VOICES UNHEARD

JAYLER are:
James Bartholomew – Vocals / Guitar

Tyler Arrowsmith – Guitar
Ricky Hodgkiss – Bass / Keys
Ed Evans – Drums

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Music & lyrics by James Bartholomew; Tyler Arrowsmith; Ricky Hodgkiss; Ed Evans

Produced & Mixed by George Perks

Additional engineering by Georgia Fullalove

Recorded at Vada Studios

Mastered by Andrew ‘Hippy’ Baldwin

Cover Art by Mia Mckeown

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Swaggering classic rock throwbacks Jayler aren’t the first band to stand on the shoulders of the genre’s giants. But here’s the thing… they won’t be there long. You see, standing on the shoulders of fabled forebears is only the start: standing toe to toe with Led Zeppelin, Free, Bad Company et al is JAYLER’s true, burning ambition. Spoiler alert: this incendiary Midlands quartet is getting there. Fast.

Step inside visceral debut Voices Unheard and reassuringly familiar echoes of Plant, Rodgers, Hughes and Coverdale elevate a remarkably assured record. Riffs rich in affecting authenticity resonate with fans of Page, Kossoff and Blackmore. In looking to a storied past, JAYLER point to a thrilling future. A future where respect will be earned and potential realised.

JAYLER don’t hide their influences. Why would they? Taking their lead from legends is the smartest of moves. Adding a 21^st century twist to the tried and tested classic rock formula is smarter still. At the vanguard of the UK’s New Wave of Classic Rock, JAYLER comfortably span eras and constantly spark debate. A breakout year will see the band share stages with Guns N’ Roses, Sammy Hagar and Deep Purple – plug into Voices Unheard and it’s plainly obvious why.

“Music is my life,” promises striking frontman James Bartholomew. He means it. You can hear it — when he talks, just as much as when he sings. The compelling voice of JAYLER is laser focused and madly, deeply in love with his craft. This band is no passing fad for him. James is all in, all of the time.

Same goes for his band mate, and best mate, Tyler Arrowsmith. The ‘ler’ to his buddy’s ‘Jay’, one of the UK’s fastest-rising six-stringers doesn’t over complicate his contribution to a talented collective. “I’ve got my riffs,” he explains. And the kid’s got plenty. Riffs that allow James to shine and JAYLER’s potential to explode.

It was 2021 when the fuse was lit. Tyler’s dad caught a clip of James rocking out at an open mic night in the West Midlands town of Tamworth and, in what would prove to be a sliding doors moment, passed the phone to his son. “I was desperate to find anyone, anywhere who liked playing my kind of music,” explains Tyler, who’d been schooled in AC/DC, ‘80s metal and ‘70s blues. “I saw James and couldn’t believe he was around my age. I was nervous the first night I went along and took some persuading to get involved. But James saw my guitar and we bonded over a Gibson.”

Long before JAYLER was even a thing, James and Tyler geeked out over gear, obsessed over their favorite bands and landmark albums (Def Leppard’s Pyromania was a tour de force beloved by both), and made plans to conquer the world. But the two like-minded musicians weren’t content to be dreamers. These two are doers. And they don’t do things by half.

By the time a major tour opportunity presented itself in the spring of 2024, it was clear JAYLER was on the cusp of something special. During a two-year burst of career-cementing activity, James and Tyler had recruited rhythm section Ricky Hodgkiss (bass, keys) and Ed Evans (drums, percussions), set up a DIY studio, recorded a debut EP and opened up for the late, great Phil Campbell.

Ricky brings a musicality and depth that anchors the band’s sound effortlessly moving between driving basslines and textured keys that broaden JAYLER’s sonic palette beyond a standard four-piece.  Alongside him, Ed delivers a dynamic and instinctive performance style, equal parts power and finesse, locking the band in with a groove that feels both classic and immediate. Together, they elevate JAYLER from a promising outfit into a fully realized unit.

“We’d been writing our own music for a while by then and we’d started to ditch the pubs for the clubs,” adds James. “We wanted the band to develop its own identity. We wanted the name to mean more than just me and Tyler.”  By the time that first major tour came calling, James, Tyler, Ricky and Ed were more than ready. Or so they thought.

