Jaws The Shark‘s Olly Bailey guides us through making of his latest album ‘Wasteland’, out now via SO Recordings.
Wasteland
Wasteland is one of the older tracks on the record. In truth, it was kind of locked away in the vault and forgotten about for a couple of years until one day i decided to listen back through old demo’s. The bleak theme running through it still stuck out to me, it reminded me of some of the spiky post punk bands that i listened to when i was growing up like Gang Of Four or early Bloc Party and i saw some potential in it. It’s about the hardships that come with living in a big City and how utterly soul destroying that can be at times, but then also how you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It’s been kind of a theme throughout my writing process for this record because it’s been touch and go at times whether i could even afford to keep my head above water, let alone be in a band. It felt right to have this as the album title track because it’s a miracle that i’ve managed to get to a point where i’m releasing the album at all!
California
California was one of the last tracks i wrote for the record, it was one of those ones that just sprung out of nowhere and fell i to my lap one day. It all came together pretty quickly one afternoon. I’d written all of the music for it first before i’d even started on the lyrics, i had a couple of hummed melody ideas that i’d voice noted in my phone, but i had a friend that had recently moved from the UK to the U.S and in doing so, it meant that her long term relationship collapsed, so that was something that was sub consciously rattling around inside my head at the time. I just ran with that and so I wrote the track with that scenario in mind. I wanted to write each verse from both people’s perspectives. The one doing the breaking up and the one being broken up with.
Got It Made
This track features my good mate James from Deaf Havana. I remember writing the main intro riff for it accidentally an acoustic guitar, sat on my sofa. It’s weird how often you just pick up a guitar and play something that you’re not even consciously trying to play and it triggers an idea. Something stuck out and i thought hmm, that reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins. I just went and tried to make it as heavy as i could, which was quite liberating to be honest. Rather than shy away from the comparison i just thought i’d lean in to it and see where it went. I was around at James’ place one night and showed him the track, he’s a massive Pumpkins fan as well, i just asked if he fancied having a go at one of the verses and it went from there. More of an after thought, i’d already been into the studio and recorded the main version at that point, we recorded his parts there and then in his studio at home and sent it straight over to George who produced the record to add into the main mix of the track.
Lately
In a nutshell, lately is a track about struggling with the work/life balance that i find being a recording artist brings. It can be brutal, but it can be beautiful. Something that you create and love to your core, but that other people don’t even acknowledge or care about. It’s about grappling with making the decision as to whether you should give up or carry on. In some ways, the easy option would be to give up and save yourself the heartache and your own sanity, but something always draws you back in and gives you an unwavering sense of purpose to pick yourself up and go again.
Last Train To Santa Fe
This is one of my favourite tracks on the record personally. It’s quite different to anything else i’ve ever put out. I didn’t sit down to write this track on purpose really, As i mentioned before, again I just played an A minor chord with a tremolo pedal on and the whole thing just took shape in my mind right there and then. I love feeling that flutter of excitement when that happens, the eyes light up at the possibilities of what you can go on to make. I’d been listening to a lot of Nick Cave at the time and I love how he just paints a picture with a story line. As i was writing it, I knew i wanted it to build up to a heavy crescendo. The addition of the horns came whilst we were in the studio, much later into the writing process, but it adds so much for me, it’s a beautiful moment in the track.
Rejoice Or Pray
I’d had this track swirling around inside my head for a while and there were a few variations of it before i settled on the final version. I wrote this one and California about two days apart over a weekend. It’s one of those tracks where there could be about eight different final versions of it, it’s very open and there’s a lot of room for maneuver, I find those one’s sometimes the hardest to write and settle upon because there’s almost too much room to play with both lyrically and musically. Sometimes i think it’s better to let it breath and leave the space empty, not to congest it musically too much and i feel that this is one of those tracks that benefits hugely from that.
Nothing Lasts
For me, this one is a real moment on the record. I’ve never put a track out like this one before either. People are kind of used to JTS tracks to be kind of one way and i wanted to push myself to try and see how far the other way i could go with a song. Pretty much threw the kitchen sink at this one, there are strings, horns, loads of vocal overdubs etc, but honestly it all came together so much better than i’d hoped. I went pretty all out on the demo version that I’d recorded at home, I was so up for seeing what could happen in the studio. I’ve probably listened to this track more than any other on the record.
Summer Puddle
Another of my favourites on the record! Again, I’d had this one floating around for a little while and it’s one that I’d always tried to try and get over the line but never quite managed to. I felt that there was too much potential to just rush it, so I kind of sat back and forgot about it for a few months, with a view to then come back to it with fresh ideas and ears. It started off a bit Sonic Youth-y, then went a bit Pixies, then went a bit Oasis-y. I love all of those things. I wanted it to be a song that is best served being heard within the twilight hour of the summer months. A small, but beautiful moment in time where we can sit back, reflect and truly live within the moment. An anthemic chorus that i could imagine being sung back to me. It’s bittersweet – to most of us living in the UK, those few summer months are some of the happiest moments we have within a year, but it’s often plagued by the unpredictableness of English weather and our love/hate relationship with it.
End Of An Era
This one is an interesting one for me, in a way I see it as two separate songs and in truth it was kind of written that way. Me and Brendan (O’Boyle) who recorded bass on the record and plays live with me were around at his one day just kind of messing about with a few ideas that I had. I specifically remember him playing this bassline and I got so excited because it sounded ridiculous, like DFA 1979 or something along those lines and i was just like we HAVE to do something with that! We got to a certain point and ran out of steam a bit, so i went home that night, sat down in my little studio and wrote the second half of it, you can clearly hear how it changes but I think that’s why I love this track, it’s the only one on the album where i’ve really collaborated with anyone else on a songwriting front, not least of all my best mate, so it kind of means a bit more to me just because of that i think. It’s got one of my favourite moments on the whole record, there’s a release in the middle eight part just before the vocals come in and it just hits different every time i hear it. It’s a big serotonin boost right there and then.
Just Popping Out For Forever
I always fancied the idea of closing the record with a slow number and I knew that I wanted it to be this one. I generally just like to sing, it’s just generally one of my favourite things to do, and I know that sounds mad because i am a singer, but with the kind of music that I release for JTS, i don’t always get the chance to actually ‘Sing’, if that makes any sense at all. On this one I wanted to showcase something a little bit different that people won’t have really heard from me before. This whole record is a collection of songs that are just very ‘Me’, whether that’s the upbeat and fast one’s, the heavy one’s, or the slow and more melodic one’s, it’s everything that I like and love musically, so I felt that closing the record with a track like this was the perfect full stop to the end of a chapter that i’m really proud to have written.