• News

• All

May 18, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

London-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Jeremy Jay has already been all over, releasing his debut album, 2007’s Dreamland, on Secret Canadian followed by a handful of records with underground staple K Records. After an extended hiatus Jay returned in 2018 with Demons and followed with his 2019 record Dangerous Boys. Yet, despite all that came before Jay still manages to break new ground with his upcoming release, Devil’s Daughters. Jay recorded all the instrumentals in the summer and followed with one-take, stream-of-consciousness vocals. The results are on full display with his new single “Sunny Side of The Street,” premiering with Under the Radar.

Jay’s slurred vocals introduce the track, accompanied by watery analog synths and his array of vintage drum machines. Jay is the track’s moody centerpiece, expelling his fear, anxiety, depression, and hope all at once in an unbroken stream of trembling spoken-word lyricism. The one-take vocals have both an unpolished shine and a naked honesty to them, laying bare Jay’s despondent heartbreak and cautious hope.

Jay has also shared a few words on the track: “The process of ‘Sunny Side of the Street’ was really multi-faceted. I had written the music at Switchblade Studio here in London and was really happy with the instrumental. I went through a long phase for a few months just doing instrumentals with various analogue synths and drum machines. I was always just pushing and pushing writing 4 or 5 instrumentals a day. Sort of like writing exercises. Then a month or so later in October I had gone to California to visit my family as they all still live there and was with my friend Melissa in San Francisco. We were staying in the Ritz where the Maltese Falcon was filmed. The next day I was wandering the streets and the words came to me and it was so strong. I got the basic elements of it and when I was back in London I went to the studio to record the vocals in 1 take.

“For me the feeling is when things feel lost and like there is no hope, just walking on the sunny side of the street puts everything into place. That’s how I felt. I had lost my job at the time and everything collapsed for me in my personal life as well. So I guess it’s just holding on to that sliver of hope no matter how dark things seem to be and starting over from change.”

Check out the song below and watch for Devil’s Daughters, out June 26th via Switchblade Sound.