us want to find out about the person behind the song.

What inspires you to write songs?

I’m always getting melodies in my head firstly… and it’s like music is inside me trying to get out all the time.  When I was younger, I didn’t know how to express it, I used to just sing along to songs and drum along on a table or on my chair… but it was like I needed to learn the language to actually let the music inside of me out.  So, I learned guitar and some piano and took some songwriting lessons.

That’s when I got more into lyric writing and poetry… and now I write to also work through things or create characters that are going through something that were only allowed a 3-minute insight into what’s happening with them… I really like the simple complexity of music how it captures emotions like nothing else and often songs tell you where they want to go when they’re being written… it’s like this puzzle that you can’t quite hear the parts of until they’re created and fitted together… it’s addictive.

Who has had the most influence on your sound?

Such a hard question… I come from a big family where we had a rule that the house had to be quiet at midnight… so, everyone had different music coming out of their bedrooms.  My dad liked classical music, my mum more pop from the 60s and 70s, I loved indie music, 90s R&B, dance and pop, my older brothers rock music, through to Tangerine Dream and Mike Oldfield… all of that is in my head at some level.

I’m probably the most influenced by artists that love experimentation and show no fear in expressing their artistry, so David Bowie or Bjork and more recently Banks or Bon Iver.

What has been the biggest musical challenge you’ve faced so far?

Probably battling with myself… it’s the hardest thing being an artist and probably more so being a female artist. Constant comparing to others, questioning why I am doing this and am I good enough, what are people going to say or think about it or me.  But it comes back to I know I have no choice; I have to create music and ultimately people can say what they like it will connect to people that want to connect with it and if don’t know how to do something… it might take time but ‘I’ll find the time to learn and figure it out.

What has been the nicest thing ever written about you or your music?

Ah, lots of nice things have been said… I think someone compared my music to the music created by Bon Iver once who I absolutely love, I was so happy.

What has been your best gig experience as a musician or audience member?

I really love performing live and the experience of live music and see it as another way to express yourself as an artist.  I’ve been to so many gigs and festivals, the standout gigs for me is seeing my idols. I saw Leonard Cohen at Glastonbury a few years ago where everyone in the audience sang Hallelujah… it was an amazing experience.  Also, I saw Christine and Queens in London and her performance blew me away as it was like theatre the way she used the whole stage and interacted with the audience.

What was the last piece of music to listened to?

I really love Griffs new album One Foot in Front of The Other.

Could you tell us something about your recent single Real Things?

I wrote it earlier this year during one of the lockdowns when I was just on my phone a lot as we weren’t able to interact with other people… social media is addictive yet also it almost makes you stay in your head space and question everything about if your good enough.  The comments can be really toxic with complete strangers falling out as they almost don’t have to be polite as they’re behind a screen or keyboard and often faceless.

It made me think about how we really do need human interaction and to speak to people in real life, so it was a song about that really about if we keep going down a path of everything being online what could we be like and would we just always be too scared to stand out in case someone judges just when we’re trying to find our feet.

I did a basic production and recording at home and when lockdown ended took it to my producer Ben Matravers who I’ve worked with on my last two EPs, and we layered the tracks with synths and beats.

The cover artwork for Real Things has been produced by northern contemporary artist Ella Fradgley and incorporates the lyrics of the song.  I was introduced to Ella through my label No Such Thing records that works with different artists across different genres and mediums.

What other Leeds bands or musicians do we need to be checking out right now?

I really love Maddie Magdalene a new UK independent artist who I met in Leeds, but she is Brighton based now.  She has just released a new single Reclaiming that’s been on repeat the last few days – it’s such a powerful song I love it

And I love the band Dust in the Sunlight, I’ve known Billy from the band, through different songwriting collaborations over the years and they have a new single coming out at the end October called Blueprints that they recorded in Leeds, which is so, so good.  You should definitely go listen to their music.

Give us a few hints on what’s in store next for Jaayns…

I’m working on a really different collaboration project that I’m really excited about. It’s a different sound that my normal music and I’m working with a great artist/producer on it so I can’t wait to share the music from that project.  And I’m taking the rest of this year to write some more music to hopefully be released at the start of the new year.  I’m getting more into production and experimenting with different styles and sounds so that’s quite exciting.

You can listen to Real Things and more music from Jaayns on Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and all major digital outlets – click here for more information and links for her socials.