Jerry Folk
Once known mainly for remixes, over the last few years he's developed his own sound for his original work — but will fans stick around?
Jerry Folk is a 26-year-old1 electronic musician from Oslo, Norway. Growing up he took a year of ballet which lead to an interest in break dancing, which exposed him to Hip-Hop and beat music. Around the age of 15 a friend introduced him to Fruity Loops (or FL Studio) and the rest is history.
He started entering and winning online remix contests, and to this day he's probably more well-known for his remixes than his original work. Going by Spotify stats, 8 of his top 10 tracks are remixes or pre-Leisure Tapes originals. I say pre-Leisure Tapes because there really is a difference in his output before this album — which, if I'm being honest, is kinda boring. It's just so... generic and forgettable, but also kinda popular. In fact, his most popular.
The tracks I'm highlighting are his best work so far, IMO. But only two of them crack the top 10 on Spotify — taking the 9 & 10 spots a year+ after release… and only 1 of them is even close to a million plays (~50k away). For reference: his most popular track has 63 million+ plays.
Some time around 20172 he moved to Los Angeles and his approach to his production changed quite a bit. I’m not sure how to describe it exactly — he went from a kind of generic euro-rave sound to a more alt-indie-pop vibe. He started to incorporate real instruments and a rougher, less-polished sound. I might think it was a change for the better, but the current stats on Spotify & Youtube seem to disagree. So, I guess we’ll see how it all pans out.
On most of his material released after 2020 there’s a “feature” or guest named FENGSEL, which is actually his side project. I’m not sure if this was said by Jerry himself or if it was the interpretation of the article’s author3 where I read this, but apparently this side project was inspired by Toro Y Moi, James Blake, Majid Jordan and Flume. The weirdest thing about that is, I’d be more likely to ascribe a Flume influence to the “pre-Leisure Tapes” material I’m specifically avoiding here. Anyway…
The first song of his to catch my attention was a song off Leisure Tapes, released in 2018, called “Lesson” — but mostly because it reminded me of some other song… but I just couldn’t place it until I woke up the next morning with It Ain't Over 'til It's Over by Lenny Kravitz stuck in my head.
After realizing why I had this song in my head that I hadn’t heard since I was a kid, it sent me down the Jerry Folk rabbit hole. Fortunately, I was a little late to the party — it was around the time the Dotted Line singles were being released — and the “change” in his sound/approach had already happened, otherwise I’m not sure I’d have looked any further into his work.
Hopefully he continues to develop his sound in interesting ways, but as of now [Sept 2022] my personal favorites and recommended tracks would be (in chronological order):
All In Me — Leisure Tapes, 2018
Another Night — Leisure Tapes, 2018
Lesson — Leisure Tapes, 2018
Bakers — Leisure Tapes, 2018
Note: There's something about this song that reminds me of “The Inevitable End” era Röyksopp
Most People — Sneeze EP, 2019
Sneeze — Sneeze EP, 2019
Red Ish — Moving Points EP, 2021
Blinker — Moving Points EP, 2021
On My Way — Dotted Red, 2021
Dotted Red — Dotted Red, 2021
Everything — Dotted Red, 2021
Note: This is one of my favorite tracks of his, but I always forget about its awkwardly homo-erotic music video … always left me wondering “is this good or just weird + well lit?” The video's epilogue is the opening lines of the track Ferris Wheel (which actually comes before this track on the album). I kinda think it works better here and could have been more interesting worked out from this point instead of the way it was ultimately presented on the album, but… w/e.
U Got It — U Got It [Single], 2022
Spotify bio makes this claim as of Sept 2022, but no indication of when it was posted/updated
I watched/read an interview that I can’t find now where he says his album Leisure Tapes was recorded in LA... and that came out in August 2018… so, unless I can find a solid date, let's just stick with “around 2017”