Jesswar Takes Us Track By Track Through Debut Mixtape 'Life's Short, Live Big'

Golden Four Drive

I named this track after the street I drive down every day to go to the beach. The ocean is just one street away and this song reminds me of cruising around a beach town with my love on a hot Friday afternoon in the summertime.

Fell In Love

I wrote this song in the summer and it reminds me of good times with me people in paradise. I wanted to make a jam and something that was slower than what I was used to making. Fell In Love reminds me of the summertime, the real hot months of December to January.

Waves

I wrote this at a time in my life where I was working myself down to the bone and pondering life. These verses feel like a dirty page for me, I used this track as therapy to get all my thoughts out and translate it into music. I felt I was riding the waves of life.

Hold Me Down

This song transports me to a tropical paradise and reminds me of those times of being in love and the heat being 34 degrees. This one’s more of pop bop but I still wanted to put some steeze down with the bars. I had the best time recording Hold Me Down! It definitely takes me to my happy place.

Antisocial

Antisocial is definitely the most dark song on the entire project and I actually wrote it at the start of 2021. I used this as therapy too, I was going through a lot and you can really hear and feel it in this song. Sometimes it’s hard for me to listen to but I feel blessed that I have music to work my thoughts and feels out.

Sweet feat. DVNA

Sweet was originally going to be an interlude. I sent what I had to DVNA and she sent me back the most incredible hook so I went back to papertoy and he worked it into becoming a full song and we repeated her hook. This is also one of my faves from the project, I love how dark the verses are but then DVNA brings the energy up and turns it into a bop.

Caramel Bars

I love the energy in Caramel Bars!! I had the best time tracking this one!! And as soon as I finished the vox I went down to my car and played it on repeat. I love the percussion pattern at the start and how the track builds. I wanted something I could just flow over.

Hefty

Definitely one of my favourite tracks I’ve made. This one brought me joy too, listened to this on repeat when I first tracked it and even put it in my live show a few weeks after I made it. I love how the piano line slaps and the 808 is huge!

Bad Like RiRi feat. Erica Banks

I loved the creation process of this one. It started as a lil freestyle line I tracked in the studio one day then evolved into this huge track. Erica's feature blew me away. As soon as she sent her verse back me and my best friend cruised around listening to it.

Throw It In The Air

I recorded this song the same day as Fell In Love. That bass line is what caught me and I knew it was a bop straight away. I wanted to make a fun track that you could vibe to and feel good.

Candy

Candy is so different to anything I’ve made before! Creatively, it felt really fulfilling to make. I experimented with using high-pitched vocal tones and a laid-back delivery.

Work It Out

I added this song to the track listing when the project was already in the mix/master process. I accidentally opened this session while I was looking for another track's vocal stems and I completely forgot that I made this. As soon as I hit that space bar I knew this would be a perfect addition to the tape so I started working on it right away and got it prepped for mixing.