Dear Shaded viewers,
On July 19th, 2024, JAYDENA unveiled her grandest, yet most intimate project to date, a self-produced and directed EP titled “ANGELTOWN”. Through 5 celestial songs, she explored her journey from darkness to enlightenment. With the release of the record, she welcomes all with love to share her discovery of peace, inner strength, and healing.
After a secret affair at Soho House Paris inviting guests for the first time into ANGELTOWN, I sat down with JAYDENA and she shared with me how the record came to be:
EW: JAYDENA, your latest record ANGELTOWN has just been released. Tell me about it!
JAY: I’m so excited. I worked on this record since the moment I first moved to Paris. It has been a product of evolution, resilience, and metamorphosis. I am beyond happy we have reached this day. It is out now for everyone to see, to hear, to feel.
EW: So, where is ANGELTOWN, who’s invited?
JAY: Everyone is welcome to this universe that originally I created for myself. It’s open to anyone who wants to discover the perspective of someone who has gone through a lot of darkness and light yet embraced everything through love.
EW: What was the inspiration musically, and visually?
JAY: I take a lot from fashion and cinema rather than music. Fashion gave me a lot in the sense of creating my narrative, imagining the stage, and artistic direction. I like to write music for the kind of scenarios experienced in a movie. Ultimately, it’s a soundtrack where ANGELTOWN is the title of the movie, and each song is its own chapter. Cinematically speaking it’s a very beautiful transition, it’s magical. For music I took inspiration from the Parisian scene, dancing at night, and truly what makes me feel myself. When I started writing the record, really when I moved to Paris, I was not listening to the hits. I love going back in time with tribal sounds, Ray of Light by Madonna, some Rihanna, but I didn’t want to stay in that lane. I just took what made me emotional and translated it to my own language and my own thing.
EW: When did you move to Paris?
JAY: In 2018, so 6 years ago. I’m so excited because everything in the narrative feels right. 6 is a beautiful number, it’s so powerful. I’m very happy for this to be the turning point.
EW: You’re not the only voice in your music. Who else have you invited?
JAY: I’m so glad you asked. The first time I introduced any of my songs from the record to a friend was last September. I played it to my friend, now collaborator, Tracy De Sá. She’s a rapper from India. She went through a lot, she’s an icon. We met through the Parisian journey and have always had this beautiful synergy. We started talking to each other and experiencing life together. When I presented my song to her, I didn’t even tell her it’s our song. I just said, “this is where it is right now, I think it’s finished. What do you think?” It was at brunch, and once it was over, she was like, “do you want me to jump on it?” … “Say less. Please, by all means.” When she sent me her verse, I kid you not I cried, I cried, I cried. I was in the pool, butterflies on my hand… there’s videos of me screaming [laughs]. In that moment Tracy sent me her verse and I was like holy fucking shit. She embodied the whole record through her verse. I knew that firstly, we were on the right path together and secondly, this was going to be the most powerful song. “Ripped Wings” featuring the one and only Tracy De Sá.
I have other friends included in vocals in the closing chapter. It was all ready, but I kept listening and felt like something was missing. It needed the power of more voices, and I went through my contacts of friends who are also artists and musicians to ask everyone to send their vocals. I’m Mexican, so I wanted to have Latinas in the record, bringing the Latin power and fire. This part being sung is “she’s bight as the sun”, what better words to say with that energy.
EW: Can you tell me a bit about the cover, it captures what you said about experiencing both light and darkness so well. Where did the idea come from?
JAY: We shot a different album cover a year ago. The record was supposed to come out last year and we had everything prepared. One month before it was coming out, I was like “no, it’s not ready. It keeps evolving and I feel something, but I don’t think it is where it needs to be.” In hindsight, I wasn’t ready to sing it and present who I am to the world. I was in this process like the last moments of shedding my skin. The last pieces of my skin, my soul, my body were peeling but I wasn’t there yet. When I reworked the record and I finished everything this year, I looked at the cover and I knew it didn’t translate anymore. The vulnerability and the intimacy that I wanted wasn’t coming through, the truth (just like the title of the first song) wasn’t coming through. I wanted to show more pain, strength, power, resilience. Honestly, I picked up the phone, I was like “guys, we need to reshoot everything this week”, and we did. We see this angel on the roof, she fell from the sky but she’s looking up and wondering why. She’s afraid, you can feel the fear in her eyes and see the strain in her pose but she’s not giving up. Her journey is just starting. That’s the story I wanted for the image. We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but if we have a great cover then we might as well.
EW: If it’s meant to be its meant to be, and here we are. I wish you the best and everyone should go listen to it!
Later,
