Jayden Wark Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: My musical journey has just begun so I apologize for not having anything super interesting to say.
I'm pretty sure I've always been obsessed with music, even when I was a little kid. Most of my family and I are from Nova Scotia which has tons of musical history and culture. The music scene is massive there (specifically folk music), so I never had a break from it. We had these pretty huge local artists in the area that I'd always be able to listen to.....well, I thought they were huge until I realized that they were only huge in our area/province haha. I still can't get through an album by Jimmy Rankin or Dave Gunning without crying due to nostalgia alone.
I think picking up guitar was just a natural progression for me in that type of environment. This sounds cheesy, but it was a dream of mine to be able to sing and play songs for my friends and family by the campfire.
I actually got more and more into pop punk, rock and emo music when I entered my middle-teenage years (as a ton do). I guess I wanted to try and be more anti-folk as I grew up just to be different from all the musicians around me at the time. I was afraid of wearing my inspirations too high if that makes sense: I wanted to be original. Folk music was also openly mocked by a lot of kids my age which made me embarrassed to even like it. I actually went to school in Alberta, Canada throughout my childhood, so none of that culture was really there.
I don't remember what finally motivated me to start making original music, but I remember punk bands being huge initial inspirations. I think they made songwriting seem a lot more simple due to how simple their songs were to play. Green Day was the first band that I really got into.
I couldn't really play anything I wrote with a band, so I tried to record everything by myself on the home computer. Because of this, I basically had to force myself to learn how to sing and play the bass if I ever wanted to finish a song. This naturally progressed into learning how to produce and mix music as well. It's funny thinking about the limited equipment I had back then because it barely worked. I had a guitar and bass (obviously), a USB microphone that came with my Guitar Hero game, and this weird guitar cable that you could plug into a computer via USB.
After that point, I've been able to continuously grow myself as a musician. I gradually learned a lot of music theory, I got better at singing and songwriting, I invested in a lot more equipment, I took online music production courses, I started learning upright bass and playing in my high school jazz band and I met a lot of other musicians from my school that would later become involved with my music. There sadly isn't much history I can tell you in relation to my journey as a musical artist because not much has really happened; in fact, I believe that it's just about to get interesting.
My first two albums were done in just my bedroom: one laptop, one interface, a couple of guitars and basses, and some microphones. They both just started because I felt like making an album haha.
Q: What are some topics and themes you explore on some of your recent release The Vision Is Dead?
A: "What's In His Head?" talks about the frustrations that one can face with their identity and how they're perceived. In this context, the narrator is moderately autistic and tends to not be able to communicate with those around him very well. He's constantly frustrated at the idea that those who are kind to him tend to treat him like his whole identity is that disorder, while others tend to not be compassionate and often seem annoyed by him.
"Dance Your Life Away" is a bit more personal to me so I won't be discussing its exact meaning. This song in general talks about stepping up for yourself to someone you care about or maybe even love. It's about the fear that one faces to say anything because of their relationship with the other person. "At Home" is narrated by a self-aware abuser. They feel a lot of shame and anger toward themself but they take all that anger out on their victim. It's a cycle of self-awareness and abuse.
"Slip Away (Maybe...)" switches perspectives of a relationship. One person has an unrealistic concept of depression and how they can “fix” or largely improve their significant other (or friend/family member - it’s never specified really). This view builds into frustration when they perceive their help as being ignored in place of self-pity and that no matter what they did, they still lived in fear for this person's safety and mental state. The other perspective is the person with depression and the shame they feel for the help that they get from this person, feeling as though they don’t deserve it. After hearing that their partner is becoming frustrated, they begin to fall in a deeper depression knowing that even though they feel ashamed of it, they heavily rely on them.
"Mr. Dusky" is from the perspective of someone at a really good point in their life. They take this opportunity to remind their future self who may be at a terrible point again that things will get better. Not only that, but it's a reminder that in order for things to get better, one sometimes has to put in a lot of work and often fail multiple times. "Everything We Know" follows a character who is near death due to an unspecified illness. With an implied rough upbringing and recent news of his terminal condition, the character processes subjects of religion, nature and most importantly: the acceptance of a life that never got its time to shine when things just seemed to start getting better.
"Photos Are Too Beautiful To Lose" is another song that's a bit too personal for me to discuss, but I will let you know that I'm incredibly proud of the title because it's a pun - haha. "The Vision Is Dead" is honestly very abstract and is meant to be interpreted. The concept is based on the saying: "close your eyes" which is taken from the more used saying: "open your eyes." It basically just talks about being too self-aware of what's around you and that seeing too much can blind you (literally and metaphorically). It attempts to portray this idea as the conclusion for everything in this album. Sometimes things just have to happen and overthinking will just make it harder.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: My musical journey has just begun so I apologize for not having anything super interesting to say.
I'm pretty sure I've always been obsessed with music, even when I was a little kid. Most of my family and I are from Nova Scotia which has tons of musical history and culture. The music scene is massive there (specifically folk music), so I never had a break from it. We had these pretty huge local artists in the area that I'd always be able to listen to.....well, I thought they were huge until I realized that they were only huge in our area/province haha. I still can't get through an album by Jimmy Rankin or Dave Gunning without crying due to nostalgia alone.
I think picking up guitar was just a natural progression for me in that type of environment. This sounds cheesy, but it was a dream of mine to be able to sing and play songs for my friends and family by the campfire.
I actually got more and more into pop punk, rock and emo music when I entered my middle-teenage years (as a ton do). I guess I wanted to try and be more anti-folk as I grew up just to be different from all the musicians around me at the time. I was afraid of wearing my inspirations too high if that makes sense: I wanted to be original. Folk music was also openly mocked by a lot of kids my age which made me embarrassed to even like it. I actually went to school in Alberta, Canada throughout my childhood, so none of that culture was really there.
I don't remember what finally motivated me to start making original music, but I remember punk bands being huge initial inspirations. I think they made songwriting seem a lot more simple due to how simple their songs were to play. Green Day was the first band that I really got into.
I couldn't really play anything I wrote with a band, so I tried to record everything by myself on the home computer. Because of this, I basically had to force myself to learn how to sing and play the bass if I ever wanted to finish a song. This naturally progressed into learning how to produce and mix music as well. It's funny thinking about the limited equipment I had back then because it barely worked. I had a guitar and bass (obviously), a USB microphone that came with my Guitar Hero game, and this weird guitar cable that you could plug into a computer via USB.
After that point, I've been able to continuously grow myself as a musician. I gradually learned a lot of music theory, I got better at singing and songwriting, I invested in a lot more equipment, I took online music production courses, I started learning upright bass and playing in my high school jazz band and I met a lot of other musicians from my school that would later become involved with my music. There sadly isn't much history I can tell you in relation to my journey as a musical artist because not much has really happened; in fact, I believe that it's just about to get interesting.
My first two albums were done in just my bedroom: one laptop, one interface, a couple of guitars and basses, and some microphones. They both just started because I felt like making an album haha.
Q: What are some topics and themes you explore on some of your recent release The Vision Is Dead?
A: "What's In His Head?" talks about the frustrations that one can face with their identity and how they're perceived. In this context, the narrator is moderately autistic and tends to not be able to communicate with those around him very well. He's constantly frustrated at the idea that those who are kind to him tend to treat him like his whole identity is that disorder, while others tend to not be compassionate and often seem annoyed by him.
"Dance Your Life Away" is a bit more personal to me so I won't be discussing its exact meaning. This song in general talks about stepping up for yourself to someone you care about or maybe even love. It's about the fear that one faces to say anything because of their relationship with the other person. "At Home" is narrated by a self-aware abuser. They feel a lot of shame and anger toward themself but they take all that anger out on their victim. It's a cycle of self-awareness and abuse.
"Slip Away (Maybe...)" switches perspectives of a relationship. One person has an unrealistic concept of depression and how they can “fix” or largely improve their significant other (or friend/family member - it’s never specified really). This view builds into frustration when they perceive their help as being ignored in place of self-pity and that no matter what they did, they still lived in fear for this person's safety and mental state. The other perspective is the person with depression and the shame they feel for the help that they get from this person, feeling as though they don’t deserve it. After hearing that their partner is becoming frustrated, they begin to fall in a deeper depression knowing that even though they feel ashamed of it, they heavily rely on them.
"Mr. Dusky" is from the perspective of someone at a really good point in their life. They take this opportunity to remind their future self who may be at a terrible point again that things will get better. Not only that, but it's a reminder that in order for things to get better, one sometimes has to put in a lot of work and often fail multiple times. "Everything We Know" follows a character who is near death due to an unspecified illness. With an implied rough upbringing and recent news of his terminal condition, the character processes subjects of religion, nature and most importantly: the acceptance of a life that never got its time to shine when things just seemed to start getting better.
"Photos Are Too Beautiful To Lose" is another song that's a bit too personal for me to discuss, but I will let you know that I'm incredibly proud of the title because it's a pun - haha. "The Vision Is Dead" is honestly very abstract and is meant to be interpreted. The concept is based on the saying: "close your eyes" which is taken from the more used saying: "open your eyes." It basically just talks about being too self-aware of what's around you and that seeing too much can blind you (literally and metaphorically). It attempts to portray this idea as the conclusion for everything in this album. Sometimes things just have to happen and overthinking will just make it harder.
Q: How do you approach songwriting?
A: It usually starts with some sort of intense emotion that I may be feeling at the moment. I sometimes try to figure out what type of tone, genre, or energy I'm going for before even thinking about anything else. A vast majority of my music is written using the melody first so I often sing melodies and random lyrics in relation to the topic I want to write about or the emotion I'm feeling. There are also times throughout the day where I might just accidentally hum or sing something super catchy that I end up recording on my phone for later use.
Once I have a starting melody, I often go to my acoustic guitar to add chords. I can usually dictate where the song will be going and how to structure it from there. I also like to figure out if I can add anything to pleasantly surprise the listener. This can be a genre switch-up, unconventional chord choices, playing with dynamics, or even just sound effects. To me, this not only makes songwriting a lot more fun, but it makes your song a lot more interesting.
I have a soft spot for super simple and catchy melodies. I personally don't believe complexity is always a good thing because learning how to mix a perfect amount of simplicity and complexity to fit within your genre is super important. I like to say that complexity makes your music interesting, but simplicity keeps the song in people's heads. A band that does this super well in my opinion is Avenged Sevenfold. They often have super dark and heavy verses, but super simple, catchy, and sometimes even poppy choruses. I absolutely love the contrast and it always makes me come back for more.
Q: Have you played this music live and if so how does it translate with an audience?
A: I don't perform my music live sadly; I'm a one-man studio band for now. I actually really love performing, but I can't recreate my music live very well and I can't find people to perform with. I did play Mr. Dusky recently at my graduation, but I imagine that's not what you meant when you asked that question.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I really need to give credit to my artist and animator Sonia Khromova. I'm so incredibly lucky to have such an amazing visual artist and animator working with me on my projects. I really strive hard to not only make music but develop an image for it. That's the reason why I got into cartoons and animation because it really feels like the other half to everything I create.
A: It usually starts with some sort of intense emotion that I may be feeling at the moment. I sometimes try to figure out what type of tone, genre, or energy I'm going for before even thinking about anything else. A vast majority of my music is written using the melody first so I often sing melodies and random lyrics in relation to the topic I want to write about or the emotion I'm feeling. There are also times throughout the day where I might just accidentally hum or sing something super catchy that I end up recording on my phone for later use.
Once I have a starting melody, I often go to my acoustic guitar to add chords. I can usually dictate where the song will be going and how to structure it from there. I also like to figure out if I can add anything to pleasantly surprise the listener. This can be a genre switch-up, unconventional chord choices, playing with dynamics, or even just sound effects. To me, this not only makes songwriting a lot more fun, but it makes your song a lot more interesting.
I have a soft spot for super simple and catchy melodies. I personally don't believe complexity is always a good thing because learning how to mix a perfect amount of simplicity and complexity to fit within your genre is super important. I like to say that complexity makes your music interesting, but simplicity keeps the song in people's heads. A band that does this super well in my opinion is Avenged Sevenfold. They often have super dark and heavy verses, but super simple, catchy, and sometimes even poppy choruses. I absolutely love the contrast and it always makes me come back for more.
Q: Have you played this music live and if so how does it translate with an audience?
A: I don't perform my music live sadly; I'm a one-man studio band for now. I actually really love performing, but I can't recreate my music live very well and I can't find people to perform with. I did play Mr. Dusky recently at my graduation, but I imagine that's not what you meant when you asked that question.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I really need to give credit to my artist and animator Sonia Khromova. I'm so incredibly lucky to have such an amazing visual artist and animator working with me on my projects. I really strive hard to not only make music but develop an image for it. That's the reason why I got into cartoons and animation because it really feels like the other half to everything I create.