Nick Bray, known for his work with Bay Area bands EagleWolfSnake, Music for Animals, and Nova Albion, has an alter-ego known as Jesse Judies. With Nick’s recent move to Sydney, Australia, Jesse Judies has come out to play.
In the latest Jesse Judies single, “Chemistry,” Mr. Bray explores the meaning of wandering, the meaning of rock’n’roll, even the meaning of life, all with a catchy backbeat and an electro-pop rock sensitivity. “Chemistry” opens with a funky bass line that instantly draws in the listener. And with the opening lyric, “Warm July, I’m not going home to sleep,” the message is clear. Jesse Judies is about to take its listener on a musical exploration.
About a third of the way into the song, right after the first chorus, Jesse Judies introduces some killer sampling vaguely reminiscent of R2D2 having a deep philosophical discussion with whoever can understand R2D2’s language. While I cannot admit to being fluent in Astromech (thank you, Google), I can clearly understand that this voyage of seeking is about to really take off.
When Jesse Judies continues with the lyrics, “If we have to crawl we’ll get somewhere,” the listener is impressed with the exploratory drive of the author, and the music continues to engage the listener in this determined journey.
The lyrical crescendo presents a cool literary trick whereby Jesse Judies switches from an outsider’s voice previously presented in the song, “You want to fly but you never want to die,” to a gang-chorused insider’s take of that same line, “We want to fly but we never want to die.” I also happen to think these are the coolest lines in the song as they cut to the meaning of everything that Jesse Judies is exploring–the desire to keep moving, keep exploring, and to never quit. – Written by Aaron Skiles
You can listen to this album on Spotify
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BIO
Jesse Judies is the collaborative project of Bay Area based indie singer-songwriter Nick Bray and Katrina Bushnell. Bray, a previous member of Music For Animals, Nova Albion, and current frontman of EagleWolfSnake, decided to write, record, and produce his first album in 2018. The result has nods to Beck, Beastie Boys, The Whitest Boy Alive, LCD Soundsystem, and ELO.
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