Jayda G, the Grammy-nominated writer, producer, DJ, environmental toxicologist, campaigner and broadcaster, is set to return with her new full length album Guy. Co-produced with Jack Peñate (who has previously worked with the likes of SAULT, David Byrne and Adele), with contributions from Lisa-Kaindé Diaz (of Ibeyi), Ed Thomas (Stormzy, Nia Archives, Jorja Smith) and more.
The new album Guy brings Jayda’s own voice and words more prominently into focus than ever before, across 13 tracks that draw on her House, Disco, RnB and Soul roots while emphasizing her pop songwriting sensibilities, interspersed with archival recordings of her late father, the eponymous William Richard Guy.
“I wanted the album to be a blend of storytelling, about the African American experience, death, grief, and understanding,” explains Jayda. “It’s about my dad and his story, and naturally in part my story, too, but it’s also about so many people who wanted more for themselves and went on a search to find that. This album is just so much for people who have been oppressed and who have not had easy lives.”
Despite the at times somber nature of the source material, the album ultimately proves to be an uplifting and positive experience, both musically and from the message it delivers.
“I think the biggest thing that really drove me to understand more of his life is that my dad, just a few years before he was diagnosed, had worked so hard on himself. He went back to school to become a social worker, examining himself and his own demons, and really working on himself in the process. And I think it’s just a testament that it’s never too late to look at yourself and try to understand why you are the way you are, and strive to be better. Understanding the Black man’s experience, Black people’s experience in terms of America, and rising above what society tells you you’re supposed to be.”
Jayda has also reunited with director David Ehrenreich for several videos that will accompany the album, including on lead single ‘Circle Back Around’. Shot in Jayda’s childhood home and hometown of Grand Forks, British Columbia, it features intimate archival family footage alongside clips of her father, taken from the tapes he recorded.
Guy:
- Intro
- Blue Lights
- Heads Or Tails
- Scars
- Interlude: I Got Tired Of Running
- Lonely Back In O
- Your Thoughts
- Interlude: It Was Beautiful
- Meant To Be
- Circle Back Around
- When She Dance
- Sapphires Of Gold
- 15 Foot
