Jagwar Twin
By all accounts,
Roy English, the creative spirit behind Jagwar Twin, had been chewed up and spat out by the industry, with the singer-songwriter dropped from multiple
major labels in his career.
Often hidden in the background, despite a clear longing to lead from
centrestage, the artist knows what it’s like to sleep on friends’
sofas after late nights playing small bars as if they were Madison
Square Garden.
“From my
childhood to being an adult, there has been this recurring theme of feeling
misunderstood” the artist sighs. “People would make fun of my voice, which to
be fair was really bad at the time. I never fit in with ‘the boys’ … or the girls really,
and my music never fit into
an industry box. But even when I was literally a starving musician, something
inside compelled me to keep going.”
Underrated
2019 album, Subject To Flooding,
aligned with a period of project-defining production work and song
collaborations with the likes of Matthew Pauling, S1, Travis Barker, and Jeff Bhasker.
But if Subject to Flooding represented an artist working
to figure out who they were
before the pandemic storm, then new album 33
grew out of planted seeds in the flood rich soil; the underdog is coming
for his crown.
“My hope is
that the stories on 33 will show the listener to the listener,” is English’
fundamental ambitious aim with the new project.
“It’s about showing
possibilities beyond the grid
we’re currently living in and, I guess, how a 33-year-old failed influencer
finally found their voice in this digital-first world. I want to make music
that makes me want to dance, too.”
33 is a bold statement filled with
intention that more than lives up to its creator’s lofty ambition, with 10 addictive songs that stomp
forward with attitude
like Queen at Wembley
Stadium in 1990. Each song is a mini movie that powerfully tells an emotional
story of coming of age in the social media
era, as English’s towering vocals channel
the galvanizing showmanship
of a Bad-era MJ and Bowie’s Ziggy
Stardust days.
Lead single “Happy Face” earned English
a coveted spot on the YouTube’ ‘Trending
Artists to Watch’ list at the
start of 2022. This song is a defiant, ricocheting ball of energy, as the
artist sardonically harmonizes about the fake smiles we’re forced to wear in
the digital sphere. It’s like Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four with disco lights, and surpassed the total streams and reach of
previous major label single ‘Loser’ at four times the speed, despite its humble
$0 marketing budget. “Tick Tock, Tick Tock, ticking like a time bomb!” he
chants, almost sarcastically. This powder-keg of stadium rock also touches on
the emotional baggage we create while smiling to curate our digital selves.
A hyperactive
melodica rages over a break beat as English howls about the “death of my
generation”. For the award-winning smile-triggered digital experience of “Happy Face”,
users were forced to hold a smile while watching a series of dystopian
images on their screens.
With this
being the only place to hear the song, fans that lost a smile would cause the
screen to melt, but smiling
for the duration would unlock a limited
edition merch capsule.
He insists
the independent single,
which recently crossed
21 million streams
on Spotify (and growing) and also graced YouTube’s
top 100 songs list, ultimately acts as a hopeful rallying call. “I want to show there’s
a way out of this collective fog and into something better,”
says Roy. “But that is something everyone has to find for themselves.”
On the flamboyant “I Like To Party”, English
muses about how all we want to do right now is “Zoomy Zoom Zoom” and “stay in and
pretend” due to our collective pandemic anxieties.
While the
kaleidoscopic funk of “Pay Attention”, which echoes the euphoric bassline of
Patrice Rushen’s 1982 classic “Forget
Me Nots”, is English’s commentary on the currency
of attention (“Everybody gotta pay me. You gotta pay Attention”). Both of these songs sound like Billboard Top 100 hits, and
their sentiment mirrors the singer’s own journey from an industry outcast to
leading a sea of change in popular music.
The rising
artist hopes this upcoming record can spark an internal awakening (“Light the
flame on the top of your head” he urges on “Down To You”), leading listeners to
see themselves more clearly within today’s always-on digital culture. “Michael
Jackson, Bowie, Madonna, and Freddie Mercury created revolutions in the middle
of sweaty dance floors, where people were having the time of their lives,”
he says. “I know it’s ambitious, but that’s
what I’m aiming for too.” English worked with grammy-nominated producer Matthew Pauling (Twenty One Pilots, 5 Seconds of
Summer) to bring the music to life, which he recognises as: ”Incredibly rare
chemistry. We both push each other [in the studio] in ways that create
something bigger than either of us as individuals. He does things
that I would never think
to do.”
Jagwar Twin
also wants to redefine independence, showing a different path to success
without major label backing. “I believe we're coming into an era where new
ideas, feelings, and authenticity will be valued
again,” he enthuses. “An unknown, undiscovered artist, with no backing,
money, or traditional promo can "make it" if they create something
compelling. NFTs and blockchain unlock a whole new paradigm for artists
to tell stories where fans are incentivized to help build and grow a
community,” English says. “But I also want people to question the utopia of independence and Web3 and learn from the mistakes
of Web 2.0. We can’t move
into the future naively.”
To understand Jagwar Twin, I guess you have to look backwards. English says he was bullied at school, and he embraced ballet
while the other boys were more occupied with sports and video games. He says he
grew up serenaded by the lucid new romance storytelling of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who the singer’s mom played around the house. This is why his music is always
underpinned by three-dimensional storytelling. “Music provided
an escape and a pathway to discovering who I was. I
love telling stories with my voice. When I tell a story I believe in it's like
there's a ?re in me that comes out through my voice.”
As this
ambitious new album progresses, English’ confidence seems to blossom, with
anthemic highlight “Your
Soul Is A Star” containing the cathartic line:
“Your soul is a star,
it’s alive, I can see it. Do you know who you are?” The unwinding
journey of “Another Way To
Heaven” also appears to mark Jagwar
Twin’s evolution, as he sings
“But who was I to know?
I wanted to see myself and where I could go.” The
campaign around 33 will be brought to life through a set of digital experiences
that fully immerse fans in this story, using NFTs as keys to discover,
collaborate, and share in Roy's journey to unlock what it means to be an artist
in an influencer-driven online culture.
Mixed by Jeff Ellis
(Frank Ocean, Doja Cat), English
hopes the stories
on 33 will serve
as a catalyst. “With 33, I
want to show that popular music can push boundaries and unite,” he concludes, “while giving space for a new generation to look inside and reimagine
their own world.” Jagwar Twin’s new dawn has only just begun
… catch up if you can.