New release ‘Doom’ from Jake Amy is a collaborative hug from Naarm’s melting pot of Nu Jazz talent.
Image by Cameron Grant
Jake Amy is one of the most exciting Naarm keyboardists and composers in the scene right now. Their list of bands and achievements is expansive, so naturally it is perfect timing for their own release to come into play ‘Doom.’
‘Doom’ is the by-product of Amy’s travels to Europe, surrounded by architecture and culture, Amy who has played and performed with some of Melbourne’s most up and coming artists, found it was time to hone in their extensive musical ear for their own collaborative solo project.
Amy specifically embarked on ensuring they had a 50/50 gender ratio on this album. There are a whopping 14 different musicians on ‘Doom’ all playing on multiple different tracks. The whole album is a melting pot of Australian nu jazz talent.
Amy found that “every person has their own individual sound” and that's what they embarked on celebrating. Stand out tracks for this welcoming sonic environment are tracks such as ‘Squeeze’ with a feature from Erica Tucceri and a personal favourite, inspired by Amy’s Europe experience ‘Prague’ featuring the clean and innovative sound of Naarm based trumpeter Audrey Powne.
Amy recently had the epic experience of supporting ‘Thundercat’ on their recent Australian tour as a part of Emma Volard’s band. Playing on keys was Dennis Hamm, and Amy felt moved by the “type of musicianship we don’t get in Australia very often, in America you can literally see this level of virtuosity every night.” Something Amy is beginning to establish within their projects and this solo release.
Image by Amy Dowd
“It’s really good collaborating with everyone. I learn so much from every different project I'm in and I take a lot from that. Every person has got their own way about leading a band and I try to bring that into my projects as well.”
Something that is really unique to Amy is the way they think and discuss their band members and projects empathetically. ‘Doom’ is such a welcomed project with sounds that highlight not only Amy’s virtuosity but the talent from each individual player on the individual tracks. The album as a whole can’t be pinpointed to one genre. There’s drum and bass, jungle and personally the track ‘Flick’ feels like the coolest video game race scene.
Amy is also really focused on “creating safe environments for audience members” down to things like “making sure the space you’re performing in is accessible”, something Amy didn’t have to consider as much when they were playing in bands. “I learn a lot being a front person.”
It’s always a pleasure to chat with Jake Amy, they’re a warm and kind person, without ego just an admiration for creating and performing.
‘Doom’ is out on Bandcamp with singles being individually released on Spotify in the coming weeks.
Keep track of Jake Amy’s Naarm shows on their instagram.