Once again, I have Jeff Archuleta’s Eclectic Music Lover blog for introducing me to an amazing musical act. This time around it’s Western Jaguar, whose music I’ve been featuring on the #Tweetcore Radio Hour for a while now. Hailing from Mission, British Columbia, Western Jaguar is the project of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Trainor. His influences include Sam Fender, Bombay Bicycle Club, Beach Fossils and The 1975, Western Jaguar offers a soaring mix of indie rock and dream pop. 

I want to start with an existential question. I’m curious about whether you consider Western Jaguar a band or a project or a stage-name or even an extension of yourself, if that makes sense. I almost think of it as your superhero self. I’m curious because the credits for Oblivion list a number musicians, but the photo on your Bandcamp page depicts only you. So how would you describe your relationship to Western Jaguar?

This is a great question and kinda lends itself back to reflecting on the history of the project.

When Western Jaguar began, it was just me. Glacia, my first record, was recorded entirely by me in my bedroom in my parents house. But, when I released it, people loved it and I had played in bands and friends wanted me out for shows locally and such, so naturally I had my friends and fellow musicians join up to fulfill that demand. From there, it was an ever-evolving cast of characters. The main stalwarts were KC Roces, who was with me from 2014, AJ Buckley, who joined in 2016 and Davis Zand, who joined in 2018. Those guys were the key collaborators and if you asked me this question pre-COVID, I would have said we collectively were Western Jaguar.

But moving forward, I think Western Jaguar is circling back to more of an individual endeavor. Yes, those guys still played a part on Oblivion, but they were more minor roles. The only major exception would be Davis who was a key player in mixing and producing a lot of the record. Davis and I work a lot together, both on Western Jaguar and other recording projects.

Overall though, yes, it is kinda complex. I am working with other musicians in some capacity but at the end of the day, the buck stops with me. The big decisions about where the project goes, how things are released and creative liberties are at my feet. I see myself as Western Jaguar and Western Jaguar as an extension of me.

And why Western Jaguar? What does the name mean to you?

The name actually started as a joke. I broke my collarbone in 2012 playing soccer (football for my European friends) and was having a lot of trouble sleeping so I ended up staying up late most nights watching the Discovery Channel because every other channel was infomercials by 3-4am.

Anyways, one night there was a doc on Jaguar’s and I found it cool and relatable to where I was emotionally at during that time. Jaguars are solitary, they live and hunt alone, and they tend to live in areas hard to reach or access. They love being by themselves. These things all kinda resonated with me.

I also had a project prior to Western Jaguar called “The New Pacific” and I loved the idea of continuing on with a geographic edge to the name. I was also studying Geography in University at the time as well. So, I settled on Western as the direction and then Jaguar on the back end for the reasons above.

I told a few friends that I planned on naming my project Western Jaguar and 90% of the feedback I got was laughter. So, I went back to the drawing board and came up with some other potential names… honestly don’t remember them now… but every time I brought these new names up with the same people they were like “no, you are Western Jaguar, thats who you are” – so it stuck from that point on.

10 years on, I love the name. It evokes something in me but has also allowed me to create a separate persona away from my own self. Having that divide between my music and my personal life (in that relatively minor way) has been a great way to lose myself even more in the music. I wouldn’t change even if I had the chance.

Your bio mentions that the project started in a bedroom, and I see on Bandcamp that your first release came out about ten years ago. What’s changed since then?

I kinda touched on this in the first question, but honestly I think the biggest thing that has changed is the innocence. When I was making Glacia, I recorded the whole thing on a $40 USB microphone. I had no idea what I was doing. No technique, no fancy plug-ins, no monitors, no audio interface even… just direct usb mic into my computer… I didn’t care though, I was just stoked to be making music.

10 years on, I think I have this standard in myself now, which I don’t think is a bad thing, but it definitely makes you more hard and jaded in a way. You know more so you expect more. It’s hard to get into a headspace where you are truly as free as when you first started out with zero knowledge, expertise or expectation.

I forget where, but I recently saw that you’ve described your music described as “sad boy music,” which came as a little bit of a surprise to me. Personally, I feel like there’s a joy in your music, particularly in the harmonies. Then again, your albums have somewhat melancholy titles like Oblivion and Memorial—and, of course, there’s the song “Darker Days.” Do you find joy in sadness—or, for that matter, sadness in joy? What’s the interplay between the two like from your perspective?

This is definitely a shift that has been occurring slowly over time. I think the “sad boy indie rock” moniker was coined by a former bassist of mine, Ryan Domingo. He said something along the lines of “you’re just a sad boy playing indie rock” and that kinda became the ethos and identifier for a while.

