Mustard had the pleasure of speaking with Ricky Jamaraz! Together we discussed identify theft, Gary and Lauren, their creative process, social media, and so much more!
1. Mustard is grateful to have you join them at Music Shelf. How are you doing?
Hey, yeah I’m doing alright, thank you so much for asking!! I’ve been staying hydrated and trying to sleep more because it’s healthy and important 🙂
2. Identity theft is an issue that affects many humans every year. Can you confirm that your name is not Dave?
I can indeed confirm my name is not Dave, and to be honest it simply couldn’t be. It has been proven by 9 out of 10 dentists that a person called Dave cannot physically exist in our universe, so if someone ever tells you their name is Dave, they’re lying. Run.
3. According to your Spotify biography, you are a kid who has too much free time. What do you like to do with this free time?
Yeah I do have a lot of free time to be fair, I do lots of fun things!! Because I’m just a silly child I still have to go to school, most lunchtimes I spend in the music rooms writing songs or playing music in some form or another. When I get home I do lots of fun things too, I’ll brainstorm on how to take over the world, take some pretty pictures, record songs, it’s really quite entertaining. But being an independent artist is more than what meets the eye!! I also do nerdy stuff like look at analytics for things, see which pieces of content are performing the best, research things, SPREADSHEETS oh my god I’m such a nerd cos I’ll fill out spreadsheets of information and I’ll just… look at it. I love it.
4. Additionally, you had math homework due. Did this ever get turned in?
Oh yeah haha, I wrote my Spotify bio at like 2am and midway through I realised I had homework due later that day, so I went to sleep and did it on the way to school and got it handed in 🙂 You might not realise this but I’m actually a mega genius, because by mentioning I had maths homework due in my bio, I become a lot more relatable to a young demographic who also have maths homework due, and what I’ve learned from being a nerd is that people like someone who’s relatable >:)
5. You write, perform, publish, edit, and manage everything yourself. When did you begin this process? Are you self-taught?
Sooo yeah I’ve always done everything myself really, ever since the very start, but boy have I come a long way!! When I look back on how I used to do things like how I used to write or produce or promote I cringe SO HARD. I am completely self-taught in everything I do, the only way I got better at writing and recording songs was to just do it very often I guess? In terms of learning how to promote my music, I learned a lot from obviously doing the hard work and researching, you know? This guy called Damian Keyes has a YouTube channel and he’s like Jesus for indie musicians, I learned so much from him.
6. What is your creative process?
Honestly I don’t even know at this point, I just do stuff and it happens you know? When I write songs I like to obviously come up with a main vibe, maybe a title or a phrase, maybe some pretty chords or a melody, I really don’t know how it works, but it does.
7. Who (or what) influences you?
Ahhh again I don’t really know!! I like a LOT of different music, if you listen to my music it’s all pretty indie rock-y but I do take a lot of influences from different genres, I’m particularly fond of jazz and I always make sure to use some jazzy chords in my songs where I can, it’s really cool. I think the music I’ve been producing recently (unreleased hehe) has a lot more of a reflection on my musical influences, there’s definitely a few shoegaze elements, math rock, midwest emo, those kinds of things I’m really into, and I like to mix and match little aspects together, because I can and it’s slay and awesome for realsies.
8. 2021 saw the release of your album “Tunes from Deep Within.” What was it like to put this album together?
Oh my god aaaa nooo I hate that album so much it’s so horrendously sub-par. From like May – July 2021 I recorded a batch of songs with the help of my dad, I was 13 at the time and I did my best but it was all quite rubbish. You can find those OG songs on my SoundCloud if you dig around. Anyway, Over that summer, I rerecorded all of those songs again on my own this time, and released it in September as my debut album Tunes From Deep Within. Those songs are produced to such an embarrassingly bad level, I can’t stand hearing it, I haven’t heard it in over a year and a half and I never play any of the songs on there. Too ew for me.
9. For those who have not visited, could you describe the Deep Within?
Rubbish. Anything I’ve made is better than that. Please save yourself and listen to anything from 2022 and beyond. We don’t talk about 2021.
10. You are in love with an alien. How can humans better improve their relationship with intergalactic beings?
HAHA yeah I wrote a song called Intergalactic Love about my alien girlfriend for anyone who doesn’t know. As to improving our relationship with aliens, I think we should as a collective stop killing our planet and learn to accept the fact that some people are different to us? Right now, some sad excuses for humans can’t accept that another person of the same species is a different colour to them, or likes different types of people, or is a different gender. If I was an alien I’d be scared to come to earth, I don’t blame them for hiding from us. If any aliens are reading this, please take me with you.
