Bunch Of Fives: Jay Moussa-Mann

Singer-songwriter Jay Moussa-Mann drops her latest single, One Summer’s Day. This latest offering tells a tale of a girl learning to drive in Turkey one Summer and meeting a guy who offers to let her borrow his very fancy car. It’s a euphoric and anthemic, eighties-inspired pop offering, which paints a nostalgic soundscape of sun-drenched months full of dreams and unrequited love.

Here, Jay tells us about five tracks which inspired the song…

This Kiss – Faith Hill
I’m a country girl at heart. I still can’t believe I hadn’t ever heard this song until this year! I became obsessive over it, listening to it again and again in the car. I was driving to an event I was feeling a little stressed and anxious about and this song just made me feel unstoppable (haha!)  It made me want to write a song that felt like freedom. I didn’t want One Summer’s Day to be too country in production because this collection of songs all have an 80s/90s synth feel running through but I did want to at least try and evoke the same emotions This Kiss did when I first heard it. I went and listened to one of the songwriters, Beth Nielsen Chapman playing it on acoustic guitar at a conference on YouTube. It gave me a better understanding of the song structure and how something really dark can be the spark for an incredibly upbeat song.

John Hughes Movie – Maisie Peters
I love Maisie Peter’s songs because they always have this edge to them, as if she’s making fun of herself. I really relate to that. I’ve always used songwriting to poke fun at myself and others but it goes over most people’s heads. A song all about the dangers of romanticisation, John Hughes Movie inspired the tongue-in-cheek theme of One Summer’s Day, which is I confused my feelings for a car for the guy who owned it!  JHM also has a really catchy hook, something I’m always aspiring to in my own songs.

All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift
I became a Taylor fan in her 1989 era so I hadn’t actually ever heard All Too Well until the re-recorded version in 2021. I loved how it felt like a novella, so much sensory language and world painting. It made me think about the fact that I’d never tried writing about any of my own breakups before and I wanted to give it a go and try painting a picture of a life I once knew. Ironically, what I ended up writing about was the relationship that didn’t actually ever end up happening!

Something To Talk About – Bonnie Raitt
“People are talkin’, talkin’ bout people” – The lyrics and theme of Something To Talk About track inspired me more than the melody or genre, although, again if you go and listen to the writer Shirley Eikhard’s version on YouTube when she plays it acoustically, it’s probably closer to something I would write. Anyway, I was really intrigued by the idea of telling a story about a relationship that hasn’t really happened but is still causing gossip. Although I didn’t end up delving into that side of One Summer’s Day, it was a huge part of that story. There was a friendship, which actually ended up being ruined by gossip and people talking about it. Maybe that side of the story is for another song.

Simarik – Tarkan
Tarkan is one of the most famous pop singers in Turkey. His songs brought a perfect balance of traditional Turkish music with Western pop so he has left a massive legacy on the Turkish pop scene. I spent my childhood in Turkey and when I hear Tarkan it immediately transports me to a place of joy, playing with my friends in the outside swimming pool in our little town of Selcuk, evenings with family and friends eating by the sea, hearing the waves lap against the sand somewhere in the dark, coming home sunburnt and tired, BBQs in the forest, always together with chatty, loud people. And dancing! All the dancing!  One Summer’s Day is an ode to all of that.