Jarren Blair Bets on Himself in Debut Album ‘Chips are Down (๑ᵕ⌓ᵕ̤)’
Exploring themes of yearning, confusion and realization, Jarren Blair’s Chips are Down (๑ᵕ⌓ᵕ̤) relays a hero’s journey through impressive alternative R&B production.
PHOTOS BY ZAYNE ISOM
Stylistically and sonically, Jarren Blair holds undeniable strength as an up-and-coming artist. He’s adventurous with his production style, peppering R&B influences into an alternative-rock mainline to create a sound that’s unique and undeniably true to himself as a creator. Blair presents a refreshing authenticity to the alternative scene here in Nashville, a genuine spirit that is smothered in between sanguine production and sincere lyricism embedded within his debut album Chips are Down (๑ᵕ⌓ᵕ̤), which released in October of this year.
Blair met up for a chat with Pleaser at Primitive Coffee, a hidden gem tucked in a side street off of a bustling South Nash highway. He showed up in clothing he’d made himself, which seems to be pretty on-par for Blair, as part of his brand associates with the quirk of a DIY project. The fit, a black 2-piece jogger set, is covered in yellow painted face-like doodles, mimicking that of a graffitied wall in a bustling city walkway. It’s honestly super dope. We talked with the Nashville R&B trailblazer about the excitement surrounding the release of his album, animated art style, the weekly “Inglewood Jam” Blair hosts every Sunday night and the importance of betting on yourself as an artist.
As an 11 year old making discoveries about not only himself but the world around him, Blair really started to click with the R&B music he would listen to on the radio. Artists like Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Earth Wind and Fire, etc. struck a nerve in Blair, even the gospel music his mom played in the car inspired the young artist to start singing, writing and playing piano. He had a natural draw to the music, but he wouldn’t say that it came naturally. He put years of hard work into his craft, practicing countless hours throughout his adolescence to be the musician he is today.
“I had to learn, like every other musician,” Blair told Pleaser sitting outside of Primitive Coffee on a wooden bench right outside the main entrance of the shop. “I went through the growing pains of figuring out piano, and figuring out writing and singing and stuff. But along the way, I put in the time, and here we are.”
Artistically, the album is just as interesting visually as it is sonically. Chips are Down (๑ᵕ⌓ᵕ̤) toys with artistic animation, with the album art by local visual artist Ember Tharpe. Blair met with Tharpe after finding her on Instagram, when he was working on a series here in Nashville called The Move, a concert series featuring artists that had in some way or another moved Blair emotionally with their music. As an all-encompassing community series, he recruited Tharpe to design cartoon characters of the artists that would play in the series. Blair loved the characters so much that he ended up asking Thare to do the cover art for his first album, to which she happily agreed.
“I would book artists, and we’d have a diverse lineup of artists that had moved me,” Blair said. “And then I got her to do the flyers, and she would do portraits of the artists. Before the album came out, she listened to it and put a lot of references from the songs into the art, like in the background and stuff.”
When you listen to the album straight through, it’s pretty easy to get lost in the narration of Blair’s writing style, along with the alternative R&B production style that makes up a majority of the record. The album, according to Blair, synchronizes with that of an epic hero’s journey. The storyline isn’t necessarily linear, and there are a lot of feelings of yearning, confusion, and belief tossed into this big soup of a record. When he wrote the album, there were a lot of realizations he had not only about music, but about his own journey as a writer. If you take the time to sit with the chronicles of Chips are Down (๑ᵕ⌓ᵕ̤), you’ll realize there’s a lot of self-acceptance and discovery weaved through the energetic composition of the songs that make the record so mesmerizing.
“It’s like looking around, and whether it’s a relationship situation, your job, a family situation– whatever it may be. The album is like looking around in that situation and being like, wow, these are the cards I’ve played, and I have to deal with this,’” Blair said. “It’s just saying, ‘okay, I’m going to bet on myself since I’m already here, anyways.’”
Apart from his brilliant album, Blair is a trailblazer in the Nashville R&B community. He rejects the notion that “there’s no talked-about R&B scene” here in Nashville, because he’s surrounded by it almost every Sunday at the Eastside Jam at Inglewood Lounge, where Blair hosts one of the hottest weekly events in Nashville. Tucked into a cozy cocktail lounge right off of Gallatin Pike, a diverse group of artists collaborate on the spot to perform improv, all-original songs. Not only is this a fantastic space for musicians to collaborate with each other, it’s also become one of the dopest spots to vibe out at on a Sunday. It’s also proof that the R&B scene in Nashville is alive and flourishing, sometimes you just have to do a little digging to find the right vibes.
“There’re artists like Tim Gent, he’s a rapper that’s doing great stuff. Brian Brown, I do a lot of stuff with him as well. Summer Joy is amazing, she’s on the album, and she’s opening for a lot of great artists,” Blair said. “I mean, there’re so many different artists in Nashville. A lot of trailblazers.”
Blair might have just released an album, but he isn’t anywhere near finished creating, writing and producing. Blair told Pleaser his plans to keep writing music and to hopefully have two EPs sometime in the next year.
“I’m just writing the songs and going from there,” Blair said in a final statement. “I don’t know exactly where it’s going sonically yet, but I'm going to let the stories and the songs pull me in the right direction. I’m gonna follow the feeling.”
