A peak at what I'm thinking and feeling, and what the future holds. Check it out before my first full length drops this summer. Purchase on iTunes.

All songs written, recorded and produced by: Jackie Kamel
Vocals recorded by: Samuel O'Sullivan 
Mixed and Mastered by: Samuel O'Sullivan 

All Rights Reserved Jackie Kamel 2020

Real in the Light

This is my first full length album which was due to be released around this time, but because of COVID, I was unable to finish the mastering process.
What you hear is essentially almost done.
The biggest difference between this and what it will sound like ultimately, is that this sound can be best enjoyed on headphones, or car speakers...but there may be some technical imperfections when played on bigger or really small speakers. 

Essentially, it's like getting a manicure, but without the top coat of shine. The color and design is all there, but it doesn't shine like you're used to. It's still good, still enjoyable. But it's the closest you can get before it sounds like it's actually a record that you'd hear on the radio.

The tracks that say (Master) are actually fully mastered (polished) and all but one have been previously released as singles or on an EP.

The majority of changes that this album needs to incur essentially includes a series of tweaks to levels and other engineering tidbits (compression, gain, filters, volume leveling, sound layering, and panning) tiny things that make it perfect. The major changes that would occur is mostly me redoing the vocals in a professional studio as opposed to the dinky set up I have at home. It sounds good now, but when you compare it later, you'll hear the difference.

That's why this isn't an official release, and that's why it is limited and on soundcloud only. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy it fully.

Everything You Wanted (unmixed LP)

JK EP

With one final opportunity to make the audience love her again, this song is performed by Gloria Hole, the ironic starlet of the up and coming Providence thriller, Death Drop Gorgeous. 
For a limited time, check out the song featured in the trailer which drops Halloween! And keep your eyes out for the final movie version!

Queen

Demo version of my first single, Impossible

Impossible (Demo)

Do you want to kick ass and take names? Blast this for the next 24 hours and enjoy. It's the first of many to come.

Written and Performed by: Jackie Kamel
Produced by: Jimmy Bones
Mixed & Mastered by: Brian McGee

Difficult

the JK ep

05 Seriously

04 Baby Boomerang

03 Keep In Touch

02 Deathbed

JK B-Sides

TOO IN LOVE Final Demo

HUNTED final demo

This appears on my EP finished, but this is what it was in Demo stage.

BABY BOOMERANG (acoustic demo)

FOR BETTER OR WORSE final demo

FUNERAL Final Demo

FRIENDS Final Demo

MARI Final Demo

This is the hail mary of my album. Originally, it was intended to be the very last track. 
Snow Globe is me giving everything I feel an audience would want: damning truths, and the thing I was known for most in my original music community, which was spoken word.
This is the only song I've ever written the lyrics to entirely separate from the music. The tune of the song would not supersede the message. It's two chords. But it's dark. 

So I basically wrote all the flaws I could think of (of course there are more) that I don't typically talk about. Just poured it out onto a note and hoped the next day I'd be able to write something that could hold it all sensibly. 
The music was inspired by Eminem's Lose Yourself. Even though the song isn't meant to be inspiring, people find honesty inspiring and even though I didn't want it to be fast tempoed, I wanted it to be bold to walk to. As someone in New York, you need something good to walk to at night acting tough, right?

Musically, I just love the fact that there's a timpani. I threw in windshield wipers at the end as a closer because the original opening track of the album (which has been omitted) began with the sound of wipers.
But I like the sound of windshield wipers because it reminds me of wiping tears off your face, when you're a machine. And I wanted to feel mechanical because I feel numb to everything I've expressed.
The bridge was written specifically to include the title of the album. Snow Globe is a metaphor for growing up in a bubble of perfection, but it doesn't snow anymore now does it?
The majority of the song is acapella harmonizing that I was pretty proud of. The whole thing took a day.

What I intend on changing is redoing the vocals and the "ohs!" that shout at you to be less...pleasant sounding if that makes sense. And I wanna bring out that sick percussion.

Snow Globe (Rough Mix)

This one's about losing someone. It'll hit you right in the feels.

Love U More

WHAT I'M WORTH DEMO

ANTHEM RUFF1

Isn't it weird when someone controls you?

Sugar Daddy

All of My Neopets are Dead

Never Mind

Ginger Soul

How it feels to be an American sweetheart.

Anthem (Demo Version)

This is the first song I wrote when I was conceptualizing this album and it's the first song I produced on my own which is why it's the first track.
I wrote parts of it in my head as I was walking through the WTC at night, thinking about a proposition I'd received to live off of someone's money. And even though I couldn't take it (because I'm an idiot) it sort of came together as a thought about the relationships I find myself in and what it is guys see in me. It's about trying to find someone who legitimately cares and isn't just there for a good time. Whether that happens, we don't know. 
The music was very much Lana Del Rey inspired. It was the first song I produced on my own. I wanted it to sound as dark and desperate as I could while maintaining an unenthused tone (without being boring). 
I want to thank Katy Jarzebowski for her help in aiding me to figure out how to work the Logic program during this time and Samuel O'Sullivan for mixing it beautifully for me. 
This song can be found on Spotify and iTunes on the Real in the Light EP.

