Jude Woodhead channels globe-spanning, timeless influences into debut single ‘Beautiful Rain’

Jude Woodhead channels globe-spanning and timeless influences with the release of debut single ‘Beautiful Rain’

Out via Just Off Pop

Photo Cred: Travis Barton

Jude Woodhead ~ Beautiful Rain

“Woodhead’s world music infused sound is purely euphoric” – BEAT

At only twenty, classically trained South Londoner Jude Woodhead already sounds fully formed. Part of a scene alongside Cosmo Pyke and King Krule, his debut release ‘Beautiful Rain’, out via Just Off Pop, lays out his MO confidently as a cutting edge producer with a sound that defies categorisation. Joining the melodic ideas of world music with a slick modern electronic approach, Jude’s collaging style ends up feeling as big as his most surprising influences: Paul Simon and Jeff Buckley.
That they are strong influences comes as no surprise when you take stock of the broad emotional palate of his music. ‘Beautiful Rain’ is all nuance and subtle build-up through a central afrobeat vocal sample, guided by the euphoria of crossing boundaries – a kind of electronic Graceland made by an artist who understands music on a penetratingly deep level. It’s released as a collage style video made by Jude who went through a lot of photos from his summers and arranged parts of the photos in stop motion. He suggests it’s “about memory, particularly the way that we remember things as snapshots or scenes. Hopefully this sense of young summer nostalgia for the time when I made the song comes across in the video.”
While picking up the trumpet at seven, and starting out as a producer at eleven, Jude was inspired by his dad’s collection of Congolese and South African records and classic songwriters. In his teenage years he found artists like Floating Points and Four Tet and started crafting a sound that utilised everything he ever learned about the music he’s loved.
As a DJ, Jude can be heard hosting shows on Balamii Radio, holding down a bi-monthly slot at Jaguar Shoes (Shoreditch) or appearing at some of Peckham’s best-loved spots. The summer of 2018 brings the release of Jude’s debut single and first live set. It’s the first concrete step he’s making in the industry, but he arrives fully-formed, and with his youth still long ahead of him, there is no doubt that he will make a space for himself that no other artist would be able to imitate convincingly.

‘Beautiful Rain’ is out now on Just Off Pop.