PHOTOS // CAMERON POSFOROOSH
STORY // ANGIE PICCIRILLO
I had heard his name before, “Jamie N Commons,” amongst many industry conversations, yet I didn’t know why I should know that name… I thought it was a rumor that this guy was supposedly known for being one of the “most synced” writers in present times. I had always assumed it was just some bullet point a label slapped on him to make me feel like I SHOULD know him…. it never dawned on me that the rumors must be true, until I saw him in the flesh, heard his music, and experience his super catchy melodies.
He was joining a friend on stage at the famed Los Angeles showcase and hot spot, “Its a School Night,” to sing a song he had written with them. A tall blonde guy with a white thick-brimmed hat entered the stage, and every female friend I had with me froze in time. As he hit his first sultry notes, the room all began to chatter about who this hipster with the angel-like voice could be…. This, was Jamie N Commons — Not only one of the most synced writers in present times, but also one of the most underrated artists of present times.
Recently starting to explore the romantic 80’s blue-eyed pop we all knew from films by John Hughes, Jamie’s new song “Won’t Let Go” sounds as if Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen mated and had a child with Phil Collins voice. Jamie says the inspiration for the song came after watching a film he hadn’t seen in years, “I was re-watching a bunch of James Cameron movies one month and decided to give “Titanic” a go after 10-15 years of not seeing it. It came to that final scene where Kate Winslet goes “ I’ll never let go Jack!” And then she lets go? I thought that was really funny, and I guess it was very present in my mind the next day in this writing session I was in. Ethan Gruska came up with this fantastic verse melody and Sam De Jong got this spacey beat going… and the whole thing just sounded like optimistic melancholy to me so that line “I’ll never let go” popped in my head and then it wrote itself after that really.”
The video, simplistic and clean, allows us to possibly get a glimpse of all the “massive emotions” that Jamie was wanting to portray with the song. “The general idea was trying to convey these massive emotions that happen just under the surface of everyone.. the statue representing the stern perfect image we want to project… and the color explosions being what we want to actually say,” he says.
The best part about the video? Jamie says, “I got hit in the face and mouth with A LOT of sand…. Also almost killed myself on this sketchy running machine we were using… music videos are rough.”
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