INTERVIEW: Me Lost Me

Image by: Amelia Read

They say experience breeds confidence. There are ‘fledgling’ debuts, and ‘difficult’ second and third albums – but thereafter, musicians are seemingly expected to have nailed their craft to a tee. It’s an assumption which weighed heavily on Jayne Dent during the creation of This Material Moment; her fourth Me Lost Me full-length, and by some stretch her most challenging project to date.

“The last album [2023’s RPG] did quite well, but then there’s always that pressure to go one better,” she reflects. “It’s exhausting – having to constantly get press, do social media and ask people to listen – and a lot of the time it’s not financially viable.” At one stage, this stress almost caused the project to be scrapped entirely: “I didn’t write this one to sell or achieve specific things,” Jayne asserts. “There’s a lot more of myself in this album than the others, and because of that I felt quite protective of it. It’s hard to keep exposing your soul. I feel like I’m becoming more vulnerable with every album, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to put something this personal out for scrutiny.”

Fortunately, Jayne’s conviction – and a few wise words from engineer Sam Grant (“When I told him I thought I hated it, he said ‘This is good, you’re just too close to it!”) saw This Material Moment blossom into Me Lost Me’s most immersive, and quite possibly strongest work to date – quite the achievement for an artist whose electrifying electronic, folk and voice experiments had already produced some of the finest music the North East has heard in many a year.

“Now that I’m four albums in, I’m trying not to simply cram in everything I do. Instead I’m enjoying honing in on specific elements or things I’ve written and picking them apart. I approached this one more like an exhibition space for ideas – the way I was writing became the concept, as opposed to the subject matter.”

I approached this one like an exhibition space for ideas – the way I was writing became the concept, as opposed to the subject matter

Much of that inspiration was sourced back in 2022, when Jayne travelled to the French Pyrenees to partake in CAMP: a week of workshops helmed by internationally acclaimed musicians/composers Julia Holter and Tashi Wada.

“It was a really beautiful reset. We did a lot of exercises to break out of our normal writing habits. Julia’s workshops were about using words as a more malleable material, and playing with them like you would with a melody. I’d often select random words from other texts and use them as stimulus. It’s less about writing a narrative from beginning to end, and more about writing evocatively, with meaning and with feeling.”

Tashi’s sessions, meanwhile, focused on alternate tunings – an influence heard vividly throughout This Material Moment, not least on the eerie, overcast lead single Compromise! “He thought it was a shame we’re reduced to just 12 notes – think of the depth of expression you could achieve by exploring between them! We’re so used to hearing those 12 notes that introducing a bit of microtonality can really change the atmosphere – it makes things tense and uncomfortable. I really leant into that with this album.”

Conversely, This Material Moment also houses A Painting of the Wind, perhaps the most conventional – and certainly among the most beautiful – pieces to enter the Me Lost Me repertoire. “I’d wanted to write a song about how it’s really hard to write things for ages – and then suddenly it just came out and I wrote it in a day. I felt self-conscious that it was a bit ‘songy.’ I tried at various points to make it more glitchy and experimental, but eventually decided that if I’d written a piano ballad, then fine!”

Elsewhere, standouts range from crystalline serenity of Still Life to the climatic, almost chanted Vanishing Point, plus a capella number A Souvenir, which assembles a choir of local folk luminaries in Janice Burns, Sam Baxter and Holly Clarke.

All – except for the latter, plus Jayne’s own solo vocal, Vanishing Point – are once again enriched by the presence of clarinettist Faye MacCalman and electric/double-bassist John Pope, as well as first-time Me Lost Me contributor Ewan Mackenzie on drums. “The most exciting thing about working with them is trusting them – they know their instruments better than I ever could,” Jayne raves. “I’m excited to have drums on for the first time, too. It felt right for this album – I’m getting a lot better at giving songs what they need , and they lend these ones a nice organic sound. I’m no longer trying to force them in any particular direction. It feels quite freeing to have done that.”

This Material Moment is released on Friday 27th June. The album is launched with a full-band show at Live Theatre, Newcastle on Friday 18th July, and with a solo instore at Reflex Records on release day.