11. Mustard would like to apologize for ruining your plans. What can Mustard do to fix the situation?
Hmmm. Well, it’s okay. I’d rather my plans be ruined by you than by anyone else in the history of mustardkind.
12. Mustard loves all the humans on your album artwork for “You Me Us Them.” How did humans help inspire this album?
Okay I don’t know why but the way you phrased that is so perfect. You Me Us Them is very much an album about humans, relationships between humans, and like the psychology of them too. It’s completely written from my perspective, inspired my own experiences and thoughts (as with many of my songs), and I guess humans helped by being around me, and by me being one. I’m a young human and I think that inspires me a lot.
13. Have you received any updates on how Gary and Lauren are doing?
Oh my god. I hope they’re both dead. Okay listen, Gary and Lauren, even though being one of my precious songs, is the worst song of all time and my least favourite song of all time. I cannot stand it, and I cannot understand anyone who can stand it. It’s an abomination. I don’t think it even counts as a song. It’s just ugly noise. I hope Gary and Lauren got eaten by the zombies then aliens came to the planet and cured everyone except them two, and then all the cured humans ganged up on them and made them feel incredibly uncomfortable and awkward.
14. How has social media helped you as an artist? Do you have a favourite platform?
Oh yeah, in this day and age, social media has helped me so much, and I owe all of everything to it, and it’s stupid algorithm. Indie artists depend on social media these days, it’s just how the stupid music business works in the twenties, you know?? I like saying twenties because it makes me feel like I’m living in an important time period. So yeah, as for a favourite platform, let me run through them. Instagram, my favourite for sure. I recently got my account (with 103k followers) hacked, and it’s suuuchhh an inconvenience, but I have a backup account (now my main @rickyjamarazmusic)and those who follow me there are just so supportive and interactive, and it’s such a great community. As for others, Facebook’s dead isn’t, no one cares about them. Youtube’sbeen growing a bit more recently, but still won’t ever be the same as Instagram, my beloved. Oh yeah, TikTok exists aswell, it’s where I’m technically most famous with 113k followers but honestly I don’t really care for them too much. Don’t tell them that though. I just post shit on there and let it do it’s thing, Instagram will always be my true love. Sorry about all that, bet you didn’t think I had assigned personalities and opinions to social media followings did you? Ha.
15. Your most recent single “Microwave” really took off. What was the inspiration behind this single? Did you expect it to blow up like it did?
Most people think my Microwave is just a bit of a not-serious, joke song, like it doesn’t have a meaning. And to some people it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just crazy and random and that’s why I think it popped off like it did, the true meaning is hidden so deeply that people automatically can’t be bothered to figure it out so assign their own meaning to it. Like all my songs, it’s very personal, and its true meaning is only for me to know 🙂 I had no idea it would blow up the way it did, and honestly I don’t think I acknowledged how scary it was thatmy whole project grew so quickly in a short amount of time, and sometimes I wish it hadn’t so I didn’t always compare everything to how well Microwave performed, but at the end of the day I’m just a little bit famous and I have money to buy snacks whenever I want, so I can’t complain.
16. Mustard wonders what your favourite food to microwave is.
Okay right, one of my favourite snacks ever is this. You get a plain tortilla wrap, fold it into quarters. Put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and let it get nice and warm. Take it out, unfold it and spread Nutella on it, or some other chocolate spread. Because it’s warm the chocolate spread will melt slightly and spread super easily, then once you have reached optimal coverage, roll it up and you have yourself a Rimcharmd Roll. You’re welcome.
17. What is next for Ricky Jamaraz?
So much cool stuff. That’s all I’m saying. I have so many songs in my song bank I’m actually filthy rich. I don’t want to spoil anything because it’s good to get the fanbase speculating and build hype, so allow me to end this sentence and if you’re a fan of mine this is your cue to begin speculating.
18. Where can readers listen to your music?
You can listen to my original bedroom-crafted indie music on literally wherever you listen to music online 🙂 And make sure you follow me on as many platforms as you can to keep up to date with my adventures in becoming the most coolest person in the universe. Thank you so very much, dear reader. Go drink water, stay hydrated and take care of yourself for me!
Music Shelf With Mustard 