Q&A: Jayda G Embraces Grief and Celebrates Life on Her New Album ‘Guy’
ELEVEN HOURS: THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME ON THE TAPES THAT — Jayda G’s father, Guy, left behind to tell his children his life story before his death. Just 10 years old at the time, these tapes allowed Jayda to get to know him more as she grew up. On her latest album, Guy, Jayda interpolates his voice from those recordings along with dance music and R&B rhythms to create an album not just about grief, but about celebrating life.
A more vulnerable record than Jayda has ever produced, the influence of her father, her surroundings, and her family are all felt on the final album. Sonically, the album blends Jayda’s classic dance vocals with her EDM sound while bringing in more of an R&B influence. Interpolated throughout the record in each of the interludes, Guy’s voice comes in to give Jayda advice or recall an anecdote that leads into the next song.
The final result is a dance record that can equally get fans moving at the beginning and stop them in their tracks by the end, as Jayda describes the loss of the man she has taken the whole record introducing them to.
Inspired by her hometown of Grand Forks, British Columbia, the album is paired with beautiful visuals of nature. In addition to DJing, Jayda has a background in biology, with a focus in environmental toxicology. Everything on the album was created as sustainably as possible and with respect for each aspect of the process. Jayda also has an environmental documentary coming out at the end of next year, about blue carbon ecosystems and the people who help sustain them. “It’s a story of hope,” she says.
That hope, joy, and positive energy can be felt across all of Jayda’s various artistic ventures. In the behind the scenes video made for the production of Guy, the energy of Jayda’s presence is seen in the same way that it can be felt on the record.
“Vulnerability is such a key thing for getting through this life, feeling understood, and connecting with others,” Jayda explains. “That is the backbone of pretty much everything I try to do.”
Luna got the chance to sit down with Jayda and talk more about the new record and everything else the artist has on the horizon. Read the interview below.
LUNA: First, I just want to say congratulations on the album release. How are you feeling now that it's been out for a month?
JAYDA: I'm feeling pretty good. It's been so cool to see how people have been receiving it and integrating it into their own lives. It's been really wonderful to see how people relate in terms of grief. I have had so many people come up to me to say, “Yeah, my father passed away, or my parent passed away.” Just talking about grief in a way that is more open and not as taboo and negative, it's been really cool. And seeing people really connecting with the work. It's been wonderful.
LUNA: With that element of being able to talk more freely about grief, how has it been playing the record at live dates and sharing your father's voice with new people?
JAYDA: It's been really cool. It's actually still a trip to hear my father's voice when I'm DJing and stuff. And it makes me really happy in the end. It just reminds me of why I did this and makes me feel connected to myself and my family.
LUNA: That’s lovely. Speaking of your family, I watched the video “Making of Guy” and in it we see your family and your team. Your creative process looks so positive — what was it like building that group of collaborators for such a vulnerable record?
JAYDA: I really have to give a big shoutout to my manager, my publisher, and all of the behind the scenes people because they listened to me. When people were like, “Okay, who do you want to collaborate with?” And I was like, “Well, it's most important for me to be working with people who can be vulnerable and understand what I'm trying to do here … [who] can meet me where I'm at.” They listened to that and brought forward people who understood what I was trying to do. So I feel very fortunate about that. Also, for most of the people that I came across, if I was open to them and came into the room with that kind of intention, I was met with the same thing back, which was really beautiful.
I think there's also an element of just taking a chance, like in terms of working with Jack Dante on co-production. I think we took a chance on each other. So we were both really lucky that we worked well together. And we were both in a situation where it was a really tight deadline and [we] had to get the album to a place where we both felt really happy and full of positivity in terms of the sound and where it was at. So I'm just really fortunate that I was able to work with someone like Jack.
LUNA: I read a couple of other interviews while I was drafting my questions and I saw that you talked about Jayda G as a separate persona. With how vulnerable you are on this record, does it still feel like there's a separate persona there, or does it allow you to be a little bit more yourself?
JAYDA: I definitely think it allows me to be a bit more myself, in terms of interviews but also just when talking about the album in general, especially with fans. I think they feel more connected with who I am, and it's been really cool, because I'm such an advocate for vulnerability. You know, if I'm vulnerable and can show more of myself, I just hope that it helps people to do the same within their lives. I know that's been the case for me with other artists' work that I'm a fan of. So yeah, I think “Jayda G” is definitely still there — she will always be there because she is still part of me, but I think there is an element of a more realness to everything. That's been really wonderful.
