“Never Meant to Be,” the latest single from Jersey Shore singer-songwriter Jim Mill’s new EP, “Unhappy Hour,” is the Makin Waves Song of the Week.
Apple’s Garage Band makes it that much easier to record, and Jersey Shore singer-songwriter Jim Mill has taken full advantage by using the program to produce his sophomore solo EP, “Unhappy Hour.”
The long-awaited follow-up to the 2013 solo debut, “Aperture,” the EP features the second single, “Never Meant To Be,” the Makin Waves Song of the Week.
As the Makin Waves Song of the Week, “Never Meant To Be” also can be heard between 6 and 8 p.m. on March 31 on “Radio Jersey” at ThePenguinRocks.com. If you miss it, you can tune in any time in the archives at The Penguin or MixCloud.
A veteran of such bands as Gravity Well and Wynward, Jim wrote, recorded and mixed all of “Unhappy Hour” completely solo at home with an Ipad using the aforementioned Garage Band.
Advertise with The Penguin Rocks for $50-$100 per month, click here for info
“I played every instrument — guitar, bass, keyboard — on the EP aside from the drums, which I programmed using Garage Band’s AI Drums to every song,” Jim said. “There was no outside influence on any song.
“The EP's theme is loss, life, and processing how fragile navigating that all can be,” he continued. “A personal benchmark of where my mind was in the last year, and why I took a small hiatus from music.”
Jim’s first recorded project since Wynward’s 2017 debut album, “Tides,” the name “Unhappy Hour” came up when he started testing the songs with a friend.
He explained that they mentioned that the lyrical themes of the songs are sad, but musically, they’re upbeat and radio-friendly.
“Like songs you’d typically hear during happy hour at a bar,” Jim said.
About “Never Meant To Be,” he added, “During the fall, I started getting back into really collecting vinyl again, and in turn, I began listening — and covering — a lot of bands from the ‘80s. I was listening to a lot of Tears for Fears, The Cure, Joy Division, and early R.E.M. when I got the urge to do something entirely new for me. I really wanted to try and capture the twangy guitar sound along with the droning keyboards you’d hear on a lot of those post-punk songs. The first part of the song I wrote was the chorus and the rest sort of came from that.
“The song is about realizing that sometimes your dreams are just dreams,” Jim continued. “The theme came from when I took a hiatus from music. I felt burned out on performing entirely. I felt like I wasted so much of my time trying to get somewhere with it, and that maybe it wasn’t meant to be — and it was something I needed to make peace with.”
Advertise with The Penguin Rocks for $50-$100 per month, click here for info
Fear not!
Jim not only is performing in support of “Unhappy Hour,” he will be making a video for “Never Meant To Be” soon.
The EP’s first single, “Oh Where It Takes Me,” was the song that planted the idea to finally release an EP after it did really well on TikTok, Jim said.
Hear both songs and more live April 15 and May 6 at Max Devros, Manasquan, and July 22, Pino’s, Highland Park. In the fall, Jim is planning a live run of Weezer’s “Blue” album with an allstar band.
The very appropriately entitled Makin Waves Song of the Week, "Wave," is the second single from Tusk guitarist-vocalist Scott McDonald's forthcoming solo LP.
(BLAIRSTOWN, NJ) -- Kalos, a Celtic roots trio, will perform an eclectic, invigorating mix of instrumentals and songs at Roy's Hall on Friday, May 17, 2024. Showtime is 8:00pm.
(DEAL PARK, NJ) -- Axelrod Performing Arts Center has a pair of great shows coming up in April. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of Joni Mitchell's 1974 album Court and Spark, The Joni Project will perform the album in its entirety, along with a selection of other Joni favorites, on Saturday, April 20 at 8:00pm. The following week, Magical Mystery Doors will perform classics from The Beatles, The Doors and Led Zeppelin on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 8:00pm.
Images used on this site have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and PR firms. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us and we will look into the matter.
![Makin Waves Song of the Week: "Never Meant to Be" by Jim Mill](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2023/Waves-March31.jpg "Makin Waves Song of the Week: "Never Meant to Be" by Jim Mill")
