While I'm Distracted (Vinyl) (2LP)

On debut album ‘While I’m Distracted’, London-based New Zealander Arjuna Oakes draws inspiration from contemporary soul and jazz, touches of global folk, electronica, modern classical, and post-rock, with dynamic arrangements and production. ‘While I’m Distracted’ is an album about fighting for your innocence and right to be a vulnerable and honest human. Arjuna’s songwri­ting explores themes of identity, depression, existentialism, social media, loss of innocence, and finding hope for the future through artistic expression.

“I’m obsessed with albums,” says Arjuna. “I’ve made seven EPs, but needed time to tackle a full length record. I was using the EPs to learn the craft of how to make a great album, much like a director will make short films before they make a feature. I wanted to take the listener on a journey and spark their imagination. Hopefully the album expresses complex emotions, rather than having an intellectual concept. I’d rather ask questions than answer them”.

Using warped phone-recorded piano from Arjuna’s univer­sity, the multi-structured ‘No Joke’ processes the feeling that so much of what we give our time and energy to can feel ‘trivial’, and what is important to us can get lost in the noise, before evolving into a full-voiced mantric, percussive jam.

‘Catch Me’ started life as a demo in 2019 but didn’t come to fruition until Arjuna mixed it with a new version and an ambitious string arrangement. “I then asked Nathan Haines to improvise on flute”, he says, “and when Serebii added some beautiful production touches we finally had the lush little epic that I dreamed of from the start”.

‘Motel’ is a song about feeling stuck in life but using that pent up energy to propel yourself into the future. Expressing that sometimes trying to explain certain emotions through words can be difficult and miss the point, ‘The Love That I Feel’ leans into surreal elements of the lyrics, which, ironically, tries to explain too much.

With unusual, energetic, pulsating reversed drums, ‘Before It’s All Over’ forms a focus in the middle of the album. Arjuna states that, along with ‘Won’t Let This World Break My Heart’, the song best sums up the album thematically, with one lyric also lending the record its title. “Lyrically, it’s the song I’m probably most proud of’” he says. “I wrote it in a very stream of consciousness way, lyrics like “sell my memories so I don’t have to forget” express the feeling of how we’ve surrendered so much of ourselves to social media and mass consumption, we don’t have so much responsibility for our own lives anymore”. Arjuna concludes, “I strive to make music that is unique but feels familiar, that’s pushing the boundaries musically but never gets in the way of the emotion it’s expressing” “I wanted this album to feel diverse in its stylistic palette, drawing on lots of different genres, but flow in a way that feels organic”..

Across the album, Arjuna performs vocals, piano, keyboards, synths, production, and wrote the string arrangements. He’s joined by Harrison Scholes on bass, Jo Jenkins and Andre Smith on guitar, Sam Notman on drums, Louisa Williamson on saxophone, Nathan Haines on flute, Kate King on french horn, Leah Thomas on clarinet, Hilary Hayes and Emma Colligan on violin, Chris Van Der Zee on viola, Charley Davenport on cello, Zane Hawkins on percussion, James Macewan on trumpet, and additional production by Callum Mower.