MUSIC
JACK SWING RELEASES NEW EP, 'GET WHAT'S MINE FOR YOU'
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n the stylish video for Jack Swing’s new single, “Get What’s Mine for You,” the band members -- frontman Isaiah Ross, drummer Alex Nelson and bassist Rowdy Kanarek -- engage in regular, everyday activities: Eating a nice meal, relaxing at the beach, playing guitar. In each case, however, something about the setting is more than a little bit … off. The video’s silliness lands, in part, because of the buoyant skillfulness of the song itself. But all together it hits something that isn’t always so easy to achieve: a cohesive aesthetic. For the video, frontman Isaiah Ross wanted to loosen things up a bit. A video from last year, for the song “Monkey Around,” featured suits and a dramatic storyline. “With this, I wanted to embrace the themes of the song in a light and visually pleasing way,” he says. “I think we’ve always had a track jacket kind of look, probably because of how much anime I watched as a child. So I definitely wanted to embrace that, to keep things colorful and fun.” “Get What’s Mine for You” is the title track from Jack Swing’s new EP, which comes close on the heels of
BY MARGARET WELSH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MUSIC EDITOR
MARGARET@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM
Jack Swing frontman Isaiah Ross. (Photo Courtesy Shauna Miller)
the 2019 EP Supermoon. But in the space of that year, the band has taken a noticeable step in a direction that feels more comfortable, something palpably itself. Where Supermoon was looser, grungier arena rock, Get What’s Mine for You
16 | SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT
tightens things up, moving towards slightly cleaner tones, fuller arrangements, and a more confident swagger. Ross has described taking “an almost Strokes-ish approach to … Stevie Wonder songwriting,” which shows up here in the form of
heavy soul hooks, sharp garage-rock edges, and urgent, athletic vocals. “With Supermoon there was a lot that we were trying to achieve as a band,” says Ross. “On “Get What’s Mine,” we had taken that time to achieve all those things. … Just that differ-