Jay Moussa-Mann has released her new single ‘American Tennessee’.
Speaking of the single, Jay said: “The song is part of my upcoming album themed around an imagined breakup. I wanted to create a set of songs inspired by 80s and 90s pop, as if each song were a scene in a movie. I’m a filmmaker, so songwriting is very visual for me. This song is about moving on, where the character goes into a hyper-real fantasy world of the American dream.”
To celebrate her single release, Jay shared with us 5 tracks that influenced ‘American Tennessee’.
Danny Wilson – Mary’s Prayer | Listen via Spotify
I’ve always been a big fan of this song and one day I decided to research it a bit and read that the songwriter Gary Clark likes to think of it “as being like a country and western song.” That made perfect sense to me, even though you’d probably never think of that track as country, but it got me thinking that every good song starts as a country song really. Good country songs often have good catchy tunes. I’ve always loved ‘Mary’s Prayer’ because whatever’s going on in my life, it makes me feel upbeat and happy. I wanted to capture something of the spirit of that.
Taylor Swift – The Man (Live from Paris) | Listen via Spotify
This song was not one that grabbed me on the album, but there was something about the live version in Paris that got me. I often would choose recordings over live performances, never having been once for live, so it was unusual for me to be fascinated by this performance. I’ve always been a bit scared of letting my vocals come to the front, but there was a rawness in Taylor’s performance that fascinated me and at the same time gave me confidence. I liked the way Taylor played the guitar too in that performance. So, the way I wrote ‘American Tennessee’ became different to my other songs, I felt I was singing in a way I’d been a bit afraid to before but that seemed to guide the verse in a new direction. Trying a new strumming style on the guitar enabled me to experiment and come up with something new for me.
Gary Clark – Up (from the film Sing Street) | Listen via Spotify
Once I had written ‘American Tennessee’ and started laying down tracks to record, I knew I really wanted that to give the song an 80s/90s feel but I didn’t know how. I decided to go back to Gary Clark and listen to his other songs. I used his music for the film Sing Street as a guide as well as some other songwriters from that era and started to notice they often had a synth melody line that complimented the chorus, which made it feel of that era. Once I had the basics of the tracks down, I sat at the keyboard and wrote the melody for the synth part in ‘American Tennessee’.
Shania Twain – Up | Listen via Spotify
I was introduced to Shania Twain’s music when I was around 14 and fell in love with all her songs immediately. I listened to her so much I’m sure she influences my music subconsciously. Up always caught my attention because it was a fun country-pop song but the lyrics were so relatable, especially as a woman. It was about such an average everyday occurrence that felt so normal, just one of those days where you wake up and everything goes wrong from morning till night. But it makes you feel good when you listen to it.
Maisie Peters – Adore You | Listen via Spotify
I find Maisie Peters one of the most thought-provoking current songwriters. Her use of breaks between lines and pauses is something that has definitely influenced my songwriting in the last year or so. I used to give no breaths in my songs. There were so many lyrics and no time for the music to breathe or instruments to take over. I think I used to do this because I was afraid, I didn’t know how to keep the listener’s interest if I stopped singing words, but actually, it’s the opposite. Allowing breaths between lyrics makes the song much more interesting. I was also challenged by the way Maisie Peters’ tracks had very obvious guitar parts working with pure electronic pop sounds in her tracks, especially her 2019 stuff. As someone who writes on guitar and likes the sound but who also loves electro-pop, it was good to see someone mixing the two so successfully.
You can stream Jay Moussa-Mann new single ‘American Tennessee’ via Spotify below