Wednesday November 10, 2021
Dino Jag’s 2020 release, Can’t Keep Still, was ignited by the 2020 bans on public venue dancing in Australia. That slice of supercharged funk-pop generated across the board radio play and healthy streams and was only kept from the AIR charts #1 position by none other than Kylie Minogue.
Dino’s new release, When the Day Comes, was similarly triggered, inspired by the dreaded pandemic. As Dino says about the track’s origins, ‘When I was working on When the Day Comes,we were in the thick of all the snap lockdowns and travel restrictions across Australia. That kind of isolation also creates the perfect storm for reflection.
And I guess with all the uncertainty that was going on, I also started to look back and question some of the choices I’ve made in my life, and some of those musings found their way into the song.’ When the Day Comes was written during a series of online writing and production sessions with Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney). The new track is a lush pop ride, taking cues from some of the classic big songs of the past and blending them with some of the nuanced and refined emotional power found in contemporary pop-rock blockbusters.
Dino’s vocal style is somewhere between John Legend and Gavin De Graw, earthy, robust and in charge, even when sprinkled with a dash of modern voice manipulation—it remains potent, persuasive. There are other surprises; the central hook is not left up to the typical go for the jugular chorus but is in the verses, with their descending chords, considered lyric and Beatlesque affectations.
The harnessing of contemporary sonics with refined writing is an effective combination, the kind that will undoubtedly expose the award-winning South Australian musician to a broad and willing audience.
