JJ#7 - And That's A Wrap!!

Well ladies and gentlemen, 2025 is very close to being over. I'm writing this at 11:07am on Dec 30th, and I don't think anything monumentally life-changing will happen in the next day and a half, so I think it's time I did a bit of a summary for this year.

It has been my favourite year so far, no doubt. I've explored my creativity a ridiculous amount, and I've become a lot closer with / made a lot of new friends, all of whom should know who they are :-)

Enough of that sappy shit anyway, let's get to the meat of the subject...

Here are MY TOP THREE MOMENTS WORTH REMEMBERING IN 2025

3. Turning 18

Quite an obvious one, but turning 18 was fucking awesome. Just because I had a bunch of my friends over, and it was nice to have a few different groups mixing together. I don't feel any different than being 17, but I'm not really bothered about that.

Now that a few of my other mates are 18 too, we were wondering when we were going to become "men", because being 18 doesn't change anything apart from legalising the things we did anyway... When do you feel like an adult, when you move out? When you get married? When you have a kid? Maybe never for some people. It intrigues me. I reckon I'll still be a kid by 2030.

Left-right: Me, Alfie (not that pink IRL), Sam, Ollie.

2. Buzzing my hair

I'm sure everyone's quite aware that this year the amount of hair on my head has seen an overall decline. This due to an incident that took place on July 22nd this year, a day that I will never forget.

From the 20st to the 27th July, Alfie and I recorded our band Knutmo Five's debut album. Tuesday 22nd was the day we re-recorded a song called Talking Turns, which was a song Alfie previously recorded himself for his original solo project called Radcliffe Camera. This is a music video for that version back in January of this year. I'm in it!

Anyway, during the day, Alfie and I recorded the song, and later that afternoon, my other best mate Rhys came round to my house (Alfie was staying the week), and we hung out for a bit. You can hear him at the start of the Knutmo Five version of the song saying "1, 2, here we go" with us. I think my Dad's in there somewhere too.

Me playing violin.

That evening, however, was where it all changed (stay with me here). I had recently arrived back from a family holiday to the Netherlands, to which we drove to and from, through Belgium and northern France. In Belgium, I picked up a bar of Belgian chocolate, which had a picture of a man's crotch region on it, wearing underwear with the Belgian flag colours on.

Back at home on the 22nd, Alfie, Rhys and I decided to dig in to this Belgian Crotch Chocolate, and found ourselves giggling a lot. Was it a childish sugar rush or was it laced with something?? Who knows.

That night, I gave in to my growing temptation and decided I was going to buzz my hair. I was inspired by my mate Ollie who did it first a few months earlier, and since my buzzing, it initiated a bit of a chain reaction where 3 or 4 of my other friends also buzzed their hair this year. Are you next, reader????

Anyway, yeah. I just sat in my bathtub and let Alfie and Rhys hack away at my hair with some scissors first, to make my hair look all shaggy, then I made them duct tape me to my chair and we filmed a ransom video in which Alfie and Rhys held me hostage with toy lightsabres in my studio.

Rhys cutting my hair.

Alfie holding me hostage with a lightsabre.

After that, I buzzed it so it was all even, and since then, I've been keeping my hair relatively short, and I quite like it! It's so easy!!!

1. Inventing the JMU

Okay, we've made to the number one thing worth remembering; The conception of the Jamaraz Music Universe.

I know I go on about it loads, but that's just because it's genuinely the most captivating, inspiring and exciting thing in my life, and I'm very happy to have my life revolve around it. Not a day goes by where I don't think about it; be it the characters, the backstories, or the music that makes it real. Just last night, I was hanging out with some friends and we ended up watching a bunch of my YouTube videos, including ones like this one...

...where I talk about the details of backstories behind some characters I came up with.

"Were you on crack when you came up with this?" is something someone said jokingly last night, and it's definitely not the first time someone asked me that... but I don't give one, because I just can't contain my passion for the JMU and I'm very proud of how far it's come in just about a year.

I'm very happy that my fans (i.e. you lot) are warming up to it to, even if it goes over most people's head's sometimes. My philosophy is: make shit first and try to explain it after... or just make more shit and hope for the best ;-)

Thanks everyone for being here with me during this rollercoaster of a year!!

What about 2026?

Well I have lots of exciting plans. First of all, you will be introduced to a new Jamaraz Music Universe project of mine - an indie rock band called Glinter, formed in 1992. You will love them.

After that, you can expect some more music from a certain band whose initials are SGH...

And if you're lucky, our blue-haired friend will make a return with the release of his debut album in Autumn 1998.

If things go according to plan (no promises), you may see me and my band on tour in the UK this summer. It's in the works.

You heard it all here first folks! Check out my YouTube channel because I post videos regularly now, and I hope you have a great year going forward.

Here's to 2026, year of the... delusion?