Rehana Harmony
Struggling to sleep? Well you might want a refund on that sleep stories app you’ve just purchased. Yes-yes, I know there’s nothing dreamier than Harry Styles whispering sweet sweet nothings into your ear. But... there’s not a voice more angelic than the lady we caught up with last week, Jaydonclover. The West-Midland raised and London-residing singer who specialises in her own unique musical elixir. It’s contents? A dash of ethereal vocal moments, two spoons of delicate and at times intimate-instrumentals. That create the ideal appetiser to the main course - her delectable lullabies that speak to relatable and often heartbreaking occurrences in everyday life. If you haven’t already we’d highly recommend indulging in her catalogue. We speak to Jaydon about the struggles of being a non-capital artist, her latest single Secondsin, British R&B and much more.
Hey Jaydon, how are you?
I’m good thank you, how are you?
I’m alright! First off, I have a question about your name is that your real name? And what inspired the no spaces?
Yeah it is. It kind of differentiates me from me and me as an artist.
How’s heartbreak hotel been keeping during this Pandemic?
It’s been running pretty smooth. We have had a lot of new people saying how much it [Recovering Lover] has helped them and that they need it to help them get through hard times, so yeah business has been booming. *Laughs*
Can you describe how you want music to touch your supporters in three words?
I’d say intimately, softly and this isn’t a word but I want them to take from it. I want to say educational but yeah, I want them to learn something from it.
How does it feel to know that your music is doing exactly that?
It’s crazy because it’s not only in the UK but it’s reaching all over the world. The fact that my EP has reach so far, it’s mad and even a lot of peoples friendship groups go through so many similar things. But then when it’s people resonating with the music from so far and wide - it is absolutely insane.
I personally haven’t heard any singers that sound similar to you, what and who would you say inspire your style of music?
I’d definitely say Kate Nash, she approaches music in a conversational way. As though she is talking to you and telling you a story frothier diary personally. I’d also say Aaliyah because of her soft delivery, some of her songs are really really soft and again it’s like she stalking to you directly. Then, let’s go with Kid Cudi just because of his versatility, how he writes and how he approaches hooks. That inspires me so much, because I don’t ever want one of my hooks sound the same and none of his never do. He has also fully established his sound and that is something I aspire to do, I want to keep establishing who I am as an artist.
Speaking of style you have a very chic aesthetic, are you in control of the styling of yourself and visuals? The looks in the Secondsin were really cool.
Before Secondsin, everything was me. Kiran usually does my behind the scenes; she directed, styled and had creative control over Secondsin. I had input, because of course I wanted to feel comfortable in what I was wearing. You can find her on instagram at Kiranalog.
Let’s talk about Secondsin a bit more in-depth, what was the inspiration behind the track?
I think it was just the beat to be honest and me wanting to branch out and do something a bit more grown, a bit more sexy. I feel like the music I’ve done previously touched on a topic that allowed me to be vulnerable and I wanted something that allowed me to be sexy. It was inspired by the beat but funny story, the producer who created the beat I was going to use initially, didn’t have STEMS for it. And I like to have control over the STEMS for me and my engineer. So we ended up changing the beat and going with a dylantheinfamous-beat which elevated the song a lot more and added even more sensuality to it.
I’ve noticed that you work with dylantheinfamous a lot and there has been more and more conversations recently for using one producer across the entirety of a project for example. Is that why you work with him so often?
Not really, I work with him because I find writing to his beats to be so effortless and it comes from somewhere. That doesn’t happen with a lot of other producers beats if that makes sense. We just have this bond and it’s crazy. So although it works and it is cohesive, it kind of just happened. Because Recovering Lover wasn’t supposed to be an EP, they were meant to be singles.
Oh really?
Yes, he sent me a batch of beats and then I started writing single to everyone. But they ended up coming together, as a story, as a journey and as a body of art. So I thought okay cool, I’ll just go ahead and release an EP.
Have you found being an artist from a non capital city, Birmingham specifically to present any challenges?
Definitely, people don’t know I exist unfortunately. I recently moved to London and things may change across the next few months in that respect. Being from Birmingham made things difficult to get my sound out there and I ended up using Instagram or my features to elevate my exposure. And let people know that I’m here.
There has been tons of conversation regarding the R&B being overlooked in comparison to the Rap scene. As someone who has recently collaborated with a rapper, do you believe the fact bridging the gap through features is the answer?
No, because if people want to listen to a rapper, they’ll listen to a rapper. There was a time where someone put Callme on their story and they tagged me and Danny [Sanchez.] But they only had his part playing in the background, so I just think that if people just want to listen to Rap, they might only listen to the rap bit. It’s a great way to connect artists and for people to get familiar with artists but I just don’t think collaborating with rappers will give us more light unfortunately.
Should we be expecting a project from you anytime soon?
Not anytime soon, maybe this year though. I feel like I need more exposure first and I need to feel like people can hear me and that they are wanting more from me.
What upcoming artists do you think deserve a bit more love?
Dylan Gray - he is dylantheinfamous, but him as an artist not a producer, if that makes sense. Kaytus Myles, he is a singer-rapper from Birmingham, he gives that Bryson Tiller, Partynextdoor feel but with a Birmingham accent. Very UK, he’s insane. Elijah Banksy, he is a rapper from the US near NY and he has just released an EP which I featured on. He’s been working and definitely deserves loads of love.
What was the last song you played?
Let’s have a look, it is me. I was actually listening to Elijah’s EP. The song is called Be Your Joy.