U.K. singer-songwriter Jaz Karis’ debut album SAFE FLIGHT, out today, Friday, Sept. 20, takes listeners on a cyclical journey through sounds, memories and continents that expand upon traditional R&B, breezy acoustic instrumentation and loose afropop — all guided by the singer’s supple, lush voice.
Built around the concept of tracking Karis’ travels between her native London and Los Angeles, with occasional detours to Ghana, Barbados and New York. The record’s title arrives midway through the album on the interlude “WATER,” on which a voice recording from a friend of Karis’ wishes her a safe flight, something she’d heard countless times from loved ones amid her travels. The theme of travel is spread throughout the project, accompanied by a strong presence of sentimentality as nostalgia (as clearly evidenced in the album’s intro track of the same name). On both the opening and closing tracks, Karis reminisces on imagery from her past, from skinny jeans to crayons. An excess of sentimentality can infect music, making the result treacly, but Karis is careful to allow herself these pit stops briefly before pivoting back to her in-flight contemplations.
Karis will be commemorating the record’s release, and nodding to the travel between the locations that informed the album’s theme, by performing two shows this November in LA and London on Nov. 10 and Nov. 22, respectively. Ahead of SAFE FLIGHT’s release, Karis spoke with Melodic Magazine about her knack for nostalgia, crafting her debut LP and elevating her art.
There’s a saying that artists spend their whole life creating their debut album. Do you feel like that rings true for this project?
I think I would have to disagree. Maybe in the sense [that] everything else has prepared me to do this, but in terms of the music itself, I think this felt ready and it felt separate [from] everything else I had done before.
How do you think you approached this differently than your past work?
I think the quality control for this project was the highest I’ve ever had. When I made a song, I knew automatically if it would be on [the album] or not. It’s like a quality control test I just had in my head, and I think the way all of this sounds to me is cohesive, and just set the bar in comparison to what I had done before.
There’s a cyclical nature to the record, starting from the first track “NOSTALGIA (Intro)” to the closer “PRAYER,” in which you are reminiscing on some other aspects and memories. I’m wondering if it was intentional to make things come full circle.
Oh, one hundred percent. There’s definitely a storyline to be followed if you listen to it in order. I’ve purposely chosen this order, not just for sound, but because of the story that’s being told. So, you’re absolutely right with that.
The album’s namesake derives from a voice memo recording at the midpoint of the record, on the song “WATER (Interlude).” What was the thought behind including that and where did it come from?
I ironically got that voice note from a friend and an amazing producer just before my second to last trip to LA. I was rushing to pack the next day, and he randomly sent me this voice note, and I literally had to stop packing because it made me so emotional. In the voice he ended up saying the album name, which he had no idea [about yet], and I just felt like it was so special. It didn’t even come across to me to use it on the album until a few weeks later. I was listening to the interlude, and I was like, ‘Wow, this would be perfect.’ So I begged him to let me chop it up and put it there and he agreed.
Were there any songs that were more difficult to complete? And on the flip side of that, were there any that came really quickly?
I actually have a rule [that] if a song takes me longer than two sessions to finish, it’s not for me. There might have been tweaks that we’ve come back and fixed but the bulk of the songs were always created either in one or two sessions. I think “SIMS CASTAWAY” was my easiest one to make. That one was a pretty fun experience. It was literally just me recording myself, so I had a blast making that one and I made it really fast.
If you had to pick an ideal setting for a listener to hear SAFE FLIGHT, what would it be?
I think on a journey in the car, or on a plane. That’s my favorite place to listen to and I’ve listened to it over and over again, I think it just makes you feel like you’re a main character [laughs].
Is there anything that you hope listeners take away from listening to the album?
I hope people take away the fact that it’s okay that [things are] not always good. One of the biggest things I’ve learned through this [process] is [about] self-reflection. If you want to change anything, it starts from looking inwards, as cliche as that sounds. I hope it makes people look inwards [and] be accepting of whatever they find.
Keep up with Jaz Karis: Spotify / X / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / YouTube
