Experimental folk songwriter Jimi Mack creates music that ‘sounds like Ernest Hemingway & Joni Mitchell’s lovechild’. Hypnotic, baroque fingerpicking and all-consuming baritone vocals warm the bones with tales of darkness, hope & a ferocious lust for life.
Tapping into Celtic traditions and British folk, intertwined with a love of psychedelia, jazz and world music, his music seems to exceed his youth and stretches back into a world of yesteryear lending his performances a timeless quality.
After a robbery incident in his native Belfast, at which he was held at gunpoint, he headed for Spain to hone his craft of guitar playing influenced by the likes of Bert Jansch, Nick Drake & John Martyn, combined with a brooding yet wistful vocal. After 6 months of escaping the sun, picking up bar jobs, ritually practicing & diligently writing, he landed in Nottingham.
His immersion in the Midlands indie & neo-psychedelia scene added a new venom to what was already left-field songwriting. Evocative, tender lyrics tell tales of loss, hope, obsession & the mystic, while his nimble guitar paints euphoric palettes of colour, deftly blending alt-folk with jazz & dark psychedelia, leaving the listener in a trance-like state.
Tireless rambling throughout the UK & Europe to play shows at any given opportunity has seen him rub shoulders with the likes of Ryley Walker, Micah P. Hinson, Night Beats & Torn Sail.
For now Jimi is caught somewhere on a plane between a woodland clearing and a dimly lit city bar. A melting pot of heartfelt folk, psychedelia & jazz.
Single Run to the Sun is set for release summer 2019, preceding his already recorded debut album due autumn 2019.
‘Incredible…prolific.’ – BBC Introducing
‘Jimi Mack’s EP paints a natural environment: light shining through trees in a woodland clearing with water flowing nearby. All four songs have a unique, celestial quality…. This collection is pure fantasy. It’s not a casual listen, but one that brings a sense of wistfulness and loneliness.’ - Leftlion
‘With comparisons to the likes of John Martyn and Tim Buckley, his left field take on jazz-inspired folk is a joy to behold’ – Drowned in Sound