Reflections On Genre And Performance With J*DAVEY

“Genres are a funny little concept aren’t they?” poses Linda Martel, Black country music trailblazer and now, Grammy nominated artist. The notions of genre and how it is constructed are exactly what Solange Knowles set out to challenge with the second installment of Saint Heron’s Eldorado Ballroom Concert Series. The three-day event platformed many stewards of the Black musical tradition, including musical duo J*DAVEY.

J*DAVEY, consisting of vocalist Jack Davey and producer D’LEAU, livened up the Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, October 12th, with their electric, genre-expansive performance. With roots in Los Angeles, coming home to perform at the Los Angeles Philharmonic held additional meaning for the pair.

“To play a show at home in LA and have family in the building, made it even more special. My kid, he really enjoyed it. He thought it was cool to see the fans and people who have followed us for a really long time. He just thinks I’m his mom so he was like, ‘oh, wait, maybe she’s kind of cool.’” Jack quips. 

This performance was all the more impactful for the musical group and fans alike, as it served as a reunion after a seven year hiatus. Through personal journeys, touring with other artists, and settling into their refined sounds, the ensemble provided a connective experience for both dedicated fans and captivated newcomers.  

“This go around, it was really intriguing to be able to disrupt spaces, especially to do something in these spaces that they aren’t typically built for. I feel like it opens up the perspective on how people view what we do,” D’LEAU adds.  

Bringing their style to the concert hall stage was, as Jack simply puts,“really free.” 

“I think that’s where the best performances come out of, and it’s also true to how we’ve always been. We rehearsed, of course, but we were not over rehearsed. Whatever was going to be was in the moment. I think that fits in line with the theme of the show, dissonance and distortion.”

Taking it back to the inception of this collaboration, the duo tells AFROPUNK how a communal connection brought them to the Eldorado Ballroom stage. A member of Saint Heron’s team and friend to Jack, DJ Shabazz reached out to the duo to gauge interest. Jack describes it as, “something that came out of nowhere that just made perfect sense.” 

On putting the pieces together for the performance, D’LEAU depicts it as a natural and organic coming together. “It felt like we were just going to do what we wanted to do. It wasn’t really a lot of ‘how are we going to do it?’ It was more so putting the band together and deciding who was going to be a part of it with us. We had Thundercat on bass, and his dad [Ronald Bruner Sr.] playing drums, and another good friend of ours, Joe August, to play guitar.” Going back to Jack’s point on the homecoming of sorts, it was, quite literally, a family affair.  

She goes on to speak about her intrigue in hearing how their music in such a venue would sound, “With what we do being so heavily electronic and a little harder edged, it was interesting to see how the music translated within that space. It’s an orchestral space, and what we do isn’t necessarily orchestral, so it was nice to hear. [The stage set up] gave it a theatrical element.” 

Reflecting on their unique brand of music, J*DAVEY tries to encapsulate what genre they fall into, if any. “We just had a conversation about this recently, trying to figure out what the genre was. It’s been ever-evolving. It changes all the time, for me, anyway.” Jack begins. 

She brings into context the ideas of dissonance and distortion, and responds to descriptors others have used for their art in the past, such as “dark”: “We’ve always kind of teetered on the idea of, ‘how do you make the beautiful things sound just a little f*cked up?’”

“It’s never been an attempt to fit into anything,” D’LEAU offers. “We just brought all of the influences that we’ve listened to since we were kids into what we were creating. Initially when we were showcasing music, the comment was about it feeling darker. I think dark is really just a description that people gave because it was off kilter, or not easy to understand, or, like you said, dissonance. I’m not even gonna say it wasn’t easy to understand. I think it was just dissonant; something that wasn’t clean. People would have this reaction to it, almost like they didn’t know where to place their own feelings inside of it.” 

This projection of feelings or labels is not an uncommon experience for Black artists, as the group notes. They discuss how Black artists across generations and genres have often been relegated to whatever confining category the mainstream deems appropriate. 

“Back in the day when we signed a deal, we were signed to the rock side of the label, because we were too different for the urban side. Then come to find out, we were too urban for the rock side. Now, there are avenues and platforms where you can be genreless and still find a fanbase. It’s a little easier to digest now, but I think it takes harder work,” Jack explains.

D’LEAU dives into social media’s influence on understanding and defining genre today, “a lot of the subculture around genres have been flattened now because of where the internet and social media are. You’re able to grab aesthetics without necessarily having to be strongly rooted in the skill sets of these subcultures. It’s a lot easier now to be able to make a gumbo of whatever it is you’re doing.” He points to how, on the other hand, this offers Black artists more room to “cross pollinate” with the sounds they have already been engaging with. 

“I also think that Black people will not be able to truly escape being projected onto,” he describes, in terms of defining themselves, for themselves. “It’s always a case of ‘we need to figure this out.’ But why do we have to? Why can’t we just be what we are, and everybody else can be everything else?” 

While the outward projections can cause confusion, one fact, for J*DAVEY, is clear: They have remained consistent to their music and approach in the face of an ever-changing media and internet landscape. 

“Why would we try to keep up if, in fact, we are the people who have pioneered something?” D’LEAU states definitively. 

The biggest takeaways, from their Eldorado Ballroom performance and their musical careers thus far, is to not take things too seriously. “We don’t take ourselves that seriously, and that’s why it’s still fun. We want people to appreciate what we do, and not take the genre stuff so seriously, because it really is an amalgamation of all the things that we love and enjoy,” the producer concludes.

Allowing Black artists to create from a place of organic exploration is ultimately what will usher the musical space forward and allow legacies to live on. For J*DAVEY, Saint Heron’s Eldorado Ballroom was this exact act in practice.