A QUICK CHAT WITH JUST A GENT

What inspired you to create The Answer Is, and how does it reflect your personal journey as both Jake and Just A Gent?

I’ve spent the last 5 or so years of my life really growing up and learning a lot about myself and the world around us. Just so many things spark infinite questions about the nature of everything. After releasing the last LP I even started to question why I was even doing this, why go through all the stress of finishing and releasing music etc.

I came to realise I had almost forgotten why I got so deep into creating music in the first place then it just all came rushing back to me. I do it for me,  I create soundscapes, moments, memories  and almost portals to different parts of my own mind and my own emotions. I create nostalgia for myself, I just do what feels good and let that energy take me wherever it needs to.

I wanted to show the world a deeper layer of me, to be more open and share the sounds and songs that I normally would just keep to myself, because thats who I made them for. I create sounds and music all day, basically everyday and sometimes I go someplace really freaking special and I went there with all the tracks on this record.

Can you tell us about the creative process behind the album? How long did it take to bring your vision to life?

I’m always creating and I had already started placing a few of these sounds together, Its kinda how my brain/workflow works, these ideas will come to me and they always seem to fit into a different pocket. I probably have 5 or 6 pockets going at most given times, if that makes any sense AKA building 5 or 6 different projects at once because they come and go to me in waves

Majority of nailing this one down was the song selection. I just had so many ideas especially when the whole concept of answering the questions was in the air and so I really had to cull the majority of my ‘answers’ because no one wants a 50 track LP. I would say I spent a decent time on the production on all of the tracks, some a hell of a lot more than others and it probably shows. I also spent a bunch of time finessing in the mix and still not super stoked on all the mixdowns but I couldn't work it forever and for whatever reason the timing felt right. I would say overall I spent a good 2 years working it and some of the ideas would have came from 4 years ago.

The focus track, “A World of My Own,” has such an ethereal and introspective feel. What’s the story behind it, and how did it evolve from its original version?
Thank you :) Yeah so, I originally wrote this one with my friends Jeremy (Synova) & Lloren in LA in July 2022. We got in the studio just to mess around make some music & we came up with a completely different beat/vibe. Lloren said she had an idea for some vox and sat on the couch for I kid you not 5 mins writing notes/ lyrics  down. She got up and entered the booth and in 1 take threw down that main vocal that is in the final version of the track. Jeremy and I were gobsmacked, both of us had the hairs standing up on the back of our necks and goosebumps and just couldn’t believe how she just pulled that out of the hat

What we made was amazing but didn’t really fit Just A Gent or any of the other projects at the time so we sent it in to Laurens publisher and kinda left it at that… Until this year when I made this insanely hopeful feeling beat I called ‘as within’. It just sat on my PC until I was listening to it a few months ago and started singing a world of my own over and then… eureka XD. I threw the acapella on top and it begun to unfold into what it is now.

You’ve described the album as an ode to rediscovery. How has your sound or approach to music evolved during the creation of this project?

Like I said above, I remembered I do this for me. I brought it back to my roots and made this whole record on pure feeling (with only  a little pinch of overthinking ;) 

With The Answer Is, were there any particular challenges or breakthroughs that stood out during the production process?

The biggest challenge I had during the creation of this one would have been sonically. I think the entire scene stepped it up in terms of the quality of mixdowns and sound choices. I wanted this album to be true and raw but l I also wanna make sure it sounds mint both on a big system and on your iphone. I had many revelations during the process and keen to show how i’ve applied it to my more bass heavy tunes too.

You’ve worked with some incredible collaborators over the years. How did collaborations play a role in shaping the album, and who were the key contributors?

I love collaborating. It's insane to hear what other people can just conjure on top of your own ideas, things you would never think of etc etc. I worked with a bunch of amazing vocalists and musos for the album, Georgie Winchester, Lloren, Plotz, McCall & Carlie. I also worked with OddKidOut, Solomon France & my friends Stutters on a few various tracks.

However the main collaborator throughout this record was my visual artist Robin Weynants. We really went hard on the visual aesthetic. Again many ideas never surfaced but the general gist of the concept is the pyramids/hourglass/bowtie represent the ‘answer’ and they have been sent all over the universe in these crates. So huge shoutout to Robin for his hard work on this one too!!!

Thanks for having me on guys <3