Jackson Roy has shared new single ‘How Do You Like That?’, the second preview of his debut EP Natural Cause, due 10th June.
The Birmingham-raised, Peckham-based multi-instrumentalist is not easily categorised. He plays guitar, bass, saxophone, piano, synths, flute and whistles, studied in a symphony choir, played smooth jazz in his mid-teens and spent time in an indie-rock band before beginning his solo project. His cited influences span Black Country, New Road, Pinegrove, Caroline, Harry Nilsson, and D’Angelo, and ‘How Do You Like That?’ draws on all of that without sounding quite like any of it.
The track is built around buoyant indie-folk energy, warm violin and piano flourishes and a lunatically addictive refrain. Unusually, the chorus contains no words. “I like how it’s conventional in some ways, but the chorus doesn’t have any words,” Roy has said. “It’s really fun to play. We nearly always start with it when we play live.”
Lyrically it explores the anxiety of wanting to move on without knowing what comes next, the joyous sound working in deliberate contrast to the emotional uncertainty of the words. The song was co-produced with regular collaborator Rian O’Grady and mixed by Dani Bennett Spragg, whose credits include Wunderhorse and English Teacher.
The accompanying video follows Woolliam, an anthropomorphic sheep who cracks under the pressure of city life and heads to the Scottish Highlands to reconnect with his flock. It was directed by Humble Films, and Roy appears as an angry farmer. Regular live band members Oscar Browne on bass, Matthew Roberts on cello, and backing vocalists Yasmin Harrosh and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow of Divorce and Book of Churches also feature on the track.
Roy plays The Great Escape in Brighton on 16th May and headlines The George Tavern in London on 29th July.
