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Limerick music producer Jack Ward is taking the music scene by storm

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3 years ago

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Jack Ward is a music producer from Limerick, who has a sincere love for energetic chart-topping pop. Picture: Dylan Reid

Limerick music producer Jack Ward is taking the music scene by storm

 

By I Love Limerick Correspondent Ann Mc Donald


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Jack Ward

In June of 2021 to celebrate Pride month, Jack was invited to provide an hour-long mix of music for Edinburgh-based collective Plant Bass’d DJ’s.

Jack Ward is a music producer from Limerick, who has a sincere love for energetic chart-topping pop. 

 

The openly gay producer channels his taste for addictive hooks and melodies into his own work.

 

His tracks have a clear house signature, influenced by 80’s melodic pop and 90’s/00’s dance tracks, while also bringing his own futuristic twist into the mix. 

 

Jack’s eager approach threads the line between high and low-brow, to bring back a campy, queer thrill to the dancefloor whilst paying homage to the pioneers that came before him.

 

He said, “I started out in 2015 when I signed a deal with San Francisco-based label Dirtybird after they heard my music online, what came from that is a little track called ‘Yoghurt.’”

 

The track led to a placement on the Ministry of Sound compilation ‘FUTURISM 3.0.’

 

He followed the track in 2017 with ‘Witches Next Door,’ a four-track EP, which doubled as his Final Year Project at the Limerick Institute of Technology. 

 

“The EP centered around my own coming to terms with my queerness and how it’s emotionally changing me, helping me grow. I sampled some queer works whilst making this EP including sugary sweet pop music and the ‘Paris is Burning’ documentary,” Jack said.

 

‘Witches Next Door’ was put on vinyl, complete with hand-crafted artwork, and was made available online. It quickly sold out, leading to the project earning praise and support from like-minded producers such as Madteo and Morgan Buckley, as well as the London-based Trilogy Tapes label. 

 

In 2020, he released his track, ‘Palmall,’ with Dublin-based label Patrúin on the charity compilation ‘For MASI,’ which was made up of tracks from Irish musicians and producers.

 

“To date, the compilation has raised over €2,000 for asylum seekers in Ireland. It was really fantastic to help people in need with our sounds and music,” he said.

 

Since its release, the track has had airplay on stations including RTÉ2XM, Beat102/103, RTÉnaG, Dublin Digital Radio, and Today FM as well as on international airwaves such as The Lot New York and London’s NTS and Rinse FM.

 

A story behind the single and how it was made appeared in the Spring/Summer 2021 edition of Emerge Arts Magazine, an independently crafted publication that highlights locally-based creatives and their burgeoning talents.

 

In April 2020, he self-released his track, ‘My Angel Rocks 4th & Back.’ 

 

Jack said, “The track received critical acclaim upon release, being covered by Inverted Audio, Nameless Faceless as well as Resident Advisor, one of the leading electronic music publications in the world who described me as a ‘rising music producer’.”

 

Following the success of the track, was invited to be interviewed on Mark Davis’ Dublin Digital Radio show where he spoke about recent projects and plans for the future. Jack also appeared with the Cork-based collective Variant Crew and on their radio show the following month, sharing an hour-long mix of tracks aimed for dancefloors nestled in amongst new and forthcoming material from the artist.  

 

“This Summer my remix of Washington-based band Daisies song ‘Dido’ was released on their label Jokers Got A Posse. Just last week, Philly Holmes, a Dublin-based creative and producer remixed ‘My Angel Rocks 4th & Back’ which was picked up and covered by Belfast-based collective Plain Sailing and Hot Press Magazine,” he said.

 

In June of 2021 to celebrate Pride month, Jack was invited to provide an hour-long mix of music for Edinburgh-based collective Plant Bass’d DJ’s. The mix, which chose to highlight music from underrepresented queer, transgender, non-binary and femme-identifying musicians was picked up and covered by Aidan Hanratty’s Bandcloud, a weekly publication highlighting the best electronic music happenings and releases.

 

That same month, Jack was featured and profiled in Nameless Faceless Magazine as part of their Pride campaign amongst artists such as Pillow Queens, Smoothboi Ezra, Celaviedmai, and Roo Honeychild.

 

The campaign aimed to highlight a different LGBTQ+ identifying artist each week who is making waves in the Irish music scene.

 

Jack is currently working on producing an EP while branching out and extending his musical knowledge to local artists and musicians, helping them write and produce their material, cementing his status as one to watch across all aspects of his career.

 

To listen to Jack’s music go HERE 

 

For more stories on music go HERE 

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