‘Music is my whole life’
'We hope that it makes the listener feel a sense of comfort in scary and unfamiliar times in their lives and to know that they’re not alone in this world.'
Jonah Sirtes remembers being a four-year-old preschooler dreaming of being a rockstar. While Sirtes admits that the vision has changed over the years, he acknowledged that “music is my whole life”.
“During primary at Emanuel, I used to jam every day with friends in the music rooms at recess and lunch (and sometimes after school) as well as being heavily involved in the music program,” he recalled. “When I moved to Moriah in year 7, that love for music only intensified as I joined new bands and made new friends who I never stopped making music with. I was a member of all the bands and was always seen skipping class to hang out in the band room.”
Sirtes told The AJN that music has been a constant in what he referred to as “an otherwise wild and crazy life”.
But, he said, he loves it so much as it connects people from all over the world.
“[It] has the power to make you feel all different kinds of emotions and share mutual experiences through sound,” he explained.
Sirtes has been writing songs since he was as young as seven years old but being self-conscious of his lyric writing and voice, he struggled with performing his own songs.
“I’d perform other people’s songs no issues, but when it came time for me to write something, I would get a huge block. All throughout school, I’d play around writing stuff but never releasing it,” he recalled. Then he did work experience at Church Street Studios at Camperdown. When he wasn’t cleaning stuff, he recalled, he began to dabble in recording.
“I had a small studio space to myself for the week where I wrote, recorded and produced my first single, Sunrise Montage,” he said. “That was back in 2017 and I’ve kept going at it ever since.”
Now, almost a decade later, Sirtes has decided the time is right to finally show what he can do by releasing his song, recorded with fellow musician, Nanor, called FADED/JADED.
“Back in December 2023, I was doom scrolling on TikTok when I came across the most amazing voice I’d heard in a long time. Her name is Nanor and she’s an artist who at the time had no music out, and I knew that I had to be the first person to work professionally with her,” Sirtes explained. “I reached out and told her that I needed to produce a song of her singing, so over the next 18 months we met almost every Sunday in our spare time to write and record what is now known as FADED/JADED.
Nanor grew up playing classical piano and like Sirtes, she has also been making music for as long as she can remember. She describes her music as personal and honest, and her way of making sense of things.
While the process took a while, Sirtes and Nanor said they wanted to make sure that everything was as good as they could make it.
Sirtes explained that the track embodies sounds of R&B, soul and funk, creating a unique sound that explores the emotions that are often felt at the end of a relationship – “you’re scared to let go but also scared to hold on,” Sirtes said.
“We hope that it makes the listener feel a sense of comfort in scary and unfamiliar times in their lives and to know that they’re not alone in this world. The chords are repetitive to show the sometimes drawn-out process of trying to make up your mind for hard decisions, and the large use of instrumentation is representative of the many thoughts you can feel and how overwhelming it can be sometimes.”
The single has already garnered rave reviews, with listeners calling the song catchy, groovy and vibey, and the kind of song that can be listened to in every situation.
And for Sirtes, while this may be the first single that he has actually released, it’s just the beginning.
“Stay tuned for more music, [that’s] always in the works.”
FADED/JADED is now available to stream on all streaming platforms.
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