Stephen Jaymes Emerges with Captivating Video for "Virus Vaccine"
A must see!
Stephen Jaymes' latest release "VIRUS VACCINE" is a nuanced ballad that has dreamy undertones and a wee country twang. Jayme’s has a deep and strong voice and the message of the song balances humor and poignancy. The song delves into the complexities of self-perception and the pitfalls of attempting self-cure. The narrative centers on a man who mistakenly believes that he can overcome his emotional turmoil by immersing himself in it, aiming to develop a sort of immunity. However, as Jaymes insightfully points out, "you can't become immune to yourself." Pivoting from the shadowy noir of the first two singles, “Virus Vaccine,” provides a different turn.
Singer-songwriter Stephen Jaymes might be best described as Charles Bukowski ditching whiskey for psychedelic mushrooms while feverishly ingesting Rumi poetry and Phil Ochs records. The LA-based artist is a punk poet; a wounded-romantic; a sonic noir auteur and a post-apocalyptic hippie. Today, Stephen welcomes a new era of sharply-focused creativity with a series of four singles seeding a path to a debut full-length album. “My songs are searching for truth and authenticity, but not always both at the same time,” Stephen says. “I try to refuse all invitations to tell the big lies, and then I see what’s left.” Stephen is a self-contained artist. He is a gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, and producer. His music exudes the stylish playfulness of Prince with clever turns of phrases and occasional funk flashes, but it also conjures the stateliness and mystique of Leonard Cohen.
“Virus Vaccine”, is not about Covid-19. Or any other virus. Maybe this fact is not so surprising after Jaymes’s last single, ‘Tokyo’ turned out not to be about Japan. Instead, “Virus Vaccine” is about wrongheaded, self-administered cures. As the protagonist of the swinging, wry ballad stumbles down his chain of thought, he valiantly resolves to stick with something painful in order to grow immunity to it. But that something isn’t a virus; it’s something in his personal life. Is this the proverbial thing that, not killing him, is making him stronger? Or is he like a misguided person who, deathly allergic to strawberries, decides to eat a plate of them to get over it? “I’m gonna make this virus my vaccine,” he declares, but then says “It’s killing me now, you know what I mean?” Wounded souls don’t always know if they mean that line literally. “There are so many great examples of political issues being used as metaphors for personal relationships. Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen are inspirations here, and so is Elvis Costello, who was going to name the classic ‘Armed Forces’ album ‘Emotional Fascism’. I think two rules of human behavior are: we think we know what’s good for us, and we’re almost always wrong. You can see this from the bedroom to the billionaire boardrooms. And when it doesn’t involve widespread tragedy, it’s actually pretty funny. Our protagonist is curing himself to death, and I find that very modern and sadly hilarious.”
Catch the new video, out today.
Freelance Writer
Emily Hinde