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 Having worked with some of the industry biggest electronic music talents singer / song writer JES has just released her latest artist album on the Black Hole Recordings label. It's her third and one of her best so we went to get her thoughts...
There is a healthy competition on the electronic scene for female vocalists at the moment. One of the most established and recognised is the sublime voice of JES (real name Jes Brieden) who you may remember from Motorcycle's 'As The Rush Comes' and on Tiesto's 'Elements of Life' artist album. She has also worked with the legendary Solarstone which you may remember with the single 'Like A Waterfall' that came out back in 2006. There are very few big names electronic names she has not worked with looking back. Her skills at song writing match her skills for hitting a high note and having put her talents to two artist albums before she is back with the third, 'High Glow'. You may only know her for a voice on other straight from JES. We thought we would get a little deeper into her third artist release and many thanks to JES for taking the time out to cure our curiosity.
i:Vibes: With your third album release, one could say that you are an album veteran in EDM. How excited are you with this release and how is the feeling releasing another alum?
JES: I'll take that as a complement :) You know making an album is so hard that the excitement when you finish never diminishes, no matter how many you've done before. Just the adrenalin of hoping that everyone will like it and getting it out there is very exciting. I've been pushing some of the songs more towards mainstream and that has been fun and a challenge. It has opened me up to the business side to work with some different people and has been interesting because I've been trying to reach a wider audience too and bring people together and still stay true to my fans and the audience that supports me making music.
i:Vibes: Come time to talk to i:Vibes. You have released your third album High Glow. What were your goals with this album in the studio and how did you want it to be different from your first two albums?
JES: My main focus is always about the songs when I’m making an album. It’s all about that sonic journey. A lot of the song writing reflects what’s been happening in my life and what's affecting me. I always try to write from the heart and feel something from the song. I did try and write less serious songs on this album, but I still find even when having fun with them, I still can’t escape the feelings and emotions that surround me as well as the experiences I come in contact with. Sonically I just had fun. I tried not to make too many rules, I just wanted to make it all fit together and show different sides of myself and experiment with styles and sound. In clubland, the remixes are always king and we have amazing remix packages for our singles that I know the EDM fans are going to love, but I also know that a lot of those people listen to dance influenced but not necessarily club tracks too, so we were trying to open the album up without losing anyone along the way. Across the spectrum right now, genres are being split and combined more than ever, so it feels like the right time to make something that breaks down some sonic barriers a little.
i:Vibes: How long did it take to finish this album and how happy are you with the effort?
JES: It took a long time mostly because we recorded it in many different places and because I'm never really finished until I am finished! In reality it was probably about a year. It’s always hard to let go at the end, I could change things up until the last minute and add more songs but I finally had to put a cap on it.
i:Vibes: You are one of the few established edm vocalists that have been releasing albums since years. Do feel any extra pressure to keep coming back with innovative tracks?
JES: Really that pressure is what drives me to do it at all. I'm always drawn to new ideas, and although it can be a little hit and miss, I'd rather try to keep people guessing as to what I'm doing next, and stay fresh. There is so much music out there and I think the mark of all the many great artists and DJ's is that they did something that set themselves apart from the crowd and made everyone take notice, and that’s really the important thing about all music.
i:Vibes: “Such A Long Time” has parts that sound like it came out of the 80s. How much did rock beats influence you on this album?
JES: Well I am the Queen of Rocktronica!! lol ..... so yes I do love so many different types of music and one of them is Rock !! ....I always start from a very organic place with more rock oriented beats and a guitar when I’m writing. The 80's influences are pretty strong for me. Its funny but the song writing was really inventive and it was sort of a new era in music. I've always been into in that time period. I guess it was a time of many great female artists that I could relate to from Madonna to Annie Lennox, Joan Jett and Blondie. I listen to a lot of 80's tracks even more now since it’s comeback. The rock influence is something that I will always gravitate to. I am a rocker at heart and I play guitar and I just love the edge and grit it gives. Then combining it with Dance beats, its two genres that have driving rhythmic elements, and it twists my dance influences into a new place.
i:Vibes: Half Way Gone is a beautiful down tempo song. How important is it for you to be recognized as a versatile vocalist? This is a track that could be played on any radio station worldwide.
JES: I really love that song too. It was the last song I wrote for the album funny enough. I try not to be too conscious of those things, I really just try to write songs that touch me, and that hopefully will touch others too. I've always written in many different styles because I love all sorts of music and in the EDM world people tend to know me more for the beat laden tracks although I’m trying to change that slowly with songs like HWG. HWG was a latecomer to the record and got made to some extent on the road and was even mixed in a friend’s house in New York, but I liked it so much that I felt it had to go on the album. I actually released an album of down tempo tracks called " Into The Dawn" so anyone who loves chill out vibes should go check that out.
i:Vibes: Why did you choose to cover the famous Cure song “Love Song” What was your goal with this track? You produced a very nice cover version.
