JayWood is in motion. The Montreal-based artist, born Jeremy Haywood-Smith, has released Leo Negro on Captured Tracks, a record already chosen as Bandcamp’s “Album of the Day.” It’s an album about identity, reinvention, and controlled chaos, threaded with sounds that bend genres and voices that bend expectations. But his story is not only about music. It’s also about how cannabis and psychedelics shaped the way he connects to himself and the world.
Panic Attacks And Russian Roulette Weed
“When I first tried it as a teenager, weed made me so insanely anxious. I would have full-blown panic attacks and crash out,” JayWood says. “I was smoking out of lungs and insane bongs around gang members and hoodrats, so I wasn’t doing myself any favors for being in a fun space.”
Back then, movies and TV told him cannabis meant laziness. “I’d always be the dude that was like ‘Yooo let’s go for a walk or play a game or something… ANYTHING’ when everyone else wanted to veg out on the couch.”
Canada’s legal market changed his approach. “Gone are the days when my dealer would give me some russian roulette ass weed where it’s either gonna make me call the paramedics or convince me I just smoked oregano.” Now he aims his highs. “When I smoke, I loooove to have a good stretch, shower, clean, listen to music, have sex, get creative, work out. Weed just helps me actually connect with myself.” These days, he prefers “diet weed,” CBD-heavy hybrids that let him focus without bringing back those early anxieties.
Mushrooms For Flow
Shrooms also have a role. “I’ve never actually done enough to have a full-blown trip, but I’ve taken microdose amounts several times. Shrooms are like the best daily party drug out there. I feel more social and curious when I take them.”
He’s microdosed before therapy to “bypass my bullshit,” before first dates to lean into randomness, and even while delivering mail. “If I’ve had a bunch of days where I’m burnt out and annoyed with work, I’ll randomly take a microdose capsule and have a silly day,” he says, laughing. “I’ll be walking faster, more randomly social, even though I live in Montreal and don’t speak French and just enjoy being outdoors more.”
Leo Negro And Black Confidence
Leo Negro captures that same spirit of experimentation. Written as a kind of journal, the album splits his brain into different versions of himself, each track holding a piece of the whole. “It’s me at my most honest, but to approach the album like this, I needed to write from different versions of myself.”
The title itself bends meaning. “Leos are confident and sure about themselves, but this record isn’t that; so really, when translated, the title inspires ‘black confidence.’ It’s an uncomfortable, weird, and surreal term that bends the truth and embodies everything within.”
Across 11 tracks, JayWood drifts from hip hop to soul to funk and beyond. There’s Toro Y Moi in the textures, D’Angelo in the groove, and flashes of Tyler, The Creator’s boldness. “Pistachios” spins childhood attention-seeking into adult reflection. “Big Tings” brings Tune-Yards into the fold. “Palma Wise” channels Marvin Gaye’s emotional complexity. “Sun Baby” bathes in ’60s production and symphonic samples. It’s world-building through sound, playful and layered, but never empty.
A Leo At His Most Honest
For JayWood, experimenting is not just an artistic choice but a way of living. He talks about stretching, showering, and cleaning on cannabis with the same seriousness he brings to pushing production boundaries in the studio. Mushrooms add a touch of “wuwu energy” to the everyday. The album folds all of that into music that roars with vulnerability.
“I love the idea of world-building, making music away from reality,” he says. With Leo Negro, he’s made his most cohesive pocket reality yet. Honest, weird, confident in its discomfort. Just like his relationship with weed and shrooms.
Photo by Stacy Lee, courtesy of JayWood
