MUMBAI: Jayda G, the GRAMMY-nominated writer, producer, DJ, environmental toxicologist, campaigner and broadcaster, returns with new single "Blue Lights". It’s the latest glimpse of her forthcoming album ‘Guy’ — out June 9th on Ninja Tune — a record co-produced with Jack Peñate (who has previously worked with the likes of SAULT, David Byrne and Adele), with contributions from Lisa-Kaindé Diaz (of Ibeyi), Ed Thomas (Stormzy, Nia Archives, Jorja Smith) and more. It follows her recent single and video release "Circle Back Around" which received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, FADER, DJ Mag, RA, Mixmag, Clash, NME, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY, NYLON, PAPER Magazine, Billboard, Notion, Cool Hunting and many more, and also saw Jayda grace the cover of Time Out on release.
Over “Blue Lights”'s upbeat disco-inflected groove, Jayda’s lyrics draw on "an insane story of my father's" which saw him swept up in the Washington Race Riots of 1968, following an all-night shift as a local radio DJ. In recorded tapes which form the backbone of the album’s narrative, the eponymous William Richard Guy recalls seeing thousands of rioters and police moving up the street towards him, only to realize that he had locked himself out of his apartment: "So, when the riot caught up with me, I just went with it. No use standing around. You ain't going to tell those guys that you're just locked outside your house!".
“I think it was very much a turning point for him,” says Jayda. “I think it was a turning point for everyone at that time. You know, you have the Vietnam War, people don't know why they're sending people over there, and at home you have all these horrible things happening in the Black community and people are just f**king tired of it. What’s interesting is that while I was writing this album, the BLM movement was also happening, and people were again thinking around the issues of being Black, being male, being in poverty, dealing with racism, dealing with police, and police brutality in our society and I remember thinking that, yeah, it hasn't changed in a lot of ways.”
The forthcoming album ‘Guy’ brings Jayda’s own voice and words more prominently into focus than ever before, across 13 tracks that draw on her House, Disco, RnB and Soul roots while emphasizing her pop songwriting sensibilities, interspersed with archival recordings of her late father.
The album arrives on the back of a busy few years that have seen her Grammy-nominated (for her mid-pandemic single “Both Of Us”, created with producer Fred again..); release a trove of high-profile remixes for the likes of Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa; tour the worlds biggest festival and stages including Glastonbury and Coachella; release a compilation for the renowned DJ Kicks series and highly praised collaboration with Aluna; appear as a guest judge on BBC’s ‘Glow Up’; marry her childhood sweetheart in her hometown of Grand Forks, BC (in the same house her parents got married decades earlier); and contribute to the immersive installation ‘Undercurrent’ (New York, June ‘21) which focussed on the Climate Crisis, alongside artists like Khruangbin, Nosaj Thing, Mount Kimbie and Bon Iver.
Most recently she has embarked on a life changing journey whilst undertaking filming for the forthcoming feature-length documentary ‘Blue Carbon’ — the collective term given to seagrass meadow, mangrove and tidal marsh ecosystems that fringe every continent (excluding Antarctica) and sequester two to four times more carbon from the atmosphere per hectare than tropical forests. The film is hosted by Jayda and took her to the front lines of the climate crisis to meet with those communities already affected by the looming catastrophe. Created by the BAFTA and Emmy-winning director Nicolas Brown (The Serengeti Rules) and executive producer Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, The Two Popes) it also features Brazilian artist Seu Jorge and original music from Wu-Tang’s RZA. The film will be released later this year in conjunction with CNN.