Northern California-based indie songwriter Are We Hunting (Ryan Ayala) has just released his intensely personal new single “Jail Calls”.
The song opens with a somewhat nostalgic guitar and some bright drums, giving it a Northern California vibe from the start. Ayala’s voice kicks in around the 30-second mark, immediately starting to describe in detail a heartbreaking scene.
We’re shown into the first chorus with some more emotional vocals, beginning with the line “Little Ricky said that you been moving on”. The end of the chorus is melancholy with a touch of irony as Ayala sings “ain’t that just like you”. We’re given time to digest the words during a lengthy instrumental break with some atmospheric vocals mixed in.
The second verse is a little more stripped down, with Ayala’s voice becoming more prominent until he sings “can’t you hear me?”. He goes on to recount a memory from his adolescence in the second chorus, and he effortlessly communicates the residual pain he feels through the details he describes.
We’re shown to the end of the song by building instrumentals, featuring the same nostalgic guitar along with the background vocals and crashing drums at the end. You can listen here.
“Jail Calls” feels like a diary entry from Are We Hunting. The personal, detailed, and emotion-packed lyrics are delivered in such a soft way over nostalgic and melancholy instrumentals throughout. The combination of these elements almost puts the memories into the listener’s head as if you were watching a music video. With this track, Are We Hunting will get into your head and share the experience with you, as it should be with any good track.
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