Off The Record: Fiery Limerick artist JaYne speaks of the ultimate test

AS WE walk through the doors of a city pub, singer-songwriter JaYne is greeted by familiar faces.

Sipping on a glass of white wine, she touches on her new album, unapologetic fire, and why she'd describe herself as a scatty person.

Hailing from Limerick, JaYne has quite the track record as a remarkable artist and song-writer. Inspired by jazz and neo-soul, her music delves into several genres and styles. On May 5, she will release her debut album as a solo artist, titled ‘Pass the Test.’

Through a collection of what she refers to as “trinkets of life,” the artist explores themes of self-struggle, family, addiction – and love.

Speaking of her new album, the Mungret native says: “I've made it very personal. Like obviously everyone's quite personal, but I've definitely added a lot of my life in there and people around me in my life feature a little bit in and out.”

A collaboration between three music studios in Limerick, the album is one she is extremely proud of. “I wrote maybe six of the songs with Danny Lanham from Dry Lane Studios, I wrote another three of the songs with Conor Broderick, and Ben Wanders mixed the whole thing and produced everything. Each studio has had an input into the making of the album, that’s really nice.”

Describing herself as someone who “never sticks with anything,” JaYne notes the album was for her a big test – like its title suggests. “Making the album was for me a really big test because I never stick with anything. I’ve been involved in a million different projects and music in my life, and I’ve never once managed to release an album myself. For me, it was a test I had to pass.”

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Speaking of her creative process, she explains: “The songs were written over the course of about a year, a lot of it during lockdown. I was taking some time to really go back into my childhood and taking time to figure out myself out a little bit better, trying to heal some old wounds, relationships that have ended, all that stuff. So I kind of poured all that stuff into the songs. It's honest.”

Even though she poured herself into all the songs, there is one track on the album that feels a bit more special than others – and it’s titled ‘Circles.’

“That one is special to me because it's about my family, and I've never written a song about my family before, which is crazy because I've written many songs. It’s five minutes long, but it’s not loads of lyrics or anything like that. It's just a really nicely put together piece of music, there's a fantastic jazz guitar solo on it,” she smiles.

JaYne believes some songs are gifted to you. “They’re gifted from like another dimension, they don't even belong to you, and they just land on your lap. The little song fairies,” she says.

There’s also a song on the album she refers to as the Black Sheep.

“There’s a song called John Coltraine. That was the hardest one to get finished because it's different from the other ones. On every album, there's always one song that does not belong. Even though it's at the very core of who I am as an artist in terms of the lyrics, it sonically sounds a lot different because it's really bare, there are not many instruments on it until the veryend,” she explains.

When asked to describe herself in three words, she instantly blurts out two words without hesitation. “Fiery and open-hearted,” she answers. After careful consideration, she adds: Scatty, I always have a lot of things going on in my mind at once.”

According to her, to make good music, one must be brave and honest. An art the singer-songwriter masters.

“Some of my lyrics, they're really honest sometimes. And that may be hard for people, to listen to different sides of that, they don't see in everyday life. If my mom's in the audience, and I'm singing about sex or something, that's awkward, but you know it's life,” she laughs.

JaYne got her love of music from her father, who is a singer and a musician. At home, he used to listen to the seventies rock band Steely Dan all the time. “In a really cool turn of events, when I was in college, I got to meet the producer of Steely Dan, and we’re still friends.”

Her love for music has always been there. “I really got that dream from my dad. I was a little performer child. I was just always into singing, music, dancing and all that stuff,” she smiles.

Although, for a brief period of time during her teenage years, JaYne thought she would pursue horse-riding. “I thought maybe I would be a professional show jumper.”

After working with her band, Eve’s Record Box, she worked in London throughout her twenties as a session singer and a writer.

Now that she’s back in Limerick, one thing she sometimes misses is anonymity. “I feel like you walk around with a big sticker on your head, like 'musician.' Everyone’s got their little sticker here. Whereas in a big city, you just meet people as they are, and I like that.”

But nothing beats the people of Limerick.

As she puts it, they have this “unapologetic fire.”

“Artists around here got their fire and don't apologise, they stand up on stage, and they give it their all,” she concludes.