“That tour made us who we are today,” reflects Tyler. “It was a completely different experience to what we were used to and we learned a lot from being out there night after night. We were really grateful for the opportunity and it gave us a real insight into the bigger picture of where we’re heading. It was a brilliant experience and an important step for the band.”

Steep learning curves don’t faze JAYLER. The steeper the better. Like when James decided it was time to do a deep dive into the music that made him tick — only to disappear down a rock-shaped rabbit hole that required some serious research.

“As a kid I got into country and western and folk music because of my nan,” he explains. “She had a big vinyl collection and, at the time, I didn't know what vinyl was. She would sing songs by John Denver, Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I got into all of that and I just assumed that’s what all the kids my age were listening to. It turned out they weren’t! It's still my comfort music now. I think Dylan is one of the greatest lyricists of all time. He’s got a certain charm. But at some point, I realized it was time to broaden my horizons. I started getting into ‘90s grunge when I was 14 or 15 and then I got into Gorillaz, Blur and Oasis. After that I got into ‘80s rock.” By now James was finally finding his way.

“I was listening to AC/DC’s Back in Black, Def Leppard and Whitesnake and I started looking into who those guys were influenced by,” he explains. “Then I looked at who those influencers were influenced by. I researched it all the way back to the roots and realized pretty much everything comes from blues, jazz and R&B.”

In recognizing rock’s roots, James had unknowingly constructed the foundational pillar for JAYLER’s retro-fuelled authenticity. Across the West Midlands, future band mater Tyler was experiencing his own rock and roll awakening.

“There were no nursery rhymes in my house growing up,” he recalls. “It was all AC/DC. My dad was a huge fan. He first tried to get me to play guitar when I was seven, but I just wasn’t interested. He was quite upset. But he got me into a few more bands and in 2014 we went to see AC/DC at Wembley together. That was my lightbulb moment. Just after that my nan and grandad took me to look at guitars and they said they’d buy me one if I learned to play. About three lessons in I knew I was over this acoustic malarkey, and I started to plug in. I learned the AC/DC riffs and from there I got into all the ‘80s guitar greats — Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt, Slash, and the rest. I was hooked. My grandad even helped me to build a Frankenstrat.”

JAYLER will always wear those influences on their sleeves. Loud and proud. Referencing those bands is a badge of honor. Recognizing their impact is what shapes a line-up wise beyond its years.

Proudly old school and passionate advocates of their organic songwriting craft, JAYLER are the antithesis of mass produced, manufactured, AI-enhanced slop. This is rock with roots. Riffs from the soul… and for the soul. Songs imagined, written, rehearsed and brought to life by four rock and roll brothers on a mission to keep alive music’s inherent, human connection.

“If our heart and soul aren’t in every song we write then there’s no point doing this,” reflects James. “Seriously, why bother? With Voices Unheard we didn’t want to focus on one sound, we wanted to show the light and the darkness, the different shapes and colors of JAYLER. We wanted all of our influences to shine through.”

“There’s no formula to our songwriting and trying to force stuff just never works,” adds Tyler. “I love writing riffs and James loves writing lyrics. When we come together it’s very organic and off the cuff. But if there’s a good song in there then we’ll get it down. The rest we’ll just scrap. Instead of having 150-plus half-arsed, half-finished songs we have around 40 to 50 fully demoed tracks ready to go at any one time. Voices Unheard is just the start.”

JAYLER are writing for now and for the records that follow. And if December 2023’s A Piece In Our Time EP no longer represents the band they’ve become, then those six tracks really were the genesis of a generational quartet. “We did think about re-recording the whole thing because my voice has completely changed during the last two years,” reveals James. “But we’re not going to touch it. That’s where JAYLER was. Now we’re here.” Tyler adds: “As the title says, those six songs were A Piece In Our Time. Time moves on.”

The debut EP and tour that followed were the essential, inescapable building blocks that every band lives and dies by. Experience banked and confidence gained, JAYLER quickly found their feet as festival staples throughout 2025. Standout sets at Stonedead and Call of the Wild bolstered the band’s already burgeoning reputation for delivering seamless live shows. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, Voices Unheard was taking shape as a towering testament to JAYLER’s quality over quantity approach and the band’s deep-rooted connection to classic rock’s lauded trailblazers.

