Alt-pop singer and multi-instrumentalist Vaines has released a new single and music video ‘She’s Not You’.
The new track, out via Hopeless Records, which also landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlists across eight countries in Asia this week, is the second offering from Vaines this year, following previously released single ‘Summer’s Over’.
The multi-textural and dynamic masterpiece, which climaxes with some heart-hitting riffs two-thirds into the track, is a formidable effort, if not somewhat thought-provoking.
Shares Jared Gaines (who also goes under the moniker Vaines):
“This is a song from the perspective of a toxic person who wants to leave their s/o for someone new. I feel like you always hear that sad breakup song where someone left you for somebody else, but you never hear the song from the point of view of the shitty person that leaves. This is not a love song. I’ve always put more weight on music in my life than learning the business or killing social media.”
Vaines is here to shatter genre boundaries and break the traditional recording model (recording albums in studios with producers). Vaines not only writes his own music but also plays all of the instruments, records all of the mixes, and produces all of his own songs – right in his own bedroom.
Vaines’ passion for skateboarding and scouring local libraries for Thrasher magazines was interrupted when he was twelve-years-old and his dad gave him his first guitar. From then on, he was constantly performing in talent shows and creating performances for his parents with his siblings. Vaines soon discovered that he did not find comfort in just being a “band guy” but wanted to make more of an impact through songwriting as a solo artist. He cites “one-man generational” artists like Joji, Blackbear, and Post Malone as inspirations, but as he envisions his future, does not want to be pigeonholed to that genre only.
He moved to Los Angeles in early 2017 and crashed with a friend with $200 in studio equipment and got to work writing any and all styles of music and honing his craft. In his songwriting style, Vaines will often write things in a reverse perspective to tackle how his distance and fear of commitment can make other people feel lonely. It helps him process how to be a better person and how to correct some of his self-diagnosed “toxic behavior”. Songwriting is how he processes and pushes through the obstacles he faces.
Cover photo by: Jake Stark