For 19-year-old electronic r&b producer JMYSTR, aka Jamie Bowman, the 1990s played a role in his music taste and career later than what’s typical of his generation. “My music taste and upbringing was quite late actually, you could say that I didn't really plan to go into music until around the end of school/going into college, so it's quite hard to say favourite 90s artists. However when going back and looking throughout the R&B/Soul of that era it's so hard to pick. R Kelly and Erykah Badu with their vibes resonate in me. That kind of R&B is something I would love to do in the future.”

While Bowman isn’t pondering the musical upbringing he could have had, he’s living for the weekend, or rather The Weeknd. “My main idol that got me interested in making music and helped me know what direction I wanted myself to go in is The Weeknd. People know him now as one of the popular singers but I found his sound a few years ago, in the HOB (House of Balloons) era and I've never looked back.” It’s the Weeknd’s “dark, mysterious, edgy and unwelcoming” sound that comes through in the lead single ‘Better’ (featuring LU) from JMYSTR’s album ITAW. He tells me “It's Taken A While, abbreviated as ITAW, is a project of mine a long time in the making, back to college days. Like I was promising people back then "yeah something's coming out real soon" and what is it, something like two years later? It's finally going to be out Friday April 29th”. This wasn’t the original intention in terms of when he wants his music released, Bowman had to “put the album [release date] back a week” due to sampling issues.

When operating in the minefield of releasing music in an age where sampling is the norm, it’s hard to avoid trouble further down the road, so Bowman is wise to take steps to ensure he’s safe. “Yeah there's been several difficulties and obstacles to manoeuvre, most notably the sample issue this week just gone, which was a mini nightmare. It's an industry where even the smallest unknown artists can get punished and picked upon for the smallest of things, and you've got to make sure you have everything cleared before releasing.”

Bowman was originally Jmister, “an old nickname back in primary school”, but it was changed to JMYSTR as Bowman feels “it suits better as a brand and I feel more comfortable with it as my alias or my identity”. Prior to releasing ITAW, lead single ‘Better’ featuring vocalist LU was released. “Better is a song that I just love, not in an arrogant way hopefully but it just gives me good vibes. The song was originally written about someone last year who I was with, and she actually plays a big part in the story of the album, but it went horribly wrong for me and killed my summer basically, but I re-vamped it when I met my current girlfriend, because she's helped me rebound, get back to positivity and now it just makes me feel good again. Plus the feedback I've had on it has been unexpected, over 3,000 Spotify plays is a mad start.”

A range of things keeps Bowman interested as an artist. “What excites me? Everything! From listening to new music, picking pieces up from it, writing new lyrics, melodies, vocal lines even to watching tutorials on new production gear, I'm so intrigued by it all.” He tries to keep a balance between artist and producer to keep his options open. “Yet I'm in two minds; whether to stay a low key behind the artist producer, or go out and try to expose myself as much as possible as a producer artist, because I know deep inside me something within wants to come out, I just need to decide whether to tame or unleash it.”

ITAW is just a start, as Bowman has a collection of ideas full of potential, in the form of “a library of around 40/50 tracks I've not even got anywhere near to finishing yet.” But for him, despite the ideas needing work, the abundance of usable sounds is “a producer's favourite nightmare.” The follow up to ITAW might take a while, but the quality of material like ‘Better’ shows that taking the time to think and not rushing into things is what works best for him. However long it takes, we’ll be waiting patiently.

Interview by Daniel Cook