Where’s Jai - Artist Q&A

Prior to EMA's Term 2 Band Night at Backbeat Bar, Eliette & Nick sat down for a chat with the shows Guest Band, 'Wheres Jai' 

'Where's Jai' are an indie-reggae-rock band based on the North Shore in Auckland. They write groove-infused indie-rock with a dash of reggae and a hint of blues and are a band to watch. With songs released that are growing more and more popular by the day and a energetic live show which has seen them perform with Australian popstar Reece Mastin, NZ legends Muroki, Paige and Borderline as well as having great success in Smokefree Rockquest! Oh...and their drummer is Elliot Borland, one of EMA's first drum students and still with us 6 years on 

This conversation is a great insight into 'Wheres Jai' as a band, what makes them work so well together and how they have achieved so much in their young career.

EMA

How and where did Wheres Jai form?

Where’s Jai

We met at Albany Junior High School and were put together by the band mentor (Gareth) and shortly after we picked up Nate as our bass player.

EMA

Where did the band name come from?

Where’s Jai

The band name came from the fact that our guitarist Jai would always walk off and disappear, we were first called Nebula and then Hysteria but eventually settled on Wheres Jai

EMA

What music drew you all together and what were some of the bands and songs that inspired you?

Where’s Jai

We were put together by our band mentor Gareth, we started off by playing a couple of cover songs, the first being In Too Deep by Sum41. We then entered the Smokefree Rockquest competition and got straight into writing original songs

EMA

Can you tell us about your songwriting process?

Where’s Jai

The process changes but most of the time guitarist and Jai come in with a riff idea and we build off that. Sometimes we just start jamming and build that into a whole song, so its really just a case by case

EMA

You have had great success in competition including Smokefree Rockquest and New Found Sound, how were those experiences and what did you learn from performing in them?

Where’s Jai

They were really great experiences, we learnt how to be more confident on stage and they were also really great for networking. We met a lot of people and have had a lot of gig opportunities from performing well in these competitions, which has been amazing

EMA

You have recently opened for some well established artists including Reece Mastin, Muroki, Paige and Borderline. How did you go about getting these gigs? And is there a member of the band who focuses on this part of the band management?

Where’s Jai

There isn’t one member who works on getting shows, we work together. Someone might find out that a venue or band is looking for other bands to perform and we get in touch. For the Reece Mastin show we essentially won the opportunity to support from a post he put online looking for local artists to open his New Zealand shows. It was a really great experience and some of our other shows have come from people seeing us perform at Smokefree Rockquest.

EMA

With having two singers in the band, how do you approach writing lyrics and melodies together?

Where’s Jai

Usually we hear the music that the boys have come up with and we freestyle over it and then the two of us go away together and work on the vocals ourselves. Grace is often on lyrics and Leigh is on melody but we are always working together and give each other feedback to get the best results.

EMA

Your song perfect crime blew up on Tik Tok and as a result has had over 300,000 streams on Spotify, congratulations! How did this come about and what advice do you have for young artists looking to break through on social media?

Where’s Jai

At the start when we uploaded the song it was really slow, but we then came across an app called ‘Melo’ which is an underground music platform with a huge following. They then posted the song on Tik Tok and it just blew up really fast. We now have a lot of listeners in the USA too, which is amazing.

EMA

How often do you rehearse and what does a rehearsal look like for you?

Where’s Jai

We rehearse at least once a week for around 2.5 hours. We rehearse at our bass players house. If we have a gig coming up we will work through the setlist that we are going to perform. If we are not working towards a show then we are working on new songs, or getting songs prepared to record, so it really just depends on what we are working towards at the time.

EMA

If you could each have Wheres Jai play at a major concert or festival what or who would it be?

Where’s Jai

Jai - Earth Beat Festival again

Michael - Rhythm n Vines or Coachella

Elliot - Glastonbury

Leigh - I’d love to open for any major New Zealand artists

Grace - I agree!

Nate - Festivals in NZ or the Red Hot Chili Peppers

What are your plans for the rest of 2023?

We just released a single called ‘Something Wrong’, we also have some shows coming up and are looking forward to releasing a full E.P of music soon

Follow ‘Where’s Jai’ on Spotify to keep up to date with their releases :)