Sugar Daddy (Master)

I wrote this song during the COVID quarantine. So naturally, it's my favorite (probably because it's the newest) but it's also my most country/boppy sound. 

I wrote it strumming my guitar one night after laying out rat traps and drowning in the midst of a new project that's really taken over my time. 
I wrote it from a perspective of someone putting down their dreams and joining the rest of the crowd, realizing they're human just like everybody else. Sort of an older version of me being able to look back and say "ah weren't we all foolish? Cheers". 
Musically I was channelling Jenny Lewis (See Fernando) and Elvis. I wanted something rockers could jam on. Something that isn't pop. Something that can be fun live. 
I also really wanted something I could feel badass playing. "Floor it like a four speed just for cruisin" makes me think of when my mom found out my first car was a four speed and she said "when she floors it, she's going to ruin it" and my dad was like "yeah but she won't need to do that unless it's an emergency" but the thing is....is I floor it just to cruise. And then I peter out because I gave it my all too quickly. Metaphors. I know, I'm a genius.  Yee haw. 

PS. I don't like to say "fuck" in my songs...especially not in my choruses. (I swear enough IRL) but this just needed it. Felt right. It's the only time you'll hear it repeated in my music.

Gone Gone Gone (Rough Mix)

This is my favorite song to perform live. I wanted a song on the album that reaches out to the dark, dirty, dive bar millennials who suffer every day from being born full of hope in a hopeless world.
I was scrolling facebook one day and read a headline about Neopets and thought "All of my Neopets are dead" and I said "everyone my age can say the same thing" and the song was born 20 minutes later.
The bridge was inspired about the rich people I know whose lives I wish I had, and the people my age who have a goal that is easily mapped out (it's obviously not easy to work in a hospital, but the path has more clarity than that of a musician). 
Neopets is real but it's also a metaphor for the dreams and ideals you clung to as a kid, and how you eventually stopped feeding them along the way.
The cool thing about Neopets is...if you just go back on the website even though it's been 15 years, you can still feed them and they'll come back alive. 
Unfortunately, the website just isn't as fun as it used to be.
Poetic, right?

Musically, I wanted it to be as simple and dark as maybe an old Bright Eyes song. Something simple to produce, without the heavy tinsel of all the electric pop stuff you'll hear on most of the album. It's a song coming from a bullshitter that promises no bullshit.

This song  was mixed and mastered by Samuel O'Sullivan and can be found on iTunes and Spotify on the Real in the Light EP.

All of My Neopets Are Dead (Master)

A year ago I had a nervous break down, came home and wrote this song. It's honestly just how I feel about living right now. This is America. It's that "wine box on a wood floor in an unfurnished apartment with the sounds of war outside" sort of feel. I wanted something simple, and honest. 
I played the chord and immediately came out with "This is the land before time" and decided to make every verse have a pop culture dinosaur reference in it. The Land Before Time being something us younger folks could recall, and Land of the Lost for the generation before us. Dinosaurs are the most popular version of the proof we have that our existence isn't permanent. What happened to them can happen to us. The last of them roamed the earth knowing they were going down. Is that what our generation is?
The bridge talks about global warming and then, as my roommate puts it "the most Jackie Kamel line ever" aka "We could care about each other if revenge wasn't so fucking fun." (it's totally fun, right?) The third verse is me specifically talking to guys in my life who are still in love with me (remember, this wasn't just an existential break down...this includes ALL YALL). It's essentially saying, if you really want to get destroyed again, then sure, we can do this. But, also, you should probably get over the fact that I broke your heart, because at the end of the day, the entire world is on fire. It's not meant to attack any one person or thing, but to unite all of us against the forces that oppress us... without arguing that it's different for different people.
"I wanna get back to the place/where skies weren't the limit, just the blue before space" is probably my favorite line I have in almost all of my music.
"Light up another tree, baby, don't show the whites of your eyes" is my favorite allusion I've made musically. The song is the loudest scream you can't hear in space. Why are we here? What can we do? Why are we doing this? 
It's an anthem for everyone who exists. 

Musically, I didn't want to oversaturate it. I also never like to have songs this long (at 5 minutes, it's my longest song) but once it came out, I couldn't find a single piece deserving of omission. This is also, in my opinion, my greatest chord progression that I've ever written and absolutely one of my finest songs.
It was meant to be a single during primary election season, but that was taken over by COVID. The intention here is to rerecord and remaster the song for very specific reasons which is why this version has not been released.

This mix was mastered by Nolan Thies and the vocals were recorded by Jimi Bones.

Red, White and Grey (Original Master)

After I released Texas, I decided I maybe needed to try to have a better relationship with my dad. This is a song that focuses on wanting to have that, despite the obstacles, professing that the core of me, hasn't changed. 
I figured it would be relatable because we all want to be able to tell someone we love them, and a lot of times, we feel like we can't. This song is about that.
Musically, I wanted to experiment with autotune, having a non-catchy sort of highly saturated chorus structure.

ILY (Rough Mix)

Singer/Songwriter/Pianist/Guitarist/
Brooklynite/Masshole/
Whatever you want, for the most part.

Jackie Kamel

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks