Silver Jack is an artist who has lived in London for a little over a year, trying to make it in the music world and form connections. His songs are based on his life in London. What he saw was what he went through as an artist without any meaningful place to keep his head. How were the reactions of the other people? Time, a track that reflects the busy, bustling city. Loving is easy, reflecting the lack of love in London and how it is easy to show love.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello Silver Jack. What strengths do you have that you believe make you a great musician?
I am incredibly self-taught for most of my endeavours in music. I wouldn’t say I’m a great musician, but I am an all-right musician and the things that make me standout is that most of the things I do in music, I do it alone. From Song writing to Production, It’s all me. I spent hours and hours in a day unaware of time passing in front of the computer or a notebook producing and writing respectively. But unlike most people, I enjoy what you do. It’s always, what’s next, what’s next instead of when am I going to eat or sleep or go out. It’s never a job or business for me. It’s who I am as a person. I do not have the time or the patience to be dependant on somebody unless I have no way of doing it myself. It’s the kind of independent individuality that makes me stand out to myself. And even though it is rough at times, I do believe in persistence to the maximum of my capabilities.
Who inspired you to make music?
Inspiration is a very complicated thought. I was born and brought up in a musical household, but I never was interested in music until high school. To me, my superhero and inspiration is my dad. He is a musician himself and he was the one who inspired me to compose and to think like a composer. He gave me lessons through his conversations with other musicians and to myself and whenever I had a chance I used to listen carefully and ardently. I was always listening to whatever he had to say. And this inspired me beyond words.
Your latest release is 'Remember'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
Remember is my life in London in very short words. I live in London currently and I have been here for 2 years. This album is the experiences that I had in London. I saw things that made me happy, things that made me question humanity. And this culminated in the album. During this album’s creation which I had been working on for six months, I was unhealthy and could only travel outside when I was well to walk. But when I did, I saw the world through the eyes of a common person. Whether it was a person heading to work or a person going back home tired, people going out on dates, the beggars in Oxford Circus with their head on the ground, every bit of London, is reflected in Remember.
Can you shortly describe each of the tracks that are on the album?
The first track “Time” painted a picture of the passing of time in a city during multiple wars in the world and how the people reacted to it. “Loving is easy” is the explanation of a singer that the easiest things in the world that humankind can do is to love. “My brother” is about a particular conversation between me and my brother when I quit a high paying job because of the inhumanity I was faced with. “Battlefield” is a short poem I wrote about the resolve that wherever you are, is your battlefield. “Burn” is about the end of a relationship where the person is arguing that, even if the significant other had burnt everything including the relationship, they could still come back together. “Signs” is about the signs that I saw when I questioned whether I could stay in London because it was getting incredibly tough due to the cost-of-living crisis. “Higher and Higher” is about my father, the youngest in his family who flew higher and higher to fame without any help. “Remember” urges the listener to remember me as an artist as I had sought help from many people. “Little Man” is about my brother again, when he was feeling down in an instance about work, and I was motivating him despite being unmotivated myself. “Divine” is my experiences in a club for the first time. “Last but not the least” is my resolve to stay in London to become an artist once and for all and urging myself to come back to us who is me as a person and me as an artist again.
How do you stay up to date with the latest musical trends?
I do listen to a lot of stuff happening these days. Most of the music I listen to comes from Tik Tok. There is no doubt absolutely that music industry is now based on social media. Tik Tok has a very special way of bringing it out and to be fair, only the wackiest, most different small parts of 3- 4 min songs, will ever get noticed. There was a lady singing about a coffee shop with her kid that gained a huge amount of attention. Also, if you are around kids, you get to hear what they like and they only like what makes them happy. They have a more up to date knowledge of trends than what we give them credit for! But yes, as a musician, I do try to keep up with current trends through research and listening to popular social media accounts.
What makes you different from others?
Most of the popular songs these days, follow a particular pattern or a particular chord progression as Ed Sheeran once explained in a TV show. This overuse of the same song chords and the same way of singing has become very repeated and at times, led to lengthy court cases. In the olden ages, once something gets a real bit of attention, there would be other people who follow the same idea for a little while but would immediately get shut down after when new ideas came through. In fact, even Ray Charles was accused of singing like Nat King Cole when he was starting out. These days, everything that I hear sounds like Billie Eilish or Ed Sheeran or Coldplay. I do not follow the musical structures of these popular musicians, because copying them would shift attention from their music and even at one point, their music would seem redundant like how the AI song Heart on my sleeve supposedly sounds more like a drake song than most of OG Drake’s songs. In this way, whatever I make will always be different. Always follow another path. If I feel any closeness to any artist, I will shut the song down. You don’t have to be good; you don’t have to be the best; you should only be unique. In this way, there will always be a space for you. This is what I believe to be true. For example, Mumford and sons, Radiohead, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, Tems, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa. They are all good singers but they are Unique and in their own space.
What’s an average day like for you?
I wake up at 3 am in the morning most of the days. This is a habit I picked up during my days of schooling. I start my day listening to tracks that I could improve and hear it back and forth again and again. Once Its day, I go out travelling the city. Museums, parks, I seek inspiration. I was working for a while which would let me on those experiences you would find in a professional environment. I go out at night again, just roaming around London with my friends or alone.
Please discuss how you interact with and respond to fans.
Most of my fans are online and I have responded to them via comments, etc. They love releases and have often asked me about the inspiration, and I keep them entertained with funny stories.
What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Be calm. This is the best advice I can give to anyone. Be calm, and all your decisions will be that much easier. The calmer you are the better the decisions you can make. Whether it is with creativity or finding places to market your songs. Always be calm and always be trying to achieve and get somewhere.
What are your plans for the future?
Right now, I am working on my next album “Lifeless” which is a dream project for me as I wish to find the silver jack sound. Yes all releases have a distinct sounding but I want to explore further what silver jack means to me and hence I hope to find it through “Lifeless”. The next six months would be for purely promoting both these albums and find my place in this musical world.