The Jins, the band of lakecity musician Jamie Warnock, released their first single with 604 Records late last month entitled She Said.
Born and raised in Williams Lake, Warnock has been a musician since the young age of 10 when his cousin, Ian Hicks, first taught him to play the guitar. For Christmas, Warnock had been gifted a guitar and had left it in his closet until his cousin told him that was “no place for a guitar” and showed him how to play it.
Over the next five years, Warnock’s interest and love of music grew, first with the help of Hicks and later on by his own accord. Eventually, the desire to create his own music, both writing and mixing, manifested and he learned to play the bass guitar, the drums and how to mix music.
“I would basically record my own songs in my parents’ basement, which I am very thankful they let me do because living here (in Vancouver) with other people I’ve realized that’s not something you can do,” Warnock chuckled. “But yeah, I started when I was 10 and (music) has been my whole life, ever since.”
When he turned 18 Warnock departed Williams Lake for Vancouver to obtain a diploma in the Professional Recording Arts at the Vancouver Art Institute. While he may be based out of Vancouver now, Warnock has not forgotten where he’s come from and has returned to the lakecity to collaborate with a variety of artists, on both music videos and songs.
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“I’ve always wanted to be an entertainer, that’s my life’s goal, so I’m going to keep doing it until it either kills me or I succeed at it,” Warnock said.
The Jins as a band started shortly after Warnock graduated college when fellow founding member Ben Larsen became his roommate and suggested that they play together at an upcoming Halloween party. The two took advantage of a sale and bought an $800 drum kit for $325, which Warnock added they went on to use until “all of the cymbals broke.”
After their first show went well the two began booking more gigs and went through two bass players before their current one, Hudson Partridge, moved in with Warnock and joined the band. Come Halloween night this year, Warnock said the Jins will have existed for five years, all of which they’ve spent continuously practising and improving their music.
This hard work eventually paid off last year when Warnock submitted some music the band had recorded to 604 Records. The studio liked what they heard and set them up with a record deal and a producer. That producer is David Genn of the band 54-40, who had them rehearsing five nights a week to get their preferred “live sound” down for the EP.
After recording over the course of a few weekends, Warnock got the chance to work with more big names in the music industry, including the likes of Grammy-winning mastering engineer Ted Jensen, who’s worked on records for Green Day and other big names in the past. Hearing that this veteran industry professional liked their music just blew Warnock away.
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“It’s been pretty surreal and now that the first song is out it’s going to be neat to see what happens,” he said. “It’s been crazy getting to work with these people and we’re just very thankful for the opportunity that they’ve given us and all the support.”
She Said, the first of a handful of singles they’ve recorded for their EP Death Wish with 604 Records, is a song they’ve been playing for close to two years now, including on a past cross Canada tour. However, Warnock said this piece, like the others on the track, has now been fully fleshed out with the help of Genn making it the best it’s ever been.
The band’s sound, overall, is reminiscent of a modern take on 90s grunge rock, though Warnock describes it as more “fun-rock” than anything else. He views the band as “three misfits who fit together and make music we all like.”
“We’ve had (the music) for so long and it feels like, even now, with the amount of time between releases, our last release was in March of 2017, we’ve got at least another album’s worth of material we’ve written ourselves that we haven’t recorded yet,” Warnock said. “I’m hoping that 604 is going to want us to come back and do a full album.”
He also hopes, within the next year, that the band will be able to go on tour in the United States and reach new audiences. However, Warnock said there are no concrete plans at this time and that he’ll be waiting to see what the label wants to do from here.
Their next single for Death Wish will be the titular track of the same name, set to be released roughly in early April, six weeks after the release of She Said. You can follow the band’s exploits on Instagram at @thejinsband or @jamiewarnock and check out the music video for She Said on YouTube now.
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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