Jamie Woon announces new album ‘3, 10, Why, When’ for October 3rd

After a notable time away from the public sphere, Jamie Woon recently shared two new sublime singles; ‘Heavy Going’ and ‘A Velvet Rope’. These were swiftly followed by the announcement of his first live show in years at London’s Union Chapel in October which unsurprisingly sold out in a heartbeat.

Now Jamie shares yet more music with lead single ‘When’ accompanied by ‘Pulling on a Thread’ to announce a long-awaited new album 3, 10, Why, When – due for release on October 3rd.

After his debut album Mirrorwriting (2011) and follow-up, Making Time (2015), Jamie stepped away from releasing his own music, though he kept working with other artists including Elmiene, Lil Silva and co-producing the solo debut Unsung by Holly Walker.

The songs that became 3, 10, Why, When started through working with producer Martin Terefe, someone Jamie had been introduced to outside of the music world. “He’s very humble despite working on huge smash hits with artists from all over the world,” Jamie says. “He saw what I was struggling with and hung in there with me. He sort of tricked me into making an album – we made one song, then another, then when we had ten we just said that’s the album.”

For years, Jamie had been writing music without words – just melodies and sounds, though the process was frustrating. When the lyrics finally came, they arrived all at once after he learned to stop fighting the more difficult feelings and just let them be there. This explains both the startling vulnerability of the record and why he can find it challenging to discuss.

The album moves between R&B, electronics, and pop forms with a unique impressionistic twist. It flows with disquieting ease from strange, spiky percussion to lush strings, spooking you out with repeated motifs of being alone with thoughts at 3am, even as it taps into deep senses of love and belonging. “I don’t really know how to explain this music,” Jamie admits. “It’s extraordinary to me that it exists at all.”

3, 10, Why, When comes out on Jamie’s own label, Also Can – named after a Malaysian English construction meaning “that works too.”“I’m curious to see if I can build something that doesn’t kill my creative flow,” he says, “and see if that can be something I can offer to others eventually.”

In anticipation of this new era, Jamie has also started his own Substack; a platform to share his thoughts and musings as he steps his toe back into the front-facing side of industry (only on his own terms, naturally). You can read more here.