Local Afrikaans pop star Janie Bay is fast-solidifying herself as one of the freshest new faces in the Afrikaans music space and after dropping the hits ‘Die Heelal’ with Early B and ‘Amper Daar’, the songstress slows things down as she releases the emotional ballad ‘Jammer’.
Janie, who boasts career streams in excess of 1.5 million, decided to show fans a different side to her with her new single and says that after she wrote the song, she instantly knew that this will be her next single release: “I wrote Jammer as an apology to someone that I hurt. I was processing the emotions around what happened for quite a while. Why is it so hard to apologize? When I eventually penned the lyrics, it flowed onto paper within minutes. I literally wrote it while I had my morning coffee.”
The production of the song almost had to happen overnight as lockdown in SA loomed early March. Janie recorded the vocals at Popkult in Potchefstroom with producers Ewald Janse van Rensburg & Dolf Willemse. She says: “I did the vocals in two hours. I am amazed by the fact that there was such a fast pace to the making of this song. For me it is as if this song really wanted to Be, the process just happened with such an ease. I am very happy with how the song turned out. Whether there are external factors or not, when one creates from the heart, things just flow more easily.”
Furthermore, Janie has premiered the track’s official music video and opted for something simplistic in order for the video not to take away from the emotional delivery in the track. Video director Henry Marsh says that they worked with Bay`s emotive lyrics and the tones of the single cover art to create the feel of the video: “Janie and I decided it would be more powerful to have a very minimalist take. We wanted to focus on the raw emotion that Janie was putting out and even in post- production, we focused on the closeups. I remember getting goosebumps when I looked at the first draft. You can feel the pull of Janie`s intensity. She is a true professional artist. Janie arrived at the studio with purpose and nailed every single take, knowing exactly what feeling she was trying to emanate at each point in the song.”
‘Jammer’ is now available to stream on your favourite digital music platform.
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