LUNA: You mentioned connecting with the vulnerability of artists who you're a fan of. Is there anyone who really influenced this record or who you were listening to at the time that you felt that way about?
JAYDA: Well, sonically, probably the biggest influence for this album was Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation album. It's obviously an amazing album in general, but I think she is such a good example of riding that line between dance music, pop, and R&B, which is something I'm always fascinated with and love. Also, I just love how the subject matter of the album tells us so much about her … without her talking about herself, because it's showing what she actually cares about. Because the whole album is about the world and the issues that were happening during that time and are still happening. That's the reality. So it's cool to see an album that does that and actually is good, because a lot of artists want to talk about those things, and it's hard to make good music around those kinds of world issues.
Prince is also always a big reference for me. I think he's a reference for everybody. If Prince isn't a reference for you, I think you have a problem (laughs).
LUNA: Oh, I’m going to have to agree with that one. Shifting now to the visuals for the album, I want to talk a little bit about your background in biology, because a lot of the visualizers are paired with scenes of nature. In the “Scars” video, the shots of you in front of that mountain are so cool.
JAYDA: It's so funny because that mountain is on the drive from here in Grand Forks to Vancouver, so I've passed that mountain, like, a million times in my life. You get used to it — it's just part of the scenery, you know. But then when they brought the camera over to me and showed me what it looked like, I was like, “Wow, we really do live in a beautiful place!”
Nature scenes, and just nature in general [as well as] environmentalism is a big part of my life and my ethos. Growing up here, with the mountains and the trees, it's just part of what I was always surrounded with. So it's just always something that is important to me and something I want to keep bringing into my work as I move forward. I'm really happy that we were able to blend that in, even though the subject matter of this album was so much about my father. Nature was such a big part of my upbringing, so we kind of tied in as best as we could.
LUNA: I also think it's cool how you integrated sustainability into the production of the physical albums.
JAYDA: That's something that me and my team have been working on since the first album. How can we make this more sustainable? How can we lower the carbon footprint of producing a physical record and a physical CD? From the cardboard — we used recycled cardboard — to the type of ink we used — [it’s] more sustainable, not as toxic.
The thing that was the most disappointing — and it's something that none of us could change — is dealing with shrink-wrap. If you want to distribute worldwide they will not accept your product if it's not shrink-wrapped.That's the case with so many products. Like, why are the apples at the grocery store in plastic wrap?
But we try really hard. The vinyl is all recycled vinyl, which is really cool. We did all the T-shirts with recycled cotton and also made them to order, so you're not mass-producing these items. We tried to do as best as we could.
LUNA: Well, I definitely admire that. Speaking of the carbon footprint, you have the documentary coming out soon. How much can you tell me about that?
JAYDA: I can tell you a lot about it. It's called Blue Carbon, and it's an environmental documentary with yours truly. Basically, I go to all these places around the world, learning about these types of ecosystems that are called “blue carbon ecosystems.” So they're really good at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it into the ground, and that includes salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests.
As we go through the documentary and you learn about blue carbon, you start finding out it's more about the people who take care of these ecosystems and are tied to the land, who really see that the land is part of themselves. It also becomes more of a social justice issue as well, which I think is becoming less separate as we keep talking about the climate crisis.
Also with the BLM movement, people are really seeing that the climate crisis is completely tied [to] white supremacy, and the patriarchy, and all these systemic issues that are happening within Western society. So very quickly you find out that the people who are causing climate change are not necessarily the people who are feeling the brunt of climate change. And there's a big discrepancy with that. And kind of just what is happening within the world to change that.
So it's really a story of hope. Which I'm so proud to be a part of, because I think when it comes to environmentalism, the climate crisis, all those things, we can really get stuck in how horrible and scary it all is. I think that causes a lot of people to freeze, shut down, and not engage. And that's exactly the opposite of what I tried to do with my environmentalism. So it's just great to be part of a project that also has that same ethos.
LUNA: I'm so excited to see it. Finally, is there any sort of message you want to share with new listeners about the album or your work overall?
JAYDA: I think it's just to understand my intention. You know, as I talked about earlier, vulnerability is such a key thing for getting through this life, and feeling understood and connecting with others. That is the backbone of pretty much everything I try to do, and I just hope people connect with it and find that within themselves through the artwork.
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