CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 165: JNR. ON HIS GENRE-SHIFTING APPROACH TO MAKING MUSIC

Interview by Brooke Gibbs.

Sydney-based singer/songwriter, jnr., has released his new single 4DAYS/4NIGHTS. The track is an indulgence in ambience and his deep-rooted hip hop influences, and could be likened to artists like Chase Atlantic and Travis Scott.

Futuremag Music sat down with jnr., to discuss his genre-shifting approach to writing and making music.

FMM: Thank you so much for joining me today. It's an exciting time for you because you've just put out a new track. How are you feeling at the moment?

jnr.I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. Yeah, 4DAYS/4NIGHTS was a really quick song that came around and kind of another thing that's been added into this, like, genre-shifting world that I'm kind of doing now. I'm just happy that it's out in the world. I've been sitting on it since, like, November last year, but, yeah, really happy it's out.

FMM: It looks like the reaction's been great because it's received some attention from Triple J as well as some playlists. Tell me about what the reaction has been like so far?

jnr. Yeah, reaction has been good. As I said, with this thing I'm doing at the moment where genres are changing so fast just because I'm wanting to explore different sounds that I'm into, I always go into a release thinking, oh, the reaction's not going to be good because they're not going to get it. So, I kind of bring myself down a little bit before a song comes out because I'm just a little bit scared as to what the reception is going to be. But every time, and with this one, the reception's been really good. Everyone's been saying that this new kind of direction for this song and my last single, Unfair, is a really cool, different thing for me, this darker side of my music, because I guess a lot of the songs I was releasing last year are a lot more uplifting and I guess more melancholic or not as much dark and ambient. People have really been enjoying it, which is great. That's all I can ask for.

FMM: It’s good that it's been getting such positive feedback because it's well deserved. It's a great track. You mentioned being afraid that people aren't really going to get it and that this one's a bit darker. So, tell me more about the inspiration of this track and what you hope people do get out of it.

jnr. The inspiration, sonically, I'm big into hip hop. I've been into hip hop for my entire listening life. I guess because I find it easiest to sit myself in this part world. Making hip hop was a big step for me because it was very different, but I needed to do that and be inspired and show what I was being inspired by, what encompasses my musical DNA where I come from at some point. So, this is kind of that. That was a big inspiration, my hip hop influences. I made the song while I was on holiday, visiting my family in Malaysia. I was just on my laptop with headphones. I made the whole instrumental and it was kind of like this dreary, psychedelic kind of beat. It had this very weird ambience to it and it felt like a bender. It felt like you'd been up for days and you kind of lost all sense of space and time. When I got back home and started writing the lyrics and melodies, that was kind of what I was trying to get at. I was trying to explain that kind of mentality, that kind of situation, kind of like telling a story. The beat has so many ups and downs and psychedelic changes that it feels like, oh, we're going through these highs and then intense lows. I wanted to get that through with the lyrics as well as the sonics.

FMM: I think that definitely comes through. It's been interesting to see how this differs from your previous releases. You've got that diversity across your music, too as it travels between different genres. And, I think that means that no matter what someone’s music taste is, you’ve got a bit of something for everyone.

jnr. Yeah, I feel like I’m trying to show all these different sides to me and what I’m inspired by to keep it me. If I’m showing different side to me, it’s all going to have the same aesthetic glue that brings it all together, which is the way I approach writing a song. Be that hip hop song, be that a pop song, be that a punk song, it's all going to have this aesthetic glue that is just me.

FMM: You've had some incredible opportunities to perform your music live, as you've done some great support acts recently. What have been some of the highlights and how have you been able to experiment with your sounds to a live audience?

jnr. Yeah, it's been a big, big change doing live music and kind of adjusting the songs to a live situation. I used to do it all solo, just me and tracks. Slowly, as we built that out and I got my band together. My band, jnr. and the seniors, I got them together. We've been able to put the tracks into a whole new world. I want to create a journey, all the songs to flow together and feel like a show, not just a guy playing a bunch of songs. That's really what we're trying to do at the moment. I've had some good opportunities. We had a lot of fun at the Chloe Dadd shows for her Sydney shows last year. They were so great. The crowd was insane, and Last Dinosaurs at The Factory. That was the biggest stage I've ever played, and it was so fun last year.

FMM: I love your band name, the jnrs and the snrs. Did you come up with that?

jnr. It was a poll on my Instagram stories. I was saying it was the first band gig that we had, and I was like, what should we call the band? And the two most popular ones were jnr. and the seniors or junior and the full stops. And so jnr. and seniors won, and I love it. They're the seniors.

FMM: Yeah, it works so perfectly. In some of your previous releases such as Easy, there have been some collaborations. Does collaboration help your process, particularly because you mentioned your music travels between genres. What role does collaboration play for you?

jnr. Yeah, I'm always collaborating. I started in music in the band scene, so writing music with other people is how I write music. Since I started producing for myself, I guess it got a little bit lonely and insular when I'm doing it myself, but it's also really rewarding when I'm doing it myself, saying that I'm always trying to work with other people and get their touch on my songs. Inevitably, when you're doing that, their sound will rub off on yours and yours will rub off on theirs and you'll kind of just make this, like, Frankenstein of both. I feel like if I'm going to release it as a jnr. song, the reason we did that song, Easy, as a collaboration was it felt like both of us. It didn't feel like a Daphnie song and it didn't feel like a jnr. song. It felt like both of us. But yeah, we actually, me and Daphnie had another song out called Nervous, which is one of my songs, and we released that as a jnr. song because that felt like a. That felt like a jnr. song, even though Daphnie was on the production for that and we were very collaborative all over that song. As long as it sounds authentic to me, I’ll put it up.

FMM: So in saying that, who would be your dream artist to collaborate with? Do you have anyone that you'd love to work within the next couple of years?

jnr. I'm going to be working with this guy, Karl Charles Hall. He's got some of the best music out there at the moment, and his next EP is crazy, but we're going to be working together a lot in the next year.

FMM: Anyone else?

jnr. There's a lot of people I'd want to collaborate with, like all the full circle guys over there. I've worked a bit with PJ from Breakfast Road, but I'd love to work with Friday and Nick Ward. That would be sick. I don't know. I just want to work with everyone. I want to have a go and see if we work together well.

FMM: Yeah, you've got some good mixes there, and I love your outlook on just being open to working with anyone and just seeing what comes out of it.

jnr. Yeah, exactly!

FMM: So you mentioned that you're doing some other collaborations in the year, but do you have any other goals for the year or any live shows? How can people come out and support your musif?

jnr. We've got a lot planned for this year. We’ve got the music video for 4DAYS/4NIGHTS coming up on Wednesday, so go watch that. We're working on the next single and a music video to go along with that. I guess the best way to support is just stream, watch, share as much as you can. Show up, show other people. We're also working on merch, which I haven't done yet because I wanted to do it right. We’re hopefully doing a whole bunch of live shows. We’re doing a triple headline at Wayward’s on the 11th. That’s going to be a great show. We’ve got some other shows booked, but I can’t talk about it yet.

FMM: Yeah, it sounds like a busy year and we're really excited to see your live performances and hear what other music you put out there as well.

jnr. Yeah, same.

FMM: Well, that's all my questions. Were there any other comments that you wanted to add about this release or about your music that you'd like to share?

jnr. Not really, just that I hope you like it. Thank you to everyone who streams and keep listening. Keep sharing. I'm an independent artist, so any sharing that you do with friends, word of mouth, posting on your stories, all that helps so much.