I caught up with UK Pop Singer AJ Wander who has just released the video for his brand new single ‘Eye To Eye’. We talked about the new single, working with Louis Berry for the expressive video and his plans for releasing music. Wander starts the conversation on the topic of settling for a muffin over the desired pitta and hummus dish he craved for.
“I just tried Tesco’s, and found out that there are no pitta breads left. I was very excited for pitta and some hummus but, toasted muffin and cheese it is. Pitta breads have a long shelf life. So I feel like there’s always pittas and there’s so many different kinds of pittas they have the mini ones, they have brown, white, the organic ones but they have none. So, I wouldn’t say my days got off to the best start. I’m sure it’s on the way up though”
He explains how walking into Tesco for some pitta bread now more than ever can be the only in person human interaction one experiences during these crazy pandemic times.
“Yeah, this is like Black Mirror coming into reality. I like a bit of human interaction, I’m stuck at home by myself all this week and I’m tempted to just go to Tesco and see if there are any pittas there again, even though I know there aren’t. Just to say hi to the cashier.
“I hung out in the wine aisle. It’s just like urban wine tasting in Tesco. I’ve definitely gotten into my red wine in the last year. That’s been a good pastime. I’m actually doing a wine tasting this weekend with my family. I haven’t managed to go to the pub yet since they have reopened. I was away in the studio when they opened. I was in Spain, and then I just hadn’t gotten around to going, I was gonna go tomorrow night, then I’m in the studio on Saturday and I tend to sound a little bit like Bob Dylan when I’m hungover. Which is completely great for Bob Dylan I mean Bob Dylan pulls off Bob Dylan very well, but it doesn’t go so well for me, I wouldn’t say. So I’m not sure, I might have to rethink my pub plan and push it back another week. But I’m going wine tasting on Sunday, so perhaps I can wait a little while.”
Wander has released his new single ‘Eye To Eye’. He explains to me that he has had this song for a while and is buzzing to finally be able to let people hear it
“Yeah, I’m super excited, it’s one I’ve had in the bank for a little while so to see it step out into the world and start its own journey is an exciting moment”
“I started this journey with a bunch of songs and I haven’t been releasing songs until November last year. I’ve been writing since I was 14 So, naturally I’ve built up quite a few songs so it’s a sensation that I’ve gotten used to. I think now the desire to release songs comes from more of a point of wanting to move on to the next thing, forever chasing the next thing. Releasing a song, allows you to move on to whatever comes next.”
With each release, Wander is showing a constant and impressive ability to capture emotion within his beautifully crafted tunes and this is an organic and natural result of the artist’s talent.
“It’s just how it comes out, every song is different. It depends on the subject of the song but I think that the tracks that I’ve released to date are cathartic and they are me dealing with personal experiences, and managing those emotions that come along with those experiences. Yeah, so definitely not contrived. It’s not an overly thought out process for me.”
“If it’s something that’s not about my own story and my own personal experiences, I probably will spend a little more time rephrasing things and working out what should be said, but those songs that are about my own experiences and come from my own life it’s more of a natural way of thinking and it just spills out into the page”
Wander’s knack for writing precise, well-crafted lyrics and clever turn of phrase within his songs is impressive. Lines such as “living it up is a lazy lie” “stay calm through the smoke alarm as we let it burn” are impactful and thought-provoking.
“I just stick my phone on to record and sing over the song a bunch of times, as I’m writing it, as it’s first coming to life. I don’t really know what I’m saying as I’m writing it and then I’ll listen back to those voice memos and latch on to certain lyrics. I think “living it up is a lazy lie” is something that felt good to sing and it did sum up, what I was feeling, and was trying to tell. I was talking to my girlfriend in the song and that’s what I was trying to convey to her. I guess it was the quickest way to get across that.”
The piano melodies within Wander’s songs are always a strong figure that adds a unique quality to each track. I wondered if the reason for this is because he writes the songs on piano or just that he loves having piano in the songs.
“Yeah I do write them on piano. It’s the only instrument I can play. It’s my only choice. I’m starting to have some guitar lessons but they’re progressing slowly, because I just gravitate towards the piano when I’m writing on the guitar. I should probably have a little bit more discipline. Maybe I’ll lock my piano in a cupboard somewhere so it forces me to write on guitar. I think naturally I create piano parts as I’m writing them on the piano and then I get into the studio and the producer loves them so they’re like we’ve got to put this in. Actually I just recorded a bunch of songs and there’s a few that are piano-less, which is refreshing.”
