Jaws The Shark (real name Olly Bailey), today releases his long-awaited debut album, Wasteland via SO Recordings. The 10-track body of work was written entirely by Olly himself, and produced by previous collaborator, George Perks, at VADA Recording Studios. Performed by Olly, he is alsojoined by bassist Brendan O’Boyle, and Dinosaur Pile-Up’s Michael Sheils on drums.
The album focus track is the rather apt Summer Puddle. Olly explains,“I wanted to write a song that is best served being heard within the twilight hour of the summer months. A small, but beautiful moment in time where we can sit back, reflect and truly live within the moment. An anthemic chorus that I could imagine being sung back to me, as light escapes the day and the cooling darkness descends. It’s bittersweet – To most of us living in the UK, those few summer months are some of the happiest moments we have within a year, but it’s often plagued by the unpredictableness of English weather and our love/hate relationship with it.”
The indie/alt-rock artist kicked off his debut album campaign earlier this year with single California, which was picked as BBC Music Introducing (South & West)’s Track Of The Week. This was shortly followed up by the scuzzy Got It Made, which featuresDeaf Havana’s lead vocalist James Veck-Gilodi, and received its first spin on BBC Introducing (South & West). More recently, Olly has released singles Last Train To Santa Feand the honest and reflective, Lately. All singles have received solid support across streaming platforms, including playlist features with the likes of Spotify’s All New Rock (883k+) Amazon’s Fresh Rock and Apple’s Breaking Rock.
Catch Jaws The Shark live:
13.9 – Kazimer Stockroom, Liverpool
14.9 – 33 Oldham Street, Manchester
15.9 – Oporto, Leeds
18.9 – The Horn, St Albans
19.9 – Supersonic, Paris
21.9 – La Péniche, Chalon-Sur-Saône
25.9 – The Grace, London
26.9 – Edge Of The Wedge, Portsmouth
27.9 – Heartbreakers, Southampton
Olly clarifies, “Wasteland is an album that I’d been wanting to write for some time now, and one that I’m really proud of personally.Some of the tracks that I write wouldn’t necessarily be put into the Jaws The Shark category when you look back at what I’ve released previously, but I wanted this album to show off some of my versatility that I like to explore when writing songs.”
Jaws The Shark will embark on a UK/EU headline tour in September. Kicking things off at Kazimer Stockroom in Liverpool on 13thSeptember, the tour will then span cities including Manchester, Leeds, St. Albans, Paris, Chalon-Sur-Saône, London, where the Devon-born artist will headline The Grace on 25th September, and then Portsmouth before wrapping things up in Southampton, at Heartbreakers on 27th September. Tickets are on sale now here. Following two packed out shows in Brighton for The Great Escape in May, Jaws supported Indoor Pets at The Garage in London shortly afterwards.
2022 saw Olly release his debut EP, Another Day In Paradise, via Nice Swan Records (named ‘one of the best labels in the land’ by Clash Magazine). Shortly after this, he caught the attention of SO Records (home to Placebo, Enter Shikari, Deaf Havana and more), and released his self-titled EP with them. The 4-track release included a collaboration with Dinosaur Pile-Up titled Destroy The World, which has racked up 355k+ streams on Spotify alone.This was then up followed by EP, Cream, which features the title track which garnered support and received radio plays from the likes of BBC Radio 1 presenters, Jack Saunders, Alyx Holcombe and Nels Hylton.