Tedious & Brief

23-year-old Jamie Jacobsen is Chicago’s Tedious & Brief. She just dropped her newest single “Not That Deep” via AESTHETYK. On her latest single, she takes a deep dive into a break-up story that’s not even her own. Jacobsen explains, "My husband came to me with the opening lyrics of the song, ‘I’m tired of singing your songs. I thought they were for me but turns out they were yours all along.’ He’s a studio drummer and every session he played on that week was for songs touching on the subject of a person who broke the writer’s heart. He thought to himself, ‘What does it look like once you’re done grieving and you’re ready to move on? You’ll look back at your catalog of music and realize you’ve been writing about the same person and heartache and you’re eventually sick of giving them that attention.’ So that’s what we wrote about. 'Not That Deep' comes from the perspective of a person who’s done thinking about that passive tweet; who’s ready to burn the shirt they were bought, who’s over writing songs about them; and—most of all, is done letting that person have power over them.”

Jamie is as gritty and stubborn as her South side roots would suggest, and her thoughtful blend of commercial-ready, groove-oriented, indie-alt pop reflects an existential mind who’s not used to thinking inside boxes. But her tendency to keep a tongue-in-cheek songwriting approach keeps her every bit relatable. She took up guitar and songwriting at a young age. Jacobsen identifies some of her earliest influences as Stevie Ray, Muddy Waters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, though her style has strayed greatly from the nostalgic rock of her childhood to form a more polished sound featuring airy synth elements and smooth vocals akin to Maggie Rogers or Lorde.

She says, “I’m a sucker for nostalgia. It’s my favorite feeling. So, I’m always processing ways to incorporate parts of the past: growing up, finding identity and purpose—sometimes poking fun at the absurdity of the moments—into my writing. The process of writing matters more to me than the end product sometimes.”

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