To be ethereal is not necessarily the same as to be complex. One can achieve the most magical feelings through a minimalistic approach. A proof of this would be today’s featured single, “Overplayed” by Jess Porter. With just a synth and voices, Jess Porter is able to create a soundscape that is full of texture and lushness like none other: A sound that is not afraid of exploring the fragility of music and, thus, humanity itself. With “Overplayed”, Jess Porter has achieved something beautiful.
Jess Porter is a singer songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Deeply inspired by the music of Beck, Richard Dawson, Saint Vincent and Bon Iver, he has been performing as a solo artist since 2012. When live onstage, he sings and plays the guitar and keyboards and is accompanied by Bryce Novotny at the bass and vocals and Evan Lee at the drums. “Overplayed” is his second single of 2022 after the success of “Patterns”. It was composed alongside longtime collaborator Nick Russel, who was also in charge of recording the excellent harmonic backing vocals. “Overplayed” also shines a spotlight over Jess Porter’s vocal range. Its lyrics reflect on the nature of relationships and time, about those types of relationships that seem imposible to achieve. Maybe if we had met someone in another moment of our lives, they could had been our other half or a very close friend. Still, we will always carry them in our hearts.
“When it came to recording new music, it had been 8 years since I’d put out any solo material, so I thought about how I wanted to represent myself – what defines me as a solo artist, how have I evolved since ‘September Sun’ in 2014. ‘Patterns’ was me throwing everything at the wall – trying to showcase everything I could. ‘Overplayed’ is the opposite – it’s quiet, thoughtful and simple. The vocal has very little effects and barely a harmony. Behind it is a couple of synths and a multi-voice choir – sung beautifully by Nick Russell. I wanted the strength of the melody and lyrics to shine through, which are important to me on this song. It’s about meeting someone – a friend or a lover – you care deeply about, but you know it’s just not the right time to be able to develop the relationship. You feel sad, but also thankful for the connection. I think everyone knows the feeling I’m talking about.” –Jess Porter
“Overplayed” features a minimalistic approach to music composing. It is a simple track with a simple chord progression and melody. It relies only on the sounds of the synths, Jess Porter’s vocals and Nick Russel multi-layered voice to build itself. And yet, it is on this simplicity where we can hear its beauty. Each of the elements of the track are just enough, layered just where they need to be to compliment and dance around each other. As a result, we can hear a simple, yet effective single that achieves the sublime through its minimalism. It is beautiful to hear how each element comes together: how Jess Porter’s vocals relate with Nick Russel’s and the synths, which come out of the backdrop to the foreground together. Before we know it, the track ends. In this way, Porter reminds us of how every relationship, every “what-could’ve-been”, has a special moment that starts and rapidly extinguishes. But in that short-lived moment, we feel as if we have known each other since forever. We will never forget it.
“Overplayed” by Jess Porter is a minimalistic single that reflects on the nature of relationships. It is a beautiful single with poetic strength that must not be missed by any chance!
Show Porter some love on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. You can also visit his official website. If you enjoy his music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp; for virtual concerts, you can go to songkick “Live from their sofa to yours”.
It also helps to stream and share his music; you can obviously find it in the following Spotify Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, Chill – Folk – Acoustic, and 12 New Songs This Week . Or our brand new Playlists on SoundCloud like this one BLOGLT1KF.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!
This coverage was created via MusoSoup #Sustainablecurator
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