Roxane Reddy Releases Debut Album, Jaywalking
Montreal-based singer-songwriter Roxane Reddy releases her debut solo album entitled Jaywalking, produced in collaboration with Charles-David Dubé (Le Havre, BAAB).
This intense yet velvety LP represents the view we have on life after overcoming depression. The eight-piece album, recorded at Studio Pierre Marchand, is a brilliant blend of jazz, progressive rock, and Disney-like songwriting. It charms and confronts, moves, and mobilizes, but most of all, it brings the listener on a journey where the answer to all challenges is always authenticity.
Mostly bilingual (anglophone/francophone), Jaywalking also features a version of the traditional Gaelic Irish piece Eleanóir a Rún in honor of the artist’s roots. Roxane notably cites Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, Esperanza Spalding, Tori Amos, Jacob Collier, Moses Sumney, Snarky Puppy, Genesis, and Cécile McLorin Salvant as her musical influences.
To mark the album release, she also unveils a music video directed by Alex Beauséjour for the master song “Wherever I’ll Go (Jaywalking).” Combining slow and fast paces, it illustrates the calm power we gain after defeating obstacles, although the fervor in us is only dormant. The video displays the vintage Beat Generation-inspired aesthetic that characterizes Roxane Reddy’s universe. Mysterious and dark, the song gives us the impression of being frozen in time, embodying the mental back and forth between our present mindset and memories of past traumas.
Roxane will next be playing at the jazzahead! festival in Bremen, Germany.
Listen to Jaywalking below and learn more about Roxane via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello 🙂 My name is Roxane Reddy, and I am a singer-songwriter from Montréal. I have spent the last few years concentrating on my folk duo named Andromède, but have always kept my passion for jazz music close through performance and collaborations. This year marks my first real step on the jazz scene as I released my first album, Jaywalking, as well as a debut album with the Greenhouse Ensemble, a jazz collective I am a part of. I am a very intense, paradoxal, honest, and loving human being, and those characteristics are definitely reflected in my music.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Jaywalking was released on April 21st, 2023, about four to six years after the pieces were composed. It is a heartwarming yet confronting album that features eight pieces co-produced with Charles-David Dubé (Le Havre). Fundamentally jazz because of its harmony, odd rhythms, and improvisational sections, the album also presents progressive rock and French song aesthetics. It speaks of depression and pain as something in the rear-view mirror: something that follows us, but that isn’t a real obstacle in our way anymore. I am very proud of this release and very humbled by it. I think the time I took before releasing this music gave it an unexpected but defining depth.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
Sometimes I say that we are two people inside me, and I think the other one – the one I live with but don’t fully control – is my main inspiration as it always goes through a whirlwind of emotions. I am quite a dreamer, and I take in a lot of other people’s feelings: I often get inspired by what I understand of their moods. I then translate it into metaphors that resonate with me, often using elements of nature: water, trees, and mud.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
For now, I’m concentrating on composing new music and arranging my show for a smaller band. I would like to present my music in Quebec City and Toronto by the end of 2023!
What’s your goal for 2023?
My main goal was to release this long-awaited album, which has been accomplished! I intend to compose new music during the rest of the year and find space for new projects.