Come 2026 and the stars have truly aligned for one of the UK’s most tantalising and talked about prospects. With Voices Unheard set for release via new label Silver Lining Music in May, JAYLER are stepping into a defining chapter, one built on momentum, clarity of identity and a rapidly growing global audience.

Sharing stages with some of rock’s most revered names, JAYLER’s rapid ascent is reflected in a touring schedule few emerging bands could dream of. From arena runs across the UK and Europe alongside Sammy Hagar and Deep Purple, to high-profile appearances in Brazil with Guns N’ Roses and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the band are stepping confidently onto a global stage. These shows aren’t just milestones - they’re a statement of intent, placing JAYLER shoulder to shoulder with the very artists who helped shape their sound.

“It felt like a bit of a whirlwind seeing all those shows getting added,” admits James. A special night with Deep Purple at the Royal Albert Hall will be an undoubted highlight. “The thing is, this is the longest we haven’t played live since the band got together. We won’t have played a full show in 2026 until we get on stage in Brazil… in front of 50,000 people! We’ve gone from playing two or three gigs in pubs and clubs into a whole new environment. It’s a massive change and a huge opportunity.”

Given JAYLER’s dizzying trajectory so far, few would bet against the famously ambitious four-piece scaling new heights and setting bold new targets during the band’s biggest year yet. Stand on the shoulders of classic rock’s genre-defining giants?  Soon it will be time for James, Tyler and co. to stand shoulder to shoulder with the bands that paved the way for JAYLER’s very own tilt at the top.

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Track by Track (by James Bartholomew, Tyler Arrowsmith)

“Intro”

The intro’s there because we want people to feel like they’re in the room with us and that they’re part of the album. It’s us warming up, plugging in, getting our gear ready and playing around on the harmonica. It creates an atmosphere and sets the scene. 

We talked about how we should kick things off and we all decided we’d like something raw and real. If you listen to the legendary blues artists — the likes of Howlin’ Wolf — their albums were often recorded with just a couple of mics in the room with the musicians playing everything live. That intro is just a couple of mics, a bit of James’s vocal and the rest of us getting ready to record.

“Down Below”

Firevolt Festival, in 2024, was the first time we ever opened the set with “Down Below.” And I remember, because we'd been opening the set with “Acid Rain” for years. And it had become tedious! We just wanted something fresh and we wondered what would work. James started writing these slide riffs and we started to jam what would become “Down Below.”

I think I called it “Give Me The Beans” to start with. It was always a bluesy thing — we might even have called it “Bluesy Thing” for a bit — and it went down a storm at Firevolt. Everyone loved the energy and we actually played it slower than we do now! It’s been opening our shows for the last year. It’s an homage to the blues classics. It’s about a breakup and that unique and painful emotion that everyone goes through at some point in their lives.

“Riverboat Queen”

That was our first single from the new album. James had asked for a ballad — as he had the lyrics for a ballad. What he got was a massive, dirty, slide guitar! So, this is not a ballad! But in the beginning we did call it “Ballad Of James.” Once James had heard it, he was blown away and in a couple of weeks he had the words.

It was written around the time we met our management team, Adam and Lisa. In a sense it became a song for them — they’re the “Riverboat Queen” and the river is the music industry. It can follow so many different courses and run at so many different speeds. If you’re not careful you can get caught in the rapids. As a band you need other people to jump on board and help you navigate what’s to come.

“Need Your Love”

“Need Your Love” is about those nights where you clock someone across the room and just go for it. No overthinking, no big plan… just energy, music, and seeing where it goes.

There’s a kind of instinct that kicks in, something unspoken and a bit primal, where you’re drawn to each other without really knowing why. It’s not thought out, it just happens.

It’s that blur of a night out, a bit messy, a bit reckless, but real. We’ve all been there in some way, just following the moment and not caring too much about what comes after.

“The Getaway”

It’s so upbeat and it’s the most ‘poppy’ track on the album. There’s definitely an ‘80s influence at its heart and it was James who made the Blondie reference when we were recording it. He’s a massive Blondie fan and the riff was giving off those vibes. 

The chorus is built on a massive bed of vocal harmonies and then you’ve got James’s lead vocal. It’s big, in your face and uncomplicated. It’s like ‘bang’ — take that! The song’s about the one that got away. The one you want but the one that’s gone — for better or for worse.

