Jeremy Jay

Here’s an homage-artist with a back story to back himself up. Jeremy Jay loves Francoise Hardy, both her music and her sense of style. He borrows her reverb-soaked sensibilities, and he probably weighs just about as much as she did in the 60s with a few fashionable layers included. He is also into the French New Wave (film, not synthy post-punk). He’s an American Francophile, playing to the era of the chanteuse what Adam Green plays to the Reno crooner.

But here’s the thing: Jeremy Jay grew up in Monterrey, California, speaking French as the primary language of his household. Weird, isn’t it? This obviously doesn’t absolve him completely from accusations of derivation. But it adds another layer to his oeuvre. And it makes for a great catch-line doesn’t it?

Honestly, it’s not just a chanteuse fanboy playing around. The real invocation here is Bowie. Jeremy Jay inhabits that post-gig, stale cigarette territory that pops up so poignantly on Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. ‘Beautiful Rebel’ particularly strikes that chord, and despite the fact that Jay himself cites Buddy Holly and Richie Valens as direct influences, it’s hard to believe that he hasn’t spent any time with the 1970s Bowie that channelled those acts originally.

Jay’s debut album, A Place Where We Could Go, is out now. I’m not sure if it’s out in Ireland. But it does exist.

Listen to Beautiful Rebel here.

And then put the 10th October in your calendar, because that’s the date that Jeremy Jay comes to Dublin to play the upstairs of Whelans, supported by Analogue’s favourite ever thing from Waterford, Ugly Megan.