kitchen is the new project of a young man from Rochester named Jame, a bedroom pop artist who lists acts such as Attic Abasement, Julia Brown, Beat Happening, Frankie Cosmos and The Microphones as influences. For the last two years he has been making “textured, meditative, and melancholic songs” under the moniker Loner(s), but he found himself wanting a change. “I basically just changed the name because I thought the loner(s) was a stupid name,” he says, “[kitchen is named] after the novel by Banana Yoshimoto. Things got out of hand or something and now it is the name of the whole project. It’s not really different except that hopefully it is more subtle and just generally less shitty”.
Jame’s debut album as kitchen, titled town, will be released early next year on Drunk With Love Records, a partnership that arose due to a mutual appreciation between Jame the DWL’s Jake Bellissimo. Despite the name change, the main features of his music remain, although thematically things are a little different. The label describe it thusly, “[the music of kitchen] feels reactionary, instead of looking at life events directly… [it] focuses on the moments in-between”. The album sounds very much intimate and personal, inspired by the day-to-day life of coming of age in Rochester, New York. As Jame described to us,
“Everything I write is about people I know and being upset about relationships with my friends. The weather is a big influence too and really affects my productivity. Everything is an influence in some way probably.”
Today we’re really happy to unveil the first single from the album. ‘November Prayer’ opens with gently strummed acoustic guitar and a plaintive piano line, all enveloped in a soft hissy fuzz. Jame’s vocals are understated but sincere as he sings:
“All I need is a fog machine
all eyes away from me
Find my way outAll I need snow on the dead brown leaves
cold that won’t let me be
hold my heart down”
There’s also a moment of beauty just past the minute mark, when a great warm drone swells, giving the whole thing a deep texture, and hinting at a nostalgic poignancy despite the slow and downbeat atmosphere. Envelop yourself below:
town will be released digitally and on cassette via Drunk With Love Records on the 23rd of January.