JACK H-W 

More Than JUST A MINUTE

By Davis Ouriel

Posted on September 28, 2018

 

   Last Thursday, the debut album by artist Jack H-W was released on iTunes and Spotify. Just a Minute is a testament to the complete project "H-W" has wanted to make for awhile. H-W took the summer of 2018 to carefully arrange Frankie Valli samples, hip hop beats, and whimsical acoustics for 32 minutes of wonderful, untiring 70’s-infused glory.

 

JACK H-W collaborated with fellow musicians Leo Major and Will Royce for saxophone and bass arrangements as well as his brother Alfie for drum arrangements, respectively, and orchestral suites from classical musicians Charlie Sands and Isaac Pross. For singular tracks, H-W was influenced by artists including Barry White, Vulfpeck, and Frank Ocean, as shown in Track 7, “Jadeybaby.” All this, H-W says, is to achieve his vision of a very personal and vulnerable work.

 

When asked about his challenges making the album, H-W recalled, multiple times, doubting his own music. Upon its release, H-W is still in disbelief. “I kind of realized, ‘wow all these songs are about my feelings,’ and I don’t know if it seems like it, but I keep a buffer a lot of the time,” he says. Nevertheless, H-W’s songs not only satiate, but thrill—and most importantly, H-W says, they are “all me, top to bottom.”