Jake Webber is used to reinventing himself. From viral YouTube antics to making his place in the alt-music scene, he has always embraced evolution. Now comes his latest, "Dead Hair," just ahead of his back-to-back DJ set with Johnnie Guilbert at Emo Nite's 10th anniversary, a hypnotic marriage of shoegaze haze and emotional rawness that does the most to mark his sonic evolution.
"Dead Hair" floats in like a confession made after hours, its airy vocal coos and dream-dragging guitar layers lulling you into a trance of melancholic rest. But as the shimmer of "Dead Hair" feels like it might float away, the rhythm section comes in throbbing bass, driving drum patterns that crash in and give a man-of-the-people urgency to the otherwise inward-looking.
Biz buzzes lyrically with self-doubt, crooning, "Burning out, you will see I'm the pain you need to feed. Feeling loved cuts too deep. Run away, I'm ugly." It has a rawness that pierces and lays bare the invasive thoughts that slip into your mind when love feels too good to be true. But in the morning, his fears fade away, and she is still there because, in love, sometimes we stay even when we don't feel we deserve it.
"Dead Hair" is an emotional tug-of-war journey between self-sabotage and giving in. With this release, Webber further blurs genre lines, fashioning a sound that's part dreamy, part destructive. If this is any sign of what's to come, 2025 could be his biggest year yet.