Having spent the last few years releasing a wave of bright and euphoric lo-fi offerings, Berlin-based Finnish-Russian songwriter and producer Sir Jay has now returned to deliver his highly-anticipated debut EP ‘Big Waves’.
Inspired by the polar opposites of urban claustrophobia and the open wide of nature, this new collection looks to examine how these two worlds affect the human experience in society and how we have grown used to our new environment.
Taking influence from the likes of Ben Howard, Hozier and Fink, this new EP brings together a heady blend of breezy acoustic guitars, folk-pop aesthetics, and uplifting production to create a truly wonderfully engaging release.
So with his new EP circulating everywhere right now, we took a few minutes with him to find out more about his origins and what he has planned for the months ahead.
Words by Chris Bound
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Chris) Hi, how are you today?
Sir Jay) Hi, a bit nervous but quite excited, to be honest. We will perform a duo show in a few hours at a local venue, Tenho Restobar, in Helsinki. Two guitars, two vocals and a few new songs. Hopefully, all our friends will turn up and people won’t hesitate to come to see us because of the Corona.
For those that haven’t heard of you yet, how would you best describe your sound and who have been your biggest influences so far?
Guitars, acoustic and electric, play an important role in my music. I also love vocal harmonies and weird groovy rhythmic patterns, as well as handclaps. Everything is a little distorted, which wraps the tracks in a warm summery mood.
I have been inspired by so many artists, but I would say that the biggest are Ben Howard, Hozier, Fink, Arctic Monkeys, Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend, just to name a few.
You have just released your new single ‘Forest House’. Can you tell us how that track came about?
‘Forest House’ is the oldest song on the EP and it was written on the first week when I moved to London in 2017. I was very inspired by the change of a home city and wrote the song almost in one go. At that moment everything made sense and I felt that I’m going in the right direction. The song remained in my repertoire, and when I later moved back to Finland in 2018 and started to work on my EP I changed the song slightly, came up with a better chorus and added many new layers to the arrangement.
The repetitive beginning of the song, “there’s a forest, there’s a forest house..” and the finger-picked acoustic guitar riff remained the same as the original version. I wanted to add more power to the arrangement and that happened when we first recorded the drums to the track with my old bandmate Oskari Järvinen. He really knew how to add dynamics to the song and it was rather easy to come up with a distorted guitar riff to the post-chorus part and the outro build-up.
My producer friend, Markus Savijoki, was guiding my way through the musical jungle, as I had never produced a track from start to finish before. I would say that we co-produced it because Markus gave me so many great ideas along the way. The production of the track took around two months and Markus mixed the EP when all the tracks were finished.
When I sing the song, I always imagine myself standing on the shore where the forest ends and the ocean begins.
And was there a particular style you were looking for when you wrote it?
I think that I was inspired by James Bay at the time of writing the first version. I wanted to write a song that would be easy to play on an acoustic guitar and I definitely wanted to have a meditative -feel to it, use nature imagery in the lyrics and to put the focus on the vocals and melody.
My musical style took shape at the time of the production when I was trying out many different ways to arrange the song. I wanted it to sound rockier than the original acoustic guitar version, to it better with the other songs on the Big Waves EP.
It is lifted from your latest EP ‘Big Waves’. Can you tell us the inspiration behind that release?
During the process of writing songs for ‘Big Waves’ EP, I wanted to be as playful as possible. I decided to start working with beats to give my songs more energy.
I started by writing ‘Partner In Crime’ over 7/8 rhythmical pattern. It turned out really nice and eventually I wrote all the other songs in a similar way, clapping hands over different time signatures: ‘Mid-July’ 9/8, ‘Big Waves’ 12/8 and ‘Hello Love’ 5/8. All it took was a new direction.
All the songs except for ‘Big Waves’ are love songs. ’Mid-July’ was written in the middle of dark Finnish winter and it tells about a low-like falling in love in the summertime. I was really missing the summer at that moment. ‘Partner In Crime’ tells about communication in a relationship. With the song ‘Hello Love’ I aimed to write a timeless love song with a metaphorical approach. It tells about the surprise of meeting somebody important after being lonely for a long time.
‘Big Waves’ is a song about hiding from responsibility. The aim was to write an uplifting song to give power and energy to people to fight for their passion and good things in this world. It’s for everybody who speaks up.
The coronavirus outbreak has obviously affected everyone’s plans, but what have you got in store for the rest of the year?
I moved to Berlin in January and I am focusing on getting more live gigs and showcases in Central Europe.
I’m also writing songs for on my upcoming debut album, which I’m planning to finish recording this year. I’m meeting with as many local musicians as possible to co-write songs. Those are probably the biggest goals for the near future. Also, I want to just stay inspired and explore the new home city, learn the basics of German and travel if borders will stay open.
And finally, standard interview question, where do you see yourself in five years?
Thanks for the classic question! I will be touring with my band around the world, probably not living in Finland, maybe in London or still in Berlin, big cities have always felt good to me. I will have released two albums and I’ll have a beautiful studio with the freedom to express my musical ideas and ambitions. I’ll be writing songs with other musicians and producing tracks for other musicians along with my own projects. Also, I will just be living an active and creative life, spending a lot of time in nature and surround myself with friends and inspiring people.
Sir Jay’s new EP ‘Big Waves’ is available to stream and download now. Have a listen to it below.