Blair Jollands

"...big soul stuff..." - uncut

Blair Jollands is a singer, songwriter and composer. Often straddling his time between London and his native New Zealand, Blair’s compelling style of songwriting has won admiration from the likes of David Bowie and Boy George. Indeed, George released Blair’s previous material under the guise of El Hula on his More Protein Label.

Evoking moments of melancholia and juxtaposing this with an optimistic outlook, Blair has worked with Madonna and Rhianna, jammed with Grace Jones and James 'Sparks' Sinclair (Johnny Cash), and collaborated with Gordon Raphael (The Strokes). 

Forthcoming single, Everything I Wanted, is an illustration of Blair’s unique versatility. A cover of the Billie Eilish masterpiece, Blair is able to weave his own flair into a poignant, original pop song. 

As Blair explains, "I was looking for a song to cover that was understated, highly emotive and yet something I could produce that didn’t copy the original track, but present a fresh approach to it. Eilish & producer / brother Finneas incorporate electronic elements in their work so I endeavoured to keep all the instruments acoustic. This resulted in a slightly darker rendition of her song. A song might have different meanings to each and everyone of us. I didn’t choose the song because of what it personally meant to Billie, but because of its sound and the emotion it provoked when I first listened to it.”

Everything I Wanted follows the 2021 release of album Holograms. The record offers many of Blair’s trademark soundscapes and is big on melody and mystery with a hint of Morricone thrown in for good measure. Often compared vocally to Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and Scott Walker, Blair has received much praise from the likes of NME, Guardian, Uncut, Artrocker, and many more. 

Everything I Wanted is out on 26th August via MARS Worldwide Label.