Jamie Drake’s new song “Oh Well Oh Well” speaks to a very specific and profound moment in the artist’s life.
“‘Oh Well Oh Well’ was written in the wake of my loss of faith in God a number of years ago,” she reveals. “I was raised in the Christian church, and though I never felt I belonged in the (physical) church, I’d always felt an immensely close connection with God through the person of Jesus Christ.”
“Some people choose to discard their faith; mine simply disappeared as if someone important to me died one day and it felt like I could no longer understand a language I had known my whole life,” she continues. “This experience left me feeling as though I was walking around in the dark for many years. ‘Oh Well Oh Well’ celebrates the loss and confusion we experience as humans when we know that hope is just around the corner. I think this, in part, is what faith is, essentially. It takes faith to know that even if you are feeling like it is the end right now, in this moment—that at some point, you will be ok.”
Drake captures that sentiment elegantly, as the track evolves from a stark piano melody into a grand and symphonic production. With echoes of Carole King and St. Vincent in its languid grooves, “Oh Well Oh Well” is very much the sound of hope in modern times.
“I came back to my faith years later when I made a conscious choice to believe for myself in my own way; not because I was raised with it,” she recalls. “When I chose it, I chose it with the tiniest, most pathetic amount of faith you can imagine. I reasoned, however, that when I look at nature, I have scientific proof that the most glorious tree is produced by the process of germination with what appears to be the most pathetic little seed. It is, however, the sheer gull of that miraculous little seed that gives the possibility to have life. The process of rebirth requires the courageous, harrowing journey through death, and it’s this journey that gives me life over and over again as I live and move and have my being.”
The song will appear on Jamie Drake’s full-length debut, Everything’s Fine. The album is set for release on September 20.
Listen to “Oh Well Oh Well” below.