I will say recently I have found myself creeping more and more into the pop world but I honestly still feel if you dive into the lyrics and read between the lines that “sad boy” vibe still exists. It may be a little veiled but I still use music as my outlet for the things that are hanging me up in my life. It’s how I get my emotions out. It’s really my therapy. Therefore, a lot of things I write about are darker even if it’s hidden by poppy rhythms.

Better Daze is a great example of this. If you didn’t pay close attention to the lyrics, you would think it’s a total upbeat pop rock tune, but lyrically it is incredibly dark. It may not fully fit anymore, but I still think I like to highlight life’s heaviest themes within the music. I want people to feel something when they listen.

And if you don’t mind going a little further in that direction, what’s the attraction to sad—or dark—songs? I ask as someone who write a lot of dark stuff myself.

I think those sad and dark times are what really mold us into the people we are. No one has a life that perfectly goes to plan. Sadly, I think a lot of people are still hesitant to share those hard times and would rather internalize and think it’s their problem alone to deal with. Writing about it and reflecting on it in my music hopefully signals to people that their struggles are human issues that we all have.

Yet I have to say that “Darling” is an incredibly upbeat and romantic song. Sure there’s the line about crying at the tombstones of father, but overall, I feel like the track is overflowing with love and optimism. Less of a question than an observation, I suppose, but feel free to chime in!

Yea, and that kinda speaks to this juxtaposition or transition that has occurred between Memorial and Oblivion. The biggest changes being, when Memorial was recorded I was still living at home, going to University and figuring my life out, while with Oblivion I am now married, living with my wife and 6 years into a career.

Primarily referring to Darling though, marriage would be the catalyst behind it. It’s hard to be sad all the time when you are married to someone so amazing whom you love so much. Darling was trying to capture my feelings on that. I don’t think it’ll be the last optimistic song I write!

Speaking of “Darling,” I was incredibly excited to jump on that one when you made the stems and multi-tracks of songs from Oblivion available for anyone who wanted to remix them. What was the idea there?

I got the stems from Davis for the songs he mixed in the middle of August and in his message to me when he sent them he wrote “here’s the stems, you should do a remix competition or something”

I don’t know if he was serious or not but it got my mind spinning. From there I kinda ran it through The “Only The Host” community on Twitter (X) which I would say is part of the #tweetcore-verse. I kinda just wanted to see if anyone was interested in maybe taking it on and a few people said they were. I believe John, (Only The Host) was  actually the first person to do something with the stems.

I know I didn’t want to do a competition though, I didn’t want people competing to be a part of it. So I just posted a Tweet about it saying here are the stems, make something and send it to me and 6,000 views later I’m anticipating 20-30 remixes.

I’m very overwhelmed and humbled by the community response. I have too many remixes to be honest! But I guarantee every remix will be hosted on my bandcamp page once complete!

Was there any trepidation with respect to entrusting music to other people?

I honestly didn’t really feel that. Oblivion has been out for months and I know people who are working on it have heard the original versions and appreciate the original versions. I don’t think anything anyone does has any impact on the original songs. If anything, they are just adding to the artistry that is the Oblivion tapestry. I am really excited to hear them.

You mention in your liner notes to Oblivion that you walked away from Western Jaguar in the wake of the pandemic. What brought you back?

I know people probably expect some profound answers about personal growth, a big epiphany, or a huge life turning point, but I don’t think any of that truly happened. I think I walked away because I needed a personal reset in my life. Western Jaguar had become something I didn’t intend it to be and I didn’t feel connected to it anymore… I guess I felt I had almost grown out of it and it was time to move on.

But really, what brought me back was just loving to make music. I missed it. I missed writing songs. I missed the challenge of recording. I missed connecting with people over my music like this. I missed the thrill of completing something you’re proud of. I missed all these little things that I had kinda forgotten about in the chaos of building a band.

Now, I’m 31 and I know who I am and I’m confident in who I am. That made it easy to go back to Western Jaguar because at its roots, Western Jaguar is about me expressing myself in my own way. That had kinda disappeared throughout the late 2010s. I am loving this new era and excited for what is coming.

Speaking of that, what is next for Western Jaguar?

So many things!

Oblivion: Remixes will be out before the end of 2023.

I have a really exciting “looking back” project I’m working on for the 10 year anniversary of the project that will hopefully be released in January/February 2024.

Additionally, I also have a brand new record of 9 tunes that I am incredibly excited about that will hopefully be released in the middle stages of 2024.

Lastly, I am currently working on a boatload of collaborations and projects with so many talented people.

To be honest, I feel like I am making the best music of my life right now. It is so damn exciting!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

Thanks Marc! Western Jaguar Forever!