In this season of his career, JayO has turned his music into a kaleidoscope. His recently released four-track EP, Hue is inspired by the shades of summer, from dawn to dusk, with sonics to match; it is doused in the colourful sounds of newness and the warm undertones of nostalgia. This tape is painted with a palette that spans from bouncing Afro-house to sultry dancehall, brushed with R&B inflections in JayO’s typical genre-fluid fashion. The multifaceted, North London-hailed songster was catapulted to the centre of the UK music scene in 2023 with his smash hit, 22, and he’s been shining ever since. Now, sitting on an array of collaborations with the likes of Popcaan, Odeal and SPINALL to name a few, JayO has cemented himself as one to watch on home soil and beyond.
In the wake of this new EP, JayO sits down with GRM to talk about life, music and the many colours of his creativity.
Congratulations on the new EP, Hue. What was the creative inspiration behind the project?
“I was travelling a lot at the beginning of the year – I was in South Africa for like a month and before that I was in Nigeria. When I came back to London, the sky was orange, when I was in South Africa, the sky was pink, and that just resonated with me. I was thinking about how I can listen to music at any time of the day… So when I was creating the whole world of Hue, I thought about how I want people to listen to this in the night, in the day, in the evening. I feel like it’s a perfect blend… If you look at the cover of the tape, you see that the top is actually the sun and the bottom is the night.”
The tracks, “Turning Me on” and “Baby Girl” sample some classics [Marques Houston’s Clubbin’ and Gyptian’s Hold Yuh, respectively]. How do you feel about the use of samples as an art form?
“I find it fun. When using samples, I usually like to be a bit more intricate or figure out a way that you can kind of tell it’s a sample without being able to tell it’s a sample. ‘Turning Me On’ was very different for me – I wasn’t sold on it in the beginning but then I saw the light. For ‘Baby Girl’, funnily enough, I made that after I came back from a party – I spent like 10 hours on TikTok live, producing and finishing it.”
So you’re also heavily involved in the production of your tracks. In your music-making journey, what came first: the producing or the vocals?
“It started out with the vocals but I didn’t have much confidence to record on the mic. My best friend is a producer – his name is RZ and we grew up with each other – and we kinda gained confidence together to continue making music. Then when I started uni, I learnt how to produce and because I’d been around friends who made music for so long, I was influenced by them. So now, most of my records are actually produced by me.”
Did you always know you were going to be a music artist?
“I always saw myself doing something creative. I used to dance and then I stopped because I thought, ‘I dunno if I can dance for a living.’ I thought maybe I could act, maybe I could sing. I was kind of doing everything all at once. I design as well, I’m quite hands on. But music was the one. When I told my mum that I was leaving uni to do music, she was like, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’ I just thought, ‘Damn, it has to work!’.”
So you went to university and had other plans for your life, outside of music?
“Yes, I felt like I needed to go for the uni experience – to help in life, to see how I dealt with being away from home. I studied marketing so it was still kind of a creative field. But in my third and final year, I left. I didn’t bother finishing – I felt like my calling was music more than anything else.”
If you could rewind time, would you still go to university or would you have pursued music straight away?
“I definitely would’ve gone to uni. I probably would’ve done media or something, ’cause I love videography. I feel like if I’d done media at uni, maybe I would’ve been ten times more creative now. But as the years go by, my brain is developing in the same way it would have if I’d studied media. You get me? Currently, I feel like I’m in my most creative phase, but it’s only gonna get better.”
And if we take things back even further – tell us some of your core memories of growing up in Tottenham.
“My neighbourhood wasn’t safe at the time and I was getting influenced by people around me… North London is crazy, it can be a make-or-break postcode. And when it comes to music, Tottenham is predominantly known for rap. So being a singer – or a ‘sweet boy’, as they would say – you had to go above and beyond.”
Did you ever feel pressure to make a different type of music?
“No, because my influences growing up were like Vianni, Mista Silva – I was in that kind of world. My best friend’s brother was a well-known producer during that Afro era in the UK and we would see artists coming up and rapping on Afrobeats. I liked Afro music, hip hop, and UK styles. I just wanted to incorporate everything. I started off making rap, I made garage, house, all types of genres just to see what I could do. And I was having fun, which is the most important thing.”
How did you find your way to the sound that we would associate with JayO now?
“I guess I just wanted to make people feel sexy again! [Laughs]. I think that’s the main thing. I kind of just imagined, ‘What type of music do people listen to when they wanna feel sexy?’ My sound right now, it’s easy, it rolls off the tongue.”
You have a colourful list of collaborations. What do you think these collabs add to your artistry?
“It really helps me. If a beat that I haven’t put vocals on was given to someone else, it would sound totally different, so it’s always good to see someone else’s vision – what they do sonically or what they’ll talk about. Music is different in every person’s ear.”
Do you have any other dream collaborations right now?
“There’s a lot of people! I’d say Isaiah Falls, I’d say Odeal again. I wish me, Odeal and Gabzy could just drop a joint tape. I feel like that would be good for the UK! Hopefully a PARTYNEXTDOOR feature one day, a Drake feature one day, Wizkid. I could say a whole bunch of names, the list keeps going.”
What do you want people to remember JayO for?
“I’ve thought about this – I actually don’t think I’m at the stage to think about what I want to be remembered for yet… My journey has changed, I used to be independent, then joined a major label – in terms of my music journey, I haven’t fully come to terms with everything yet. I want to go into videography one day, that might be my calling. But at the same time, my calling may also be inspiring youths or doing things like that. I’m waiting on my calling.”
And if you could pass on any wisdom to aspiring creatives, what would you share?
“I would say: don’t stop. People underestimate that advice but it’s so easy to stop. It’s so easy to get demotivated or feel like nothing’s working. But if there’s a will, there’s a way. And if you continue to advance your craft, it’s only gonna get better. So, yeah, I’d say don’t stop and just stay motivated – stay around like-minded people and you’ll soon reach the top.”
Soak up JayO’s new EP, Hue below: