Following an 8-date regional Victorian tour, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Jess Locke shares ‘Halo‘, the fourth track to be lifted off her forthcoming album Don’t Ask Yourself Why out Friday 26 March 2021 via Dot Dash Recordings.
‘Halo’ sees Locke employ the album’s producer Rob Muinos for a delicate duet that is at the same time deep and guttural. Locke comments, “As soon as I wrote this song, I knew exactly how I wanted it to feel. Even before I wrote the words, I knew how I wanted them to feel in my throat. I knew I wanted this deep, guttural, almost monstrous sound. There is a Cat Power song called ‘Evolution’ that has a male vocal doubling the whole song and I couldn’t shake that idea for Halo. I am notoriously addicted to doubling my own vocals and I liked the idea of using a male double as a way to achieve that texture but also give more depth than just layering my own voice. I was thinking about who I knew that I could get to come in and sing it for me. Rob suggested that he could sing it as a guide take, so at least we could make sure the idea worked before getting someone to come in. As soon as he did it I knew it was perfect. I love the way our voices sound together. It’s one of my favourite parts of the whole album and it absolutely achieved what I had in my head the whole time. Instrumentally, I always wanted this song to be very minimalistic, but it was hard to figure out how to do that without just being boring. Some of my favourite parts about this track are things I wouldn’t have thought to do myself, like the subtle ambient synths weaving in and out and the slightly meandering bassline that perfectly offsets the relentlessness of the Wurlitzer. It introduces a bit of warmth and optimism to my melancholic tendencies. Even if, lyrically, the song is quite pessimistic, the music itself doesn’t fully submit to that sentiment and that’s the result of collaborating. If it was just me, all the songs would just be downers.”
Listen to ‘Halo,’ preorder Don’t Ask Yourself Why now.
