Following the release of his debut album BINDS, the BK-based indie synth-pop artist serves up “a dope itinerary for two different days in Brooklyn”
———————————————————————————————
We couldn’t bear to chop and crop Jamison’s submission to fit an Instagram caption character limit, so here it is in its entirety: “a dope itinerary for two different days in Brooklyn”—customized for the warmer and colder halves of the year.
When it’s cold…
“I’ve lived in Clinton Hill down by the Navy Yard for over a decade now, and in Brooklyn for even longer. I’d spent years excitedly exploring everything new and old I could find in my adopted home. But when I was writing my debut album BINDS I’d begun struggling with mental and emotional health and I found myself seeking out places of silence and solitude that were soothing to me but that were also kind of wrecked –– the internal/external landscape matchup thing.
At first it was wandering under the BQE, then along the walls of the Navy Yard, then it was longer runs and bike rides into all the post-industrial nooks and crannies along the East River in Williamsburg and Greenpoint before they developed all of it. I was amazed how much relief I found just being able to be near moving water. One of my favorite discoveries is still there: it’s called the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, which I had to look up. It’s basically a small, winding, promenade park along the creek in industrial Greenpoint with minimal landscaping and creative framing of its surroundings: a superfund site, a ‘metal-management center’ flanked by barges full of crushed cars, and a space-age-looking water treatment plant. Play your favorite musician who blends organic with electronic sounds and go for a post-apocalyptic walk with no one else around. The bookend instrumental pieces on my album were inspired here.
After that you’re going to need some dopamine, so get reservations with some friends to one of my favorite rooms and experiences in all of NYC at The Pixie and the Scout. It feels like finding a speakeasy but not one of those staged ones in Manhattan –– so much so that I once staged an immersive-theater, multi-media, album listening party here for my debut. But for you, two married chefs and amazing humans have created a monthly Community Supper Club in their catering space in Crown Heights. Katy and Jonathan have helped run a ton of famous places in the city but they were trained most fully at Blue Hill, ground-zero for all that farm-to-fork stuff. At Pixie you pay way less than you should, you get tons of family-style courses, and it’s a communal table in a small room so you always make new, interesting friends. It’s also BYOB and there’s an option to contribute to a ‘solidarity’ seat so that the less fortunate and/or those in justice work can attend for free. You’ll always go home full of belly and heart, and probably a bit drunk.”
When it’s warm…
“Sustainable city life for me has become all about the water. They just opened up the Navy Yard NYC ferry stop, so you’re going to go there and grab something fortifying from Russ & Daughters or Transmitter Brewing. Then take the ferry to Wall Street and transfer to the Rockaway line. Get a rosé or beer and sit up top on the left so you can take in almost all of waterfront Brooklyn: Red Hook, the Verrazano, Coney Island, Gravesend Bay, Coney Island, Dead Horse Bay, etc.
When the ferry stops and if it’s in season, head over to my friends at the High 97 concession stand who make the best, freshest fish sandwich you’ll ever have. Or get a world-beating pie from cursing sailor Whitney at Whit’s End. Take some surf lessons from ultra-chill local Dillon O’Toole.
Once you’re exhausted and sunburnt you will suddenly realize you are in friggin’ Queens and this Jamison Wake guy must be an a**clown because he recommended this to a Bands Do Brooklyn site. You’ll consider that Rockaway is kind of honorary Brooklyn, at least in all the ways Brooklyn used to be (and still is) actually diverse and rough and awesome, but if you still feel misled, it’s okay, just run back to the ferry or take the train as fast as you can to wash the other-borough off of you on The Brooklyn Barge, drinking beers and watching the sun set over the East River and the Manhattan skyline from your floating perch while listening to my banger ‘Glow.’ :)”
———————————————————————————————
A**clown or not (we vote not), Jamison Wake has made a seriously beautiful album. Check out BINDS, follow the artist on Instagram @jamisonwake and keep up with it all at jamisonwake.com.
Feature image provided by the artist.