Jazzcat Fuse Slacker-pop with Midwestern Indie on Latest Single 'Robyn' - Interview

 

Credit: Jazzcat

A stunning combination of silky-smooth bass, sugar-coated sonics and woozy, pleading vocals, Jazzcat’s debut single ‘Robyn’ pangs with a weighty sense of lost-hope and melancholic nostalgia, both thematically and texturally. The opening, strung out riffage sings with the same elements of desperation and fragility that frontman Jaimie Jagger does, menacingly out-of-key guitar feedback introducing the track before its accompaniment of chorus-laden, shimmering six-string swells.

Jazzcat’s typically bedroom-come-slacker pop stylistic tendencies on ‘Robyn’ are met with intricate drum fills and breaks, with liquid basslines taking up the spaces in-between, granting the song a math-rocky, almost midwestern emo approach to songwriting. It is no wonder that the Birmingham quartet cite the late duo Her’s as an inspiration to their compositions, a group who, too, amalgamated  drifting melodic vox and guitar with a catchy yet experimental rhythm section.

Jagger’s yearning performance only adds to the heart-wrenching sense of hopelessness that exists within the song’s instrumental make-up. The delivery of the verse’s vocal hook, ‘You say it’s fine’, is sang with a slow cascading drag that parallels the single’s themes of lonesomeness and letting go – subtle vocal harmonies occupy the last lines of each, adding a layer of emphasis upon already impassioned lyricism. The song’s bridge in particular displays Jazzcat’s love of jazz-derivative breakdowns, sporadically groove-laden percussion acting as a suitable bed for choppy single chords that align with crashing symbols, before easing off into the beginning of a euphoric crescendo. Climactic backing vocals akin to the primitive howl of a jungle mammal reverberate behind the maelstrom of luscious tones before coming to a close at the four minute mark, a homage to the sense of looseness in the composition and overall feeling that the song eventually evokes.

 Simplistically constructed, ‘Robyn’ requires no more than its basic verse, chorus, verse, bridge structure; the four-piece exhibit their abilities to produce a moving ballad, progressive and psychedelic yet laden with flavours of evocation and romance, a smorgasbord of soulful melody, jazz inspired drumming and soul-cleansing guitar held together by an effortlessly serene bassline. ‘Robyn’ finds itself somewhere between the laid-back indie-pop-makings of a beach-bum ditty with the progressive qualities of midwestern post-rock, a meld of musical preferences that graciously introduce us to the future sounds of Jazzcat.

 

 

(DH) Robyn has been out in the world for over a month now. How has the response been to your debut single so far?

(JC) “We've had a really great response from friends and new listeners and a few plays on the radio! It's been a really good experience having music out because we can reach places with it we can't physically reach playing gigs yet.”

Going back to the beginning of Jazzcat, how and when did the band come to form?

“We all met in college and all were in the same friendship group and decided we wanted to start a band, so in November of 2021 we had our first rehearsal, played a few covers, got a gig for the January of the next year and then we just kept going slowly working on our original music.”

 

When and how was ‘Robyn’ composed?

“We wrote Robyn in July of last year. We had a rehearsal where we were trying to write and we didn't really get anything until we decided to have a jam based of a guitar riff one of us came up with. We made a few alterations and just jammed around that and basically got the whole song from that jam. We added the bridge later down the line and yeah, the song was born.”

 

Where was the track recorded? What was the recording process behind ‘Robyn’?

 “’Robyn’ was recorded at our college Bimm Birmingham with Max Jennings of Mosaic Audio Labs!”

Jazzcat explores a vast range of sonics and influences. Which artists/bands would you cite as an inspiration to your overall sound?

“We all have quite drastic tastes from one another, but as a band we would say we all draw inspiration from the band Her's. We used to do a cover of ‘What Once Was” at gigs and it was really fun to play and we defo took some inspiration from that song in ‘Robyn’.”

 

Either lyrically or sonically, what themes does ‘Robyn’ attempt to emotionally convey?

“Robyn is about still caring for a friend even if you may have drifted and realising that you can still hold a relationship with having to see someone all the time.”

When can we expect to hear a follow up single?

“Very very very soon..”

And finally, when can fans catch you live?

“We are playing a gig at Dead Wax on 19th October with one of our favourite local bands Pip!”

 

Listen to Robyn on all major music platforms now