At the crossroads where music and the natural world meet, that’s where you’ll find London-based duo Jay+Max. After initially ignoring each other in the Cambridge University orchestra, they came together and started making music. The pair deliver a new reality and a fresh new sound, creating their own visual universe that soundtracks the quirky brilliance of the natural world filled with surreal twists and turns.
They’ve just released their debut single, “Octopus”, demonstrating their vivid creativity and originality. Fusing laid-back vocals, gritty bass lines and experimental twists, they bring their sound to life with nature-themed digital animations to blur the boundaries of genre and reality. With an accompanying self-created music video, their vision shines bright, reflecting their backgrounds holding postgrad degrees in environmental science.
After moving to their spiritual home in Camden, they’ve been taking inspiration from all corners of London’s thriving live scene and growing in confidence for their metamorphosis into a new and more experimental sound, creating an offering for fans of Grimes, Superorganism and Lemaitre.
As Jay+Max grow increasingly concerned about global warming and the future of the living world, their lyrics also stand as a call to action for meaningful change.
Commenting on the release, they share, “Neither of us knew how to do animation, so we had to spend a while learning how to use Blender and various other programs to get it off the ground. Then after we started we found out that Pixar spent years animating their octopus in Finding Dory.”
Adding, “We did wonder whether we’d bitten off more than we could chew at that point, and we sometimes wished we’d picked an animal that didn’t have eight legs! We love how it’s turned out now though, and that we made it ourselves.”
The track’s laid-back opening vibe shifts into an infectious beat through the course of the song, with morphing bass and a building energy. The first taste of their musical endeavour, the pair have begun a new journey exploring the blended world of sonic and visual art inspired by the vibrancy of their urban and natural surroundings.
Listen to Octopus below
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