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.
My songs are searching for truth and authenticity, but not always both at the same time. I try to refuse all invitations to tell the big lies, and then I see what’s left.”
A gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, and producer, Stephen is a self-contained artist. 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.
Stephen writes with a strutting, folk-punk songwriting sensibility. In his songs, he brings to life shadowy characters and dark alternate realities in order to highlight the brightness underneath with literate and lacerating lyrics.
His mixture of highbrow thematic writing and down and dirty rock n’ roll living makes Stephen the ultimate unfamed celebrity—a rebel-hearted poet soaking up the dark magic of Hollywood and prompting bystanders to snap their fingers as they try to remember his name.
Stephen’s voice draws comparisons to Iggy Pop, Scott Walker, Ian McCulloch, and Gordon Lightfoot. His musical style has been compared to Elvis Costello, Beck, and T Rex. His lyrical style is reminiscent of Nilsson, Phil Ochs, and Leonard Cohen.
Stephen was born north of Detroit, growing up in a house of varied musical tastes. His father played 1960s and 1970s folk while his older brother blasted new wave and punk acts like Ramones and Elvis Costello. At eight, his school bus driver salvaged an acoustic guitar and taught him how to play the songs he was listening to.
Stephen stoked his passion for songwriting while attending Harvard University by performing sharp-witted They Might Be Giants-esque songs about topics like relativity theory. Privately, however, Stephen was writing sincere songs influenced by Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan.
After graduating, Stephen moved to Prague and busked in the streets with other expat songwriters. He taught himself to fingerpick the early Leonard Cohen catalog in a rented room, living a life very much like the one reflected in those songs.
He then moved to LA where, for a few years, he performed regularly at cafes, picking up a loyal following before going on a self-imposed hiatus from public performance.
In the summer of 2023, Stephen solidified his reputation as a gifted singer/songwriter successfully blending the folk and punk traditions by releasing a trio of breakout singles and captivating videos. That work deftly carved out his niche as “a punk poet and a post-apocalyptic hippie” (Modern Mystery).
The first single, Chief Inspector, was called a “psychedelic noir thriller” by Divine Magazine, who observed that it “delves deep into the noir history of Los Angeles, weaving a psychological tale of a man attempting to detach himself from his own shadow, only to confront the consequences of suppressing his true identity.” Indie Artist Buzz noted the track “has a mischievous air that’s addictive as well as it is free flowing…[a] story of a detective who becomes the hunted but has a larger meaning.” Modern Mystery explained, “to evoke the LA noir imagery used in the song’s lyrics, the singer and the video’s producer Ross Kolton, were drawn to the iconic 1973 Robert Altman classic ‘The Long Goodbye’ for its visually unique take on noir in the sunshine.”
Next, Stephen released Tokyo, a song that “explodes and makes the listener want to sing along” (Roadie Music). Modern Mystery called it “the folk rock hit we needed,” and summarized, “It’s a knock on the window of reality, beckoning listeners to join him on a journey to a magical place that two people create together, even in the face of climate destruction.” Indie Artist Buzz astutely noted, “In a fun twist, ‘Tokyo’ has nothing to do with the city.”
Then, dropped as the third and final single for the summer, Virus Vaccine: a Newmanesque ballad that wasn’t about Covid at all, but rather about a man misapplying the idea that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It delivered a message “as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally resonant, offering a mirror to our collective struggle with self-understanding” (Vents Magazine), and a video that saw Stephen embracing exposure therapy to questionable effect.
After 2023’s flurry of work, Stephen has continued his momentum by releasing four more singles in 2024, beginning with Last Predictable Summer. “Stephen Jaymes has once again proved that profound messages can come wrapped in irresistible tunes,” was the response from Independent Artist Buzz. It was dubbed “A folk-punk anthem for our times” by Subba-Cultcha. So far, the song’s dire but singable predictions have only resonated more true. It was released, after all, before hurricanes Helene and Milton.
After Last Predictable Summer came one of Stephen’s most personal songs, Saving Daylight. Triggered by an extended separation from his partner resulting from a family emergency, it explored the psychological experience of a child separating from his family to go to school and grow up. “The new single comes with an evocative video,” said Modern Mystery, “taking us on a journey that merges personal memory with a sense of solitude and reflection.“
Stephen released The Evidence Against Her on October 11. The song explores the inner monologue of a man who considers the possibility that his Jungian anima — the feminine side of his personality and his unconscious muse — has turned against him.
“It’s a haunting track that blurs the line between reality and dreamscape,” said Vents Magazine. “By the time the song reaches its wordless chorus, it feels like the dam has finally broken, releasing all the bottled-up tension in a rush of emotion,” was the reaction from Subba-Cultcha. “The crescendo hits hard, with the music swelling into a swirling, chaotic storm before pulling back into reflective stillness.“
To close out 2024 and pay a little tribute to the season, Stephen released Stranded on November 30. It’s a song about being ready to leave but never going.
“Stranded isn’t just a song about waiting,” noted Vocal Media. “It’s a clever, infectious anthem that digs into the deeper feeling of inertia so many people are wrestling with these days. Whether it’s the stop start chaos of daily life, the world spinning its wheels, or a more existential sense of time looping back on itself, Jaymes captures this with his signature poetic wit, writing lyrics that are as sharply observant as they are relatable.”
Prior to the string of songs released over 2023 and 2024, Stephen released a brace of singles and EPs, including the Sweet Violin EP. Stephen’s creative continuum has propelled him from a lo-fi folk troubadour à la Palace to a refined songwriter with more polish but no less edge.
Stephen had embraced the first wave of digital home recording early, after landing in LA. Pretty quickly, however, he felt his songwriting was losing to engineering rabbit holes, and he turned his back on digital home recording as well as announced public performances. There are volumes of songs, mostly on cassette, that chart his creative evolution after he ended his public performances.
In 2008, Stephen got a first generation iPhone and jailbroke it to download an early four-track recording app. This was years before you could launch GarageBand on your iPhone, and the simple app replicated the lo-fi charm of a cassette four-track. Enchanted by the paradox of digital recording sounding like hiss-filled cassette demos, he commenced producing and recording his library of music.
The songs Stephen has been releasing lately are teasing the arrival of his first full-length LP, King Jaymes. It is currently scheduled to drop in the spring of 2025. And with it, Stephen has finally achieved his sonic ideals.
I’m collaborating with an international mixing engineer who is a true kindred spirit and an absolute master of of the art. He really gets my music, and together we’ve achieved the sound I’ve always heard in my head.”
