Jayli Wolf Taps Into Healing and Feminine Energy
Jayli Wolf embodies the juxtaposition of deep love and a dark sadness in her newest single release “Holding On.” Wolf captures moments in life where we can lose touch with ourselves. Resonant chords flow alongside her expansive, emotive vocals evoking the feeling of these layered experiences as the song grows into a vast sonic landscape in its chorus.
“Sometimes the darkness can be so lonely that the love for another is the only thing tethering us to this world,” Wolf says. “Such a weight placed on another can be extraordinarily difficult for them to carry. The awareness of this burden and the journey of finding self-love/purpose is what this song and visual portray.”
In the song’s self-directed and produced official video, Wolf is depicted exploring a surreal dream world as a scarecrow protecting a desolate land, as past memories of a love connection that cannot be forgotten play out as flashbacks. She seeks to find peace and freedom within herself from the darkness that has loomed over her.
“Holding On” is a sneak peek inside Wolf’s upcoming sophomore EP that explores healing, letting go and being able to rest in her feminine energy.
“A lot of the songs in this project are about my spiritual awakening I went through. I went through something really extraordinary last year and it totally changed my life and my perspective, so a lot of the songs are going to be incorporating those themes of oneness and coming back to love and the awakening process,” Wolf says. “I'm going to be incorporating more poetry on this project as well, and I put it to a backing track with poems and artistic expressions.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thanks for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you or your music, what inspires your creative persona and artistic style?
[JAYLI]: Whether it be music, poetry or acting, I take from personal experience and run with that. Most of my poetry is autobiographical and most of my music is too. I love going out in nature too and getting into that state of inspiration. There’s always a story for something that I have been through.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone hasn't heard your music yet, which song would you introduce them to and why do you love that song as a way to encapsulate your sound and vision?
[JAYLI]: “Bleed Like Us,” I think that's the one I would show people because it's a song that’s such a crazy time in my life where I waking up and leaving it's about such a crazy time in my life where I was waking up and leaving Jehovah's Witnesses – the religion that I was born and raised into – it's a song that I use a lot of different natural elements. I went and I recorded the river and the wind, and I took all of these natural elements that I put into the production and worked with my co-producer. It was that time in my life where everything was shifting, and I was taking back my power.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You just released your newest single “Holding On.” I really admire the deep prowess you have and your ability to touch on so many emotional depths through your storytelling. What is the inspiration behind the song?
[JAYLI]: Thank you. I would refer to the music video for the story of that. It's about when I was going through a time where there was nothing in the world that I felt like I wanted to stay here for. There's just nothing good in the world left and I had one person that I put all of this is the only good thing in my life, and that was too much pressure to put on one person and I feel like I needed to do my healing first and then come back to that relationship if they would still have me. It wasn't fair for me to be in such a dark state and only have this one thing tethering me to the world. I had to let go of that person for their own good and also for my own good so that I could do the healing work.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What did the creative process look like?
[JAYLI]: I'll say for the music video – because I bought my childhood farm six months ago – it was really cool meditating on how I wanted to see the visual and I walked around the property and meditated on how the whole visual could come to play. Then I sketch different things that I saw in my mind before directing the video, and it was really easy because it was just this one location.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What messages, emotions or story do you hope listeners can take away from “Holding On.”
[JAYLI]: I hope that they can take whatever they need. Whatever state they're in, I hope that it brings something to them. For me, the song is about holding on, and so I hope that it inspires them to remember the power that they have within themselves to keep holding on. There's light at the end of the tunnel, but whatever they can take from it, it's glorious when art can do that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Why do you love “Holding On?” Is there a specific lyric or element that you gravitate towards?
[JAYLI]: It's mostly the vibe of it. It's the feeling of the song for me.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Holding On” has an accompanying music video where you are portrayed as a scarecrow and there’s a lot of eerie elements to it. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
[JAYLI]: I had people that I love come and stay with me and work on the videos. So April plays the woman that I'm in love with, she's a very old old friend of mine and then I had my dear friend Poinsetta Lane – who is an awesome stylist – come and stay with me on the farm. It was such a great little crew, but we worked hard and it was some of the best days that I've had yet this year. We filmed on my childhood farm. It was such a crazy experience because of its nostalgia. I can't wait to make more films here, and it's really helping me because I want to get into filmmaking.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Holding On” touches on moments where we can lose touch with ourselves. What are some ways you stay grounded in or out of the studio that you channel into your songwriting?
[JAYLI]: Definitely nature. I love to read. I love to get lost in a good book. The sound is a big thing for me, so different frequencies. I'll listen to frequencies on YouTube if I'm feeling really stressed out and those sounds really bring me back home. I have a river very close to me so I'm very lucky, but I'll go and tune out and listen to the river and certain sounds really ground me.
[UNPUBLISHED]: This is your first single off your upcoming sophomore EP. I would love to hear anything you are willing to share about the project.
[JAYLI]: A lot of the songs in this project are about my spiritual awakening I went through. I went through something really extraordinary last year and it totally changed my life and my perspective, so a lot of the songs are going to be incorporating those themes of oneness and coming back to love and the awakening process. I also am including poetry, because I actually finished my first debut poetry book and I can't wait to release that. I'm going to be incorporating more poetry on this project as well, and I put it to a backing track with poems and artistic expressions.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What can listeners expect from you in this new era of music?
[JAYLI]: Definitely more self-awareness and I'm going to be trying to bring in more organic sounds. Just keep finding myself in sound, like I don't really know what's to come which is exciting. I want to get outside the box and just try new things.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is some advice you can give to listeners going through a journey for self-love and finding their purpose?
[JAYLI]: If you're not taking the time to tune into what's going on within you, you're never gonna be able to love yourself and know yourself. It's so important to tune that out and try to get in touch with who you are and what's really going on and like what you want, instead of like what the fads want you to do or what different socialites are doing. Just tune in.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[JAYLI]: I'm feeling like I don't have a clue what's going on. I'm just taking it day by day, like moment by moment. I'm totally lost and I'm okay with that, like there's no self judgment. As far as my career goes, I would say it's important to me, but it's not as important to me as finding happiness. I'm doing things like I'm working with bees and butterflies and I'm learning a lot about gardening and I'm just doing things that make me happy. Just tapping into a different energy than I've ever tapped into before. Just tapping into this feminine energy of the sweetness of doing nothing, or just doing something that makes me happy but isn't for anybody else but myself.
