Arjuna Oakes - The Love That I Feel (Official Music Video)
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// NEW RELEASES //
Catch Me
19th September 2024
There's a sense of longing captured in the floating peacefulness of Catch Me. Drawing as ever from jazz, in Arjuna’s lush sonic universe, rich with strings and soaring flute we can hear inspiration from artists like Moses Sumney and Kadhja Bonet.
“I can remember the day I started writing Catch Me in the middle of winter 2019. I had not long moved to Wellington from Auckland (in New Zealand). I was just improvising at the piano waiting for a piano student to arrive and suddenly this song starts to present itself. I had the melody ringing through my head the whole time teaching the lesson. As soon as we finished I grabbed a notebook. I walked around the botanic gardens just down the road, and wrote all of the lyrics. I rushed home and recorded a demo with just keyboard and vocals. All of the backing vocals and vocal effects you hear in the song were from that original demo.”
The Love That I Feel
25th JULY 2024
Arjuna's second release on London label Albert's Favourites is a Latin-Jazz-Soul scorcher complete with an infectious groove, catchy melody and Saxophone solo that will get in your head.
"'The Love That I Feel' is a song about finding it difficult to explain your emotions."
"I think the lyrics came out organically as a response to the shifting chords, it felt unsteady so the lyrics became about finding it hard to explain your emotions. As a musician, it's easiest for me to express myself through my craft, but sometimes trying to explain certain emotions through words can be difficult and miss the point. I wanted to capture that feeling in this song and lean into the more surreal elements of the lyrics, which ironically tries to explain too much.”
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Motel
30th May 2024
Motel is Arjuna's first release on UK-based indie label Albert's Favourites, and is a song about feeling stuck in life but using that pent-up energy to propel yourself into the future.
"The imagery of being stuck in a shitty motel room just felt like it resonated well. I wanted the groove to feel relentless, and the psychedelic production to hint at the darker themes at play."
The deeply infectious drive of this sleazy and delirious beat, dressed up in the false luxury of fender rhodes and glistening synths is hard to put down - and then comes the twist in the tail.
"I had recorded a demo years ago and ended up using the vocal take from it because it had a rawness that I loved. We went into the studio to record drums and bass live. The second half of the song is my homage to D'Angelo and the Soulquarians who've been a big influence on me. It features some incredible kiwi musicians including Sam Notman on drums, Harrison Scholes on bass, Jo Jenkins on guitar and James Macewan on Trumpet."
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