EMERGING ARTIST: Jamie She – “Funeral Songs”: An Avant-Garde Pop Discovery
There are some musical discoveries that quietly find their way into your listening rotation. Then there are artists who barge through the door, throw glitter everywhere and completely disrupt the furniture. Enter Jamie She.
I was recently alerted to this multi-disciplinary artist and, having finally found the time to properly immerse myself in his debut album “Funeral Songs”, released on September 3rd, I have to say I think I’ve found the musical void-filler I didn’t realise I’d been waiting for this year.
I’m talking avant-garde. I’m talking innovative and gloriously wonky pop that doesn’t appear remotely interested in following the usual rulebook.
Jamie She is clearly operating on his own frequency.
His influences read like a particularly fabulous pop-culture mixtape, spanning ABBA, Queen, The Beatles, The Kinks, Sparks, Gary Numan, David Bowie, Yellow Magic Orchestra, N.E.R.D. and Sugababes. Yet rather than simply borrowing from those worlds, Jamie throws decades of pop culture into his own creative blender and serves it back with a distinctly eccentric twist.
And naturally, my curiosity was well and truly piqued.
Fourteen tracks later, I was hooked.
“Funeral Songs” is a cornucopia of electrifying alt-pop, packed with wonderfully off-kilter moments that demand your attention. This isn’t an album to stick on quietly while doing the washing up. Oh no. It wants you to listen. Properly. There are details to discover, influences to spot and unexpected turns to enjoy.
I also adore the kitsch running through it. There’s a theatrical, slightly surreal quality that immediately appealed to me and reminded me of the effect Walt Disco had on me when I caught them supporting OMD last year. That feeling of discovering artists who are creating their own rules? It’s here in abundance.
Jamie has quite literally built this universe himself. He writes, produces and mixes everything, playing vocals, guitars, bass, keys, drums and programming, while also directing films, painting and acting. In Jamie’s world, music doesn’t exist in isolation; it is part of a much bigger artistic playground.
Speaking about the album, Jamie reveals,
“Funeral Songs” is my debut album, born out of a period where I was unintentionally writing about funerals and death, while trying to write about partying and being alive. Some songs are about both. Others are more directly trying to communicate with the beyond.”
My way into this wonderfully peculiar world is ‘Inner Poison’, the latest focus release. Heavy electro meets a distinctly retro-futuristic aesthetic, while I hear echoes of Scissor Sisters and Talking Heads lurking amongst the wonderfully strange production.
The track takes aim at our seemingly endless obsession with self-improvement and social media, albeit with Jamie’s trademark sense of humour. He explains:
“‘Inner Poison’ describes attempts I occasionally make to live a healthy life, via Pilates and listening to audiobooks (the Bridget Jones novels).”
Well, quite.
Ultimately, “Funeral Songs” is the kind of record that makes musical discovery feel exciting again. It’s quirky, kitschy, theatrical, intelligent and gloriously difficult to categorise. Jamie She hasn’t simply made an album; he’s opened the door to a wonderfully strange little universe and invited us inside. I’m already wondering what lurks around the next corner — preferably wearing sequins and carrying a synthesiser.
Connect with Jamie She
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamie__she/
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