Wah Wah 45s are very proud to present Sun Dogs, the incredible debut album from composer, songwriter and producer Jamie Finlay - a unique blend of electric soul, spiritual jazz and psychedelia. A deeply layered and personal album that explores themes of love, loss, grief, and finding strength through turbulent times.
With their expansive arrangements and complex harmonies, you can hear the spiritual jazz influences of Lonnie Liston Smith and Pharaoh Sanders on the two opening tracks, Destroy Create Part 1 and Rain Will Come. These are followed by the Ethio-jazz leaning Staring at the Sun, with its pounding baritone sax chorus and ethereal vocals. Next up is the stripped back psyche soul of Family, the album's first single, with a haunting performance from Ellen Beth Abdi. Parhelion calls to mind Headhunters-era Herbie, with its off kilter jazz-fusion vibe, and is followed by the bittersweet Give Back My Love, which comes across like Stereolab and Everything But The Girl meets Rotary Connection. Penultimate song Destroy Create Part 2 leads us into broken-beat territory, and finally, with its pulsing bass
line, layered vocal harmonies and crescendos, the closing track, Daylight, is an optimistic
future anthem, bringing to mind the work of Charles Stepney, the Mizell Brothers and James Mason.
Sun Dogs was recorded between 2022 and 2023 with a core band of Jamie Finlay working with keyboardist, arranger and producer Matt Steele, drummer Erroll Rollins and singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ellen Beth Abdi (A Certain Ratio), who appears across the album, and features on its three singles. The album features collaborations with singer, producer and saxophonist Caitlin LM, Kemani Anderson of Secret Night Gang and supporting musicians Bryan Corbett (trumpet/flute), Chris Bowden (saxophones), Hannah McGuigain (vocals), Dan Carpenter (trumpet) and Atholl Ransome (saxophones). The album was mixed by Jamie Finlay together with engineer Phil Kirby (Mr. Scruff, 808 State).
Destroy Create Parts I & 2
“I wrote the lyrics and melody for Destroy Create around 20 years ago, shortly after losing a very close relative. The song stayed with me for two decades, until I found a home for it on this album. The song is about someone saying goodbye, and wishing you life, with all of its challenges and complexity.
Hearing Kemani sing the lyrics back to me was a very powerful moment and it felt like the perfect way to set the tone of the album.”
Rain Will Come
“Rain Will Come is a musical representation of a storm, and is about finding stillness in turbulent times. The phrase ‘Rain Will Come’ repeats like a mantra while the music becomes more chaotic until eventually returning to calmness. It’s about standing still and stoic, and letting storms pass over you.”
Staring at the Sun
“The title, Staring at the Sun, is taken from the book of the same name, written by psychologist Irvin Yalom. The book is about finding peace with our own mortality. It’s a really beautiful book. I talked through the concept with Caitlin LM and sent her the music I’d written as a finished arrangement. Caitlin came back with this utterly beautiful, mesmerising song, really understood the concept and was able to channel her own experiences into the writing.”
Family
“Families come in many forms, but at the core it’s about that closeness, solidarity and unconditional love. This can come from anywhere with any group of people. It’s not just about blood, it’s about how we look after each other.”
Parhelion
“Parhelion was the first track I finished for the album. It started out as an electronic instrumental, using drum machines and samples, but evolved into this almost completely live track. I love Bryan and Chris’s playing on this, and finishing it was a real moment. I knew the album was going to work when I finished Parhelion.”
Give Back My Love
“A bittersweet love song which tells of the moment in a relationship when you’ve given all you can, but that isn’t enough. It’s about reclaiming the love you’ve given and moving forward, emphasised by marching drums, warmed up by Bryan Corbett’s sultry trumpet and flute, and of course Abdi’s sublime vocal. “
Daylight
“I wrote Daylight at the tail end of lockdown. I’d had the bass line playing on a loop in the studio for a few days, when the lyrics just came to me. It felt like there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel after this difficult time for the world, which is why it has a cautiously optimistic tone. I worked together with Ellen to layer and arrange the vocal harmonies, and with Matt Steele to really work the dynamics of the song. It’s a big track and it felt like the perfect way to close the album.”
Jamie will be performing Sun Dogs live at venues in London and Manchester, plus the We Out Here Festival in Dorset this summer, with more dates to be added.