Having dropped 4 new tracks in recent months, Jamie Woon’s sublime third studio album 3, 10, Why, When is out today on his own label Also Can, alongside the video for album opener and focus track ‘All The Way’.
Lead track ‘All The Way’ lands like a rabble-rousing hymn to not knowing.
Jamie says “It’s a love letter to intuition that knows it’s missing the point. What’s the difference between waiting and acting? Between wanting things to happen and letting them happen? No beginning and no ending. A genuine pretender on a holiday.”
Reaching this milestone of releasing a new album has been a journey for Jamie whose debut album Mirrorwriting came out in 2011 to huge critical acclaim. The equally impressive follow-up, Making Time landed in 2015 at which point Jamie actively decided to step away from the mounting media glare to focus on pearson growth and safeguarding his mental health. Making music however is an intrinsic part of his make-up so that would continue in one form or another. He channelled his songwriting away from releasing his own music, but kept working closely with other artists including Elmiene, Lil Silva and co-producing the solo debut Unsung by Holly Walker.
‘Heavy Going’ and ‘A Velvet Rope’ were the first tracks out of the blocks in early summer and ‘When’ and ‘Pulling on a Thread’ came next by way of announcing the new album. Jamie also announced his first live show in years at London’s Union Chapel for October 13, which unsurprisingly sold out in a heartbeat.
The songs that became 3, 10, Why, When started through working with producer Martin Terefe, someone Jamie had been introduced to outside of the music world. “He’s very humble despite working on huge smash hits with artists from all over the world,” Jamie says. “He saw what I was struggling with and hung in there with me. He sort of tricked me into making an album – we made one song, then another, then when we had ten we just said that’s the album.“
For years, Jamie had been writing music without words – just melodies and sounds, though the process was frustrating. When the lyrics finally came, they arrived all at once after he learned to stop fighting the more difficult feelings and just let them be there. This explains both the startling vulnerability of the record and why he can find it challenging to discuss.
The album moves between R&B, electronics, and pop forms with a unique impressionistic twist. It flow in s with disquieting ease from strange, spiky percussion to lush strings, spooking you out with repeated motifs of being alone with thoughts at 3am, even as it taps into deep senses of love and belonging. “I don’t really know how to explain this music,“ Jamie admits. “It’s extraordinary to me that it exists at all.”
3, 10, Why, When comes out on Jamie’s own label, Also Can – named after a Malaysian English construction meaning “that works too.” “I’m curious to see if I can build something that doesn’t kill my creative flow,” he says, “and see if that can be something I can offer to others eventually.“
In anticipation of this new era, Jamie has also started his own Substack; a platform to share his thoughts and musings as he steps his toe back into the front-facing side of industry (only on his own terms, naturally). You can read more here
Tracklisting:
All The Way
Place N Time
Pulling on a Thread
A Velvet Rope
Heavy Going…
Peace of Mind
When
The Heart’s Mountains
Ghost
What’s the Matter
