Jalestales & Brayo Turn Romantic Chaos Into Indie Sleaze Gold on “fuh”

Some situationships deserve closure. Others deserve a loud, slightly reckless indie sleaze anthem. Central Pennsylvania DIY artists Jalestales and Brayo choose the latter on “fuh,” turning messy intentions, questionable relationship boundaries, and knowing when to walk away into something built to make you move.

The track began with a real situation for Jalestales, who found himself talking to someone before discovering she had conveniently left out one fairly important detail: she already had a boyfriend. Once her intentions became clearer and the situation started heading somewhere he wanted no part of, he cut contact. The next morning, that frustration became a beat, then an intro and hook, before Brayo joined him in the studio to help transform the demo into the finished track.

While Jalestales brings the chaos that sparked “fuh,” Brayo approaches it from the opposite side. Being in a committed relationship gave him room to explore the idea of recognizing what kind of love you actually want, leaving the wrong people behind, and appreciating the right ones. Vocally, he pulls from the bright indietronica energy of the early 2010s, giving the track a nostalgic, carefree pulse that feels ripped from an era of neon parties and Millennial optimism.

Featured on the duo’s djdeadswtr-produced collaborative tape White Boy Bummer, “fuh” ultimately lands somewhere between messy honesty and pure release: know what you want, say what you mean, and have some fun while you’re figuring it out.

“fuh” started with a pretty chaotic real-life situation. Jalestales was writing the song more about getting that frustration out, making fun of the situation, or turning it into something you could move past?

Jale: I was definitely making fun of the situation. I knew she had a man, and after we talked for a bit, I realized exactly what she wanted from me and wasn’t getting from him, lol. I really hope this song helps push us to new audiences cause that girl ended up moving to my hometown after she graduated from college, and I’d love to put up a billboard because I don’t think her boyfriend knows about all this.

You both approached the idea of love from completely different positions, with Jalestales leaving a messy situation while Brayo was in a committed relationship. How did those two perspectives shape the finished song?

Brayo: The two contrasting situations of being in a committed relationship vs the roller coaster ride of trying to possibly find someone to be in a committed relationship with, give a perfect balance of the two extremes, the mood and energy of the song itself attempts to make you feel up upbeat and dance urself through the hardships of each extreme, because finding love has its hiccups and being in love does as well, and the manic upbeat energy of the song, attempts to paint that “yeah shits fucked up but let’s not dwell in it right now”

Jale: Yeah, it gets messy living in the freaked-out generation, no lie. While me and Brayo are coming from two different ends of the romantic spectrum our moods meet in the same place cause no matter where your current relationship is at it can be pretty chaotic these days decoding someone’s true intentions and it becomes 100 times easier to move forward when someone keeps it 100% honest. No matter how fucked things are, and even if you hate what you’re hearing, that level of honesty can be exciting and a form of love in itself. 

Brayo mentioned early-2010s indietronica and the “Millennial Optimism” era as influences. What is it about that period of music and culture that you wanted to bring into your version of indie sleaze?

There’s been a lot of nostalgia baiting being done within underground music and music as a whole right now, and I of course am not above any of that, and rather than hate on it because it’s trending, I’ve chosen to embrace it because it’s something I associate with a lot and grew up with heavily and while it is hot right now in music. The whole “indietronica” sound is something that’s always appealed to my pallete even before everyone was trying to bring it back, I just figured if not now than when, of course with all that being said, Jales (Brayo always refers to Jale as Jales) and I have attempted to put our own spin on the sound by incorporating maybe more “comedic” lyrics and saying things other people might be too scared to say. Everyone tries to be mysterious which I think contradicts the whole aesthetic and sound of the whole indie sleaze genre, so essentially we’re reheating everyone’s nachos but we’re reheating in the oven instead of the microwave. 

As two DIY artists from Central Pennsylvania making intentionally niche music, how has being outside a major music hub influenced the sound and attitude behind White Boy Bummer?

Brayo: Being from central pa, and being more niche, or less known, and being outside a major music hub, has influenced the sound and attitude for “WBB” in the way that it is uniquely still authentic to the both of us without selling out too much to what’s trending, but also having this edginess of “well probably never blow up so let’s just say whatever and if people discover it and are ready for what we’re presenting then they are and if they’re not, they’re not. In shorter terms, the mood/attitude is trendy, yet authentic, optimistic, yet realistic, and hungry, but not desperate ( wanting to blow up / appealing to a bigger niche of people but also being okay with staying where we are)

Jale: We do what we want. I think you can hear the tracks where we went for more of a mainstream appeal, and the songs where we just did what we wanted to. Brayo and I seem to be the same way creatively, where we need to just make what inspires us at the moment. Sometimes that’s an upbeat indie sleaze song about modern romance, and sometimes it’s a jerk song that samples “Bubbly” by Colbie Caillat talking about Arby’s Chitlins and Rod Wave.

“FUH,” “PRINCESS ON THE GO,” and “itllnvrbthesame” all tap into this indie sleaze world. Is that sound something you see yourselves exploring further, or is the unpredictability part of what defines Jalestales & Brayo?

Brayo:  the “indie sleaze” sound as a whole is something i (brayo) will definitely be partaking in with future releases, because it just gives so much room to incorporate different elements of music / genres, and it’s almost like its own thing, and so many things can be considered “indie sleaze” it’s almost like such a broad spectrum it’d be silly to say it’s only a wave i’m riding temporarily. 

Jale: Definitely something we are going to expand on. I think the next project that Brayo and I are looking to collab on will have a majority of indie sleaze tracks on it. However, it will have different moods and stray further and further away from traditional pop sounds. As Brayo said, it’s a broader spectrum than a title like “hyperpop” or “electronic pop,” and incorporates a more DIY feeling than any other genre.