“Bittersweet”

“Bittersweet” tells the story of saying goodbye to a loved one. It was written at a time when James was struggling to keep his head straight musically and personally. He was in a relationship and the relationship just wasn’t working out. “Bittersweet” is like a goodbye message because music’s our life and always will be.

Music comes first. But that period was bittersweet because there had been good times — even if those good times had to come to an end. There’s soft acoustic piano and a little bit of cymbal swelling and we wanted to keep the recording as raw as possible — it’s a song that really throws off the emotion.

James wrote “Bittersweet” on an acoustic guitar and it’s got that country, folky feel. It was a difficult track to lay down and once we got there, we were all very emotional. There were even tears. We weren’t wearing headphones and we’d tried five different mics — and kept them all on. That’s what you hear on “Bittersweet.” It’s a unique song with a special sound. 

“Hate To See It End”

This one’s all about flipsides. It follows “Bittersweet” for a reason. There’s a softer sound to the end of Side A but you flip the vinyl and this is more of a folk rock-driven song with a simple kick snare pattern and acoustic guitar the whole way through. 

It's pulling from the Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac influences and there’s even some Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in there. It's about not letting the good times end. It could be about JAYLER — all of us would hate to see this end and, touch wood, it won’t. The song taps into the fact that we’re a band that’s proud to be ourselves, determined to ignore the outside noise and do what the hell we want. The message is simple and so’s the song.

“Over The Mountain”

James wasn’t around when we started to write “Over the Mountain.” It was just the other three of us in the live room. We were jamming away and started messing around with something that sounded like Extreme’s “Get The Funk Out”. Tyler came up with a riff that sounded pretty cool — we’d only written the verse section of the riff, but we sent it to James and the next time we all got together it was the only song we wanted to work on! 

 We just kept expanding on “Over the Mountain,” but decided the chorus had to be straight up, in your face with three or four chords. So that’s how it turned out. We wrote it for people who are trying to overcome a challenge in their lives — maybe a fear or an addiction. The message is that whatever’s on the other side of the mountain is way better than where you are now.

The song gave the album its name: it’s time to speak up — we are the Voices of the Unheard.

“Alectrona”

The Greek goddess of the sun! James is really into his Greek mythology. And there’s something about a sun god bringing light to this world of darkness we're in right now. 

From a riff point of view, we wanted to try something that wasn’t as in your face and fast. What you hear on “Alectrona” is something that’s more laid back and even a bit sludgy at times. But there’s another powerful chorus in there. I think we’ve realised that in order to be powerful we don’t need to play fast and ferocious. 

Lyrically it's a little bit flirtatious. How would we feel if we actually met Alectrona? How would we react to this goddess bringing us light and joy? 

“Lovemaker”

We’ve been playing this song as far back as 2023 but we were quite naive back then. We wanted to get some music out and wanted to make an album. We actually went into the studio to record something but it didn’t work out. It just didn’t go to plan. 

Looking back we weren’t ready. Some of it was our fault. Some of it was management’s fault. In hindsight, we’re so glad we didn’t record an album at that time, but “Lovemaker” was the one song that we did release. And when you hear the new album version it becomes clear just how much we’ve changed as a band during the last two years.

It's got that swagger to it. It's got that Deep Purple meets Zeppelin thing going on. Yeah, we were in the bar when we were left to remember the lyrics on it. It’s another heartbreak song and we like to think it’s got the blues, the heart and the soul. It’s a reflection on life experience.

“The Rinsk”

This is the doozy, the big one. The epic set closer! It’s our most proggy song and it’s the most triumphant. We were told that putting the longest track at the end of an album isn’t the common thing to do. But that’s JAYLER for you. We’re not like everyone else!

We always like to end a festival slot with “The Rinsk.” It sets the seal on our story. And it’s intertwined with James’s story. “The Rinsk” isn’t a real character and yet his characteristics are very familiar.

He's based on a Viking warrior or maybe an Anglo-Saxon warlord. He's been through wars before. And, you know, the history of man likes to repeat itself. That’s something we’ve always talked about, even going back to the first EP and singles.

We wanted this character to serve as a warning that if we don't change what we're doing now, then this is how it's going to end. “The Rinsk” is a kind of higher force that we should look up to. He's been in the wars and he regrets everything he's done. It’s a song that belongs to JAYLER lore and, as we make more albums, it’s a theme we’ll revisit. Watch this space!