JES: Thank you. I always loved that song. I hadn't heard it in such a long time and while I was driving one night it came on the radio and I just got lost in it. I am always learning songs on the guitar and when I started to play around with it and it just seemed to fit me. I didn't listen to the original again and tried to make it feel really natural to me when I sang and played it. My goal was to make a modern version of it and give it an electronic/rocktronica feel. It was just perfect for that. I was touring at the time and I was deep into EDM music every night at the shows and that influenced how it came out in the end. It is such a well-written pop song and it all worked well no matter how we produced it. In the remix pack we even extended it into an acoustic and trance remix and for me it worked as a song every time. I even was so inspired I did a radio edit in French.
i:Vibes: You produced the title track High Glow with Tiesto. What makes working with Tiesto so special?
JES: Tiesto gave me a lot of support and is a very inspirational person and hard worker. He is serious but still a lot of fun. He loved High Glow when he first heard it in its raw form and even though I wanted it for my current record I jumped at the chance of him doing a different version. It is on my new record as it was written in a more mid tempo ballad way, but I love the dance version and I go crazy over its riff! Most importantly Tiesto and Black Hole Recordings helped me release my first solo album DISCONNECT and gave me a challenging spot on his European Elements of Life tour opening for him. In a world of DJ's that meant a lot to me.
i:Vibes: Was “High Glow” a difficult track to produce? What was the most difficult thing that you had to get the track perfect?
JES: High Glow was a tricky one to finish! ....Yes it was. It changed a lot over the recording process. It was mixed and then more things were added and remixed. We recorded the vocal early on and we all fell in love with it and really just built the track around it. We even got to the point of mixing it, and realizing that it wasn't quite right so we took it apart again and luckily got the piano part that was icing on the cake. It was always the centre piece of the album for me so I felt a lot of pressure to do it justice as a song ....I feel like we got there in the end, music is always a journey.
i:Vibes: You have hip-hop influences with “Where You Are” and a pretty rock chorus. On a track like this, do you have the main body of the track already in your head before you start making the track or does it come as you are making the track step by step?
JES: Mostly, I try and write the songs and demo them first, then we deconstruct the demos and try to find a new twist to the song. "Where You Are" started with the baseline and a vocal and grew from there. Sometimes, I have a clear idea of the track and sometimes they organically grow out of laying ideas on top of the ideas I started with. I tend to trust many of the first ideas I have and try to keep on track with that. I believe when I start reworking them too much they lose the instinctual thing that made me love the song in the first place so It’s a little tricky because I like to experiment but try to keep the essence intact. I don't hesitate starting all over again. We joke because we sometimes have 12 versions of one song. Actually on WYA the beat ideas came later on after I had the melody and vocals into a good place, one of things that is precious to me in the music is getting the vocals into a great place, and from then on everything else just has to support that.
i:Vibes: On “Medicine” there is a beautiful relaxed dreamy passage between minute 2:20 and 2:40, which really adds a special flavor to the track. Is this something that you dreamed up?
JES: Yes, I love a lot of the trip hop of the late 90's and I used some of those records for my inspiration when putting that together. It has some orchestral elements like flute and woodwinds which combined with the dense tremolo and strings gives a very particular texture and dreaminess. It was great to be able to step outside of using mainly synths and guitars for a while and explore some other sounds and textures.
i:Vibes: The album ends with a beautiful ballad “All Night”. In all the different styles of tracks that you sing where would rate a ballad?
JES: I think I'm a ballad queen at heart too. I enjoy singing ballads. They are very intimate and naked in a way. I love to sit and just pour my heart out by myself. I am a big sap :)
i:Vibes: “All Night” is an unforgettable track just from one listen. Is this a track that you could imagine getting a release?
JES: I sure hope so. I could definitely see it being part of a film soundtrack, I think it has a very cinematic quality. I'd love to be able to release it, but to make that happen so many people have to get behind it. Perhaps it would make a good candidate for a remix competition. It was so nice recording this song because I had a good friend of mine Robin Olson that is an amazing and famous string player and arranger play on it. We wrote the string parts together and it was such an unforgettable experience doing it that and recording it piece by piece...Strings are very emotional and it brought that out in me when I was singing it.
i:Vibes: What would you like to have fans remember from the album High Glow?
JES: Hopefully, it will be an album that people will keep listening to for years to come. I always feel that great music somehow has a timeless quality and still speaks to people 5 or 10 years later. I'd love High Glow to have that type of success where it’s an album that will travel with people into the future and they'll continue to enjoy for years to come.
i:Vibes: What is your fondest memory from making the album “High Glow” in the studio?
JES: There are so many instances when we made the album that I love to remember. It was recording Robin’s violins and cellos that was a special time and also being holed up at the beach studio coming up with a lot of the ideas before we got into it. But what was really nice this time around was we got to mix some songs on a Vintage Neve console at a studio in Los Angeles, that was fun being in a music building, you feel that.
i:Vibes: Will you be going on the road to promote High Glow?
JES: Yes...That is my favorite part! It began in Denver, Chicago, Vegas...We were in Holland for the launch and Miami and I just returned from China and will be going back as well to the Middle East. My new single "Closer" is out August 2nd with an excellent remix package. I am so happy with the remixes there is a wide variety that capture the song into so many new colors. They're all great... From Bimbo Jones to Loverush Digital and Josh Harris to the amazingly beautiful chill out and the Twisted Disco, Coco Chanel and Kris O'Neil. I'll be promoting that across the US and Europe. We had a lot of fun making the new video too, so check that out.
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