Jack Swing is a 4-piece Pittsburg-based rock band that combines the dreaminess of indie with the grooviness of funk, and soul of blues. The band consists of Isaiah Ross (Vox, guitar, bass), Rowdy Kanarek (Vox guitar, bass) Isaiah Small (keys), and Alex Nelson (drums).

It begins with a nostalgic scene: The band members are driving in a fire-engine-red car. The light is warm-hued, and the camera is blurred. A chill lead guitar line intertwines with hand percussion, creating the seed of the sound.

The song makes us drift to different feelings, like a piece of wood might float on a gentle wave. However, we always come back to the same familiar place: The beginning. And the lead guitar line becomes more and more alluring each time it returns…

Twangy funky vibing guitars begin to blend with bright-timbred chimes and undulating bass statements. Visually, the sun sets and rises as the group gets closer to their destination. As the soul-searching lyrics repeat, the visual zooms out and we realize that the car is now driving through the ocean…

“Like Water” is a flowingly wistful single which surrounds our psyche, and causes feelings of love, longing, and playful curiosity about the universe to rise.

As the song fades, the visuals close to a sunset. The final notes, a delicate chime, leave us feeling at ease…

Jack Swing is set to release their first full-length album in 2025. ‘Like Water’ will be the lead single and title track off the band’s debut album, and allows listeners to have a moment of reflection amidst the bands’ high-voltage LP.

Q&A

You mentioned your music video being a labor of love. Can you tell us a bit more about the process of making it?

Absolutely. A big theme with everything we’ve done with the band has been family and friendship. When coming up with this idea it only made sense to work with people we have known and worked with for years. Matt (Matthew Williams, Director/Editor) and I came up with the idea one evening probably a year and a half ago. Once we got the ball rolling on this we immediately reached out to Raffael DiLullo, director of photography on “Get What’s Mine for You” and cemented the plan. We borrowed my dad’s car and worked with the good folks over at Tech 25, all of whom we’ve worked with on various projects over the years. All of this to say, it was a very comfortable environment. Which I believe was crucial to pull off such a ridiculous idea.

Is the nostalgic blurred effect in the videography a lens cover with Vaseline on it, or something else?

I unfortunately know very little about the videography side of things. I reached out to Matt with this question and am gonna do my best to decipher his answer. Basically it’s a digital effect that he came up with by doubling the footage and then on one of the doubles he blurs the image, lowers the opacity, and does a different color correction. Layering those ultimately creates that effect. I hope my explanation did that justice.

As for the album art: What is the meaning behind the jaguar in water?

For the album art we reached out to our old friend and collaborator, Matthew Vituccio. I sent him the album and gave him free reign as far as making whatever the music inspired him to. As always, I loved his direction and we rolled with it.

What was the first lyric or line of music you guys wrote for “Like Water”?

Like Water is one of those songs that came to me super naturally. So looking back I do think the first line of the song, “Tides is rising, don’t you think?” was what came to me first.

What is your relationship to cosmic forces and substances? The song (as a whole) feels very dreamy and positive.

I’m definitely big on cosmic forces. That line I suppose is more me just referencing their power and what feels like influence that I experience. I definitely have a unique relationship to substances, though that’s not what I’m referring to here. The night I wrote this I was hanging out with Rowdy and a couple dear friends and it was one of those nights where everything in the universe was absolutely correct. I think I’m referring to the fact that we were smoking weed in that moment? But basically the vibe is those special moments existing while the world is on fire around you.

What was it like working with Jonah Handler on this tune?

Jonah plays on the entire album and was a consistent member of the band during this period. He is one of my oldest friends and truly a pleasure to make music with. We ultimately just went different directions but I’m sure we’ll play together more in the future and I look forward to it.

How has your songwriting and rehearsal process changed in 6 years (since “Take the Night”) and how has it stayed the same?

That’s a tough question simply because I feel like we’ve grown so much since then that it’s almost hard to remember exactly how we did things then. The biggest thing I’d say is we have a lot more experience now. We have been working together and writing songs together for so long that we have such a deep understanding of how we all play. Things have become a lot more natural and collaborative. This growth also allows for us to achieve clearer intentions within songs. The biggest difference truly just being the experience we’ve gained in these past 6 years.

LINK:
https://linktr.ee/jackswingpgh