Features : Jiminy Invites Listeners to Dance to the End of the World with Indie Disco Single, “Apocalyptic Dance Party”

Songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Jimmy Harris, brings us “Jiminy,” the recording project formed in 2018 featuring collaborators and session players based in New York City and the Hudson Valley. “Apocalypse Dance Party” is written by Jimmy Harris with production by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn. Rounding out the group are RYAL’s Jacqueline Ryal (background vocals), Frank Locrasto (keys and synths), Al Street (guitar), Aaron Johnston and Jesse Murphy of the Brazilian Girls (drums and bass), Samuel Torres (percussion), and Jimmy Harris (vocals, guitars, piano).

Prior to creating Jiminy, Jimmy Harris dabbled in rock bands and singer-songwriter circles for many years. His affinity for jazz and experimental jazz has carried him out of NYC into Woodstock as well. “I have more of an experimental mindset,” Harris explains of his style. “I want to make music that’s fun and accessible—take elements of jazz/classical/rock and deconstruct them and put them into fun, catchy music.” He also takes inspiration from bands like Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and MGMT— “I like bands that deconstruct genres and put them together in fun ways.”

“First and foremost, I’m a songwriter,” explains Harris. “For this project, I was the ringleader but I worked with some of the best musicians in New York. There was lots of complex modular synthesis that went into it, which I loved working on. It was a learning experience for me. The idea of blending real musicians, great musicians, with sequenced music I built on my own and the seamless melding of electronic and acoustic instruments—that’s what it’s about.”

The evolution of Harris’ musical style involves a trip to a dance club at the Jersey Shore and the successful track that followed. “I put out an album about a year ago. One song was more of a dance song that turned out to be the title track of the album. It got playlists a lot and did well, so I decided to write more songs like it,” elaborates Harris. “I’m originally from Philly, so I listened to Philly soul for a month—didn’t do any writing, just walked around listening to 70s Philly soul. It’s a genre onto itself. I thought, ‘what’s this all about? Let me get this in my bloodstream.’”

From there, Harris ended up at the piano writing some chords that sounded “kind of ominous, a little foreboding but funky, too.” He then caught up with a collaborator to get back into the studio and start recording. “Let’s get this party started,” he thought then, beginning the idea of “Apocalypse Dance Party.”

“If you go on streaming channels, you’ll see a lot of apocalyptic themes or dystopian themes or post-apocalyptic… I can see how people are attracted to this topic with everything that’s gone on for the last few years. So, I went down the rabbit hole, playing with it for a while: natural disasters, pandemic, ideas of panic around AI, more religious fire-and-brimstone historical/mythological feel of the world ending… It all came together, and I started to create this idea of a DJ set, a 22-minute set that started with this fun vibe of an apocalypse dance party,” explains Harris. “It brought out something interesting I couldn’t put my finger on—something nihilistic about it. Celebrating and partying at the end of the world—there’s something rebellious about it, like rock and roll.”

Harris’ writing process was drawn out to capture exactly the feeling he was hoping to convey. “I was sitting at the piano for a month, coming up with ideas. The first track has characters talking about natural disasters. They’re metaphysical characters conjuring destruction because they were bored with paradise. It’s the mythical proportions that make you chuckle. I was laughing as I was playing it, thinking if it’s funny to me, maybe other people will think it’s funny. There’s something ironic, satirical about dancing while the world is falling apart. The song starts with that and progressively gets darker in tone and subject matter.”

Jiminy’s single, “Appocalpyse Dance Party,” came out June 30 and is the first track of an unreleased EP by the same name. Listeners can look forward to the release of two additional tracks in the coming weeks.

The EP, Apocalypse Dance Party, is comprised of five songs and a reprise of the first song. As it grows progressively darker, the music moves into techno industrial with vocals like a Google voice, before reprising to the first song to wrap it up. “There’s nothing preachy or heavy handed about it. I’m not a doomsayer and I don’t think the world is ending. But there’s a lot of anxiety. People don’t know what’s going on in the world and want an answer. This gives them comfort versus not knowing what’s going to happen,” explains Harris.

The EP progresses, moving on to other themes before the penultimate song about two people who survived. “Then it’s right back to the dance party. It’s kind of shocking but maybe it’s saying something,” adds Harris.

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