JAMIE JOHNSON is only two singles into his career as St Jasper, and that’s if we include “Dial Tone”, the song he’s unveiling today – but my, hasn’t he got maturity and talent in a full flush?
This new track is so considered; spacious, atmospheric, spectral. It has a gravitas you wouldn’t immediately associate with a budding talent. His voice has a lazy, 7am mournfulness, as if waking into the morning after a life-changing event; the rush of new circumstances and adrenaline.
It follows his debut, the West Coast-gazing, thrumming and precision-tooled synthpop of “Driveway”, immediately putting Metronomy on notice of a new kid on the block.
Jamie says: “’Dial Tone’ is a song about uncomfortable conversations. It’s about two people putting off an unwanted, long overdue talk.
“Lyrically I tried to explore all the ways that human beings can communicate without saying anything: awkward glances, closed off body language, waves and nods.
“I also tried to leave a lot of space in the music to convey the sense of distance that can exist between two people even when they are physically close together.”
Folly Group’s Louis Milburn is at the mixing desk for “Dial Tone”, as he was with the previous single, and his chops help tease out the regretful frost of the song.
And that name, St Jasper? It’s for a trawler that Jamie’s grandad skippered out into the Atlantic fishing grounds for two decades.
St Jasper’s “Dial Tone” is out today across all digital streaming platforms.
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