Phainopepla’s music can most easily be described by the bird of the same name. Although the phainopepla is known to travel throughout the summer from the Sonoran Desert of the Southwest to California, its specific migrations are relatively unknown and inconsistent. Like the phainopepla, Jake Morris began his life in Tucson, AZ, playing small local rock clubs and jazz gigs, eventually migrating to California in adulthood. Now based in Oakland, the multi-instrumentalist/producer experiments with the marriage of electronic beats and pop sensibilities, resulting in a blend of sounds that transcends specific genre. He creates music that represents the ebbs and flows of emotion that we experience throughout our lives: from hard-hitting indie rock to solitary acoustic strums; from house and techno inspired four-on-the-floor beats to soft falsetto sung over traditional jazz chords and structures. While he may find himself lost within the world that he built in Phainopepla, he is unrestricted by any musical expectation.

Ficus is following