“I had co-written those songs though, so I didn’t necessarily write them at the piano and I had someone who was playing the guitar or a producer there sort of putting the track together and we wrote to that. So it didn’t have to center around me at the piano, which I think will be quite liberating especially for me when I get to perform live, to be able to actually step aside from my piano and just have a moment to sing and fully connect with that side of the performance.”
“I only really started getting into the swing of co-writing since September last year. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to step up and really get my teeth into, because I constantly have so many ideas that it’s almost nice to take some of the pressure away to present those ideas within the co-writing session, they can be like, I love that, I love that. I don’t love that. It means you get more ideas finished. My music is there to speak to other people so being able to have a co-writer in the room to tell me how it comes across is really helpful and it’s just a great indicator for me as to how it’s conceived outside of my head.”
The video for ‘Eye To Eye’ is well crafted. It has a groundhog day vibe with lots of plate smashing and tension. Wander got the opportunity to work with Louis Berry (JP Cooper, Emily Burns) on the video.
“So much fun. We shot the whole thing in one day, which was tough, it was definitely a bit manic and we were shooting until the very last second of the day. It was great fun. I was really lucky to work with a team that I’ve wanted to work with. I’ve loved the director Louis Berry. He’s worked with a bunch of music videos that I’ve admired for a little while. So to be able to get the chance to work with him and create this vision for the song and again, like I said with the co-writing, to hear his take on the song and how he perceives its meaning was super interesting and how he thinks it should be conveyed into the visual world was really interesting, yeah that was a great day.”
“We had a bunch of long chats on Zoom about what the song means to me when we were coming up with the concept for the music video. I realized that it was about the cycle of this relationship of just constantly fighting because we knew something wasn’t right, and then something wasn’t right because we’re always fighting. It’s just this messed up cycle really that we’ve fallen into. He echoed that feeling as well when he had just listened to the song, without me saying it. It’s like our heads met there, we were like ‘well this is what it has to be, it has to be sort of highlighting that cycle and the toxicity of it all’.”
Wander’s debut single ‘Time Out’, has racked up 3 million streams on Spotify to date. It’s a fantastic achievement.
“Yeah, it’s a bit weird to be honest. It’s beyond anything I’d hoped for my first release. People are still listening to it and it’s just so nice to see it have its own life and get some lovely messages from people saying that it means something to them and it’s helped them more or it echoes a personal experience of theirs. That’s more rewarding than the numbers. It’s hearing that people are getting something from it, and can relate to it. But yeah it’s beyond anything I had hoped for my first release and I hope that it continues and people listen to the rest of the music I release.”
Wander hasn’t had the opportunities to experience performing these new songs live. He hasn’t experienced that magical moment of connecting with a live audience yet. This live show interaction is something he is buzzing to see.
“No, I haven’t been able to gig any of the songs yet which is top on my list. I crave the most to get out there and be able to perform and hopefully, I am going over to the State’s in July. If they let me in and that’s a big if. So, yeah if Biden lets me in I will be performing my first show in July, which is so exciting and I’m starting to get into rehearsals now putting that show together with the band and, yeah, big moment and very exciting for me. That’s something I’ve been looking forward to a ridiculous amount since I started this whole thing.”
Last time I spoke to Wander he told me he had a lot of songs in his repertoire already. I asked if an EP is something we could see very soon.
“That a very good question. Initially, the plan was to release an EP and start touring that. Well, I guess, as I was releasing it I would be on tour already promoting that EP. But, of course, there’s a virus going around. I can’t tour yet… things are starting to open up but I think realistically it’s not going to be until the latter half of the year until I can actually get out and tour properly. So, I’ve had to tweak plans and I’m actually going to now release a bunch more singles, which I’ve just been in Spain recording. I’ve got 10 tracks that I’ve recorded, and ready to release. So the plan is to release a song, a month until the end of the year, and then start touring that, and 5 of those 10 songs are going to make up an EP, and the other five are just sort of going to sit as stand alone singles, but again I feel lucky to be able to extend that record deal and be able to release more songs. Yeah, so lots more music is basically the solution to Coronavirus apparently.”
AJ Wander is a passionate artist and an exceptional melody wizard with a talent for writing poignant and captivating songs. His music comes from the heart and his warm and velvety vocals leaves you craving to hear more. I am looking forward to the luscious musical treats he releases in the coming months.
Watch the video for ‘Eye To Eye’ below
Author ; Danu
