JAY LUKE Interview for Museboat Live channel

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04/21/2022 / TEXT CREDITS: JAY LUKE, Museboat; PHOTO CREDITS: JAY LUKE

Fantasy life that just does not exist... Brick walls are not meant to stop you, they are meant to show you how bad you want something. JAY LUKE interview for Museboat Live Channel on Sunday, April 21th, 2022 with TaunJua aka TJ.

Jay Luke has been performing and writing music since 2003. His music has been streamed all over the world 400,000 times since his first release. Playing in bands such as The MESS, Sorrowsun, and ReachForTheSky he has honed his craft and paid his dues in the live circuit. He has performed gigs with Duff McKagan of Guns N Roses, W.A.S.P., Metal Church, To/Die/For from Finland, Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, and Richie Ramone of The Ramones to name a few. After much frustration in getting the right line up secured to release an album with his first two bands, he decided to take the studio time he had left to record the songs he wrote to work on his solo career.

"It's About Time" was recorded from 2016-2017 and the album's title is quite appropriate considering his disappointments in depending on other musicians to put out an official band release. Artists on the album include the players' Jay has known in the East Coast music scene as well as established Rock N Roll artists such as guitarist Adam Bomb, who has worked with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks and also features drummer Carl Canedy of The Rods and Manowar.

Just because I don’t sleep doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped dreaming.
Michael Monroe

In 2019 the second album "Vandalized Memories" was released taking a more personal route to the songwriting and featuring a solid lineup of Joe Loftus on bass guitar, and Michael McDonald on lead guitar. The album featured a single called "Keep Your Head Up Kid" that spawned a music video. During the COVID 19 pandemic a single entitled "Trapped In Your Cell" came out. It is a symbolic take on how so much of humanity is essentially imprisoned by our cell phones while our attention spans dwindle in this text message generation. This track was released on May 27th and is at 70,000 streams. In 2021 the second single entitled 'Killing Time' came out on January 25th and finally the new album "Alone In The Crowd '' saw a March 1st 2021 Release date. The single "You'll Never Beat The Addiction '' was released in August 2022 along with an accompanying music video. The most recent single "Me And My Demons' ' released June 23rd 2023 is a title track for a forthcoming full album that came out Oct. 20th. The album has already had well over 100,000 streams within its first week and promises to be the most successful to date. Jay´s music was and is played by many Radio Stations including Museboat Live and is mentioned by many Magazines and Websites worldwide. We are happy to have the privilege to ask him a few questions.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Taunjua: Hello Jay and welcome to Museboat Live channel!

JAY LUKE: Hi TJ, Andy and everyone with Museboat Live channel. Thanks for having me here today!

Taunjua: You know that we really love your music on Museboat so we want to know what is behind all of that. Can you explain your music creative process?

JAY LUKE: My musical creative process is somewhat all over the place. I sometimes find there is no real exact formula for doing it the same way every time. Sometimes it's like you get this really cool lyric idea, might be just a little phrase or it might be top to bottom lyrics, but once you have that then you move onto your instrument whether it’s a guitar or a drum pad or a bass line. You kind of meld them together and oftentimes you may get the musical part first, then you add the lyrics later or when it is a divine intervention sort of thing you kind of put them both together at the same time.

More often than not I look at it as a jigsaw puzzle where I have lyrics scattered all over my house and I have the musical idea together and it aww geez I have to get something that works together here and I find all these pieces and I start assembling them as far as the lyrics go to put the idea down. That is sort of how it goes for me, no set formula it is always an anarchic sort of thing (laughs) and I love that. I love that it is not the same everytime and I like that the approach is different because it keeps things fresh.

Taunjua: What song that you have written, have you found the hardest to write?

JAY LUKE: That is a really hard question, I have written quite a bit of songs over the years. I think with my new album called Me and My Demons. It was the diary of a person that was losing grips with reality and sanity due to a real stressful anxiety filled existence of being a musician and a full time worker, doing so many things and getting so little rest or peace. So a lot of this newest album was the personal look into the life of a very very hard working musician that gets no sleep, gets up real early for work and does not get to bed until after a show sometimes till four or five in the morning, depending on the ride. A lot of the songs were pretty difficult to write because they were so honest, then I felt very much like will the fans get it, will they understand where I was going with this sort of thing.

Luckily it was the best received album I have done so far. I am extremely proud of it, so yeah I would say as far as the hardest one to write, I think it would be Me and My Demons, the title track because it really lets you know where my head was at with all these sorts of things Each song I write is sort of a snapshot into my life, that tells a story of where I was , what I was doing or feeling. I feel personally if my lyrics are not honest and open then I am just a fake and I never want to be that.

Taunjua: What do you consider to be your greatest success in your music career?

JAY LUKE: This is also a pretty hard question. I have had such crazy things happening over the years, it is kind of hard to pinpoint one. When I was a kid I really looked up to a band that was just up and coming named Guns and Roses. I recall in the second grade being so obsessed with this band, I was so young when they first came out. Fast forward all these years later I got the chance to open up for Duff McKagan who was the bass player of the band and oh my goodness it was just the greatest feeling in the world. That is certainly a highlight for me as far as my musical career goes.

As far as success goes it is really not measured in money or that sort of thing. I find the biggest wealth, especially nowadays, is when you really connect with your audience and hearing things like your song really meant alot to me and I got through a hard time because of it. That is amazing to me so each album I have done has gone increasingly gone with a bigger reach you could say. The most recent one, Me and My Demons, also being the most personal of my albums, really exceeded expectations. We have gotten press on just about every continent but Antartica which is amazing to me. It is very rare that a critic will understand or get your message, but it seemed like this album stuck as far as that sort of thing went and they all got exactly what I was going for so I felt that was a really big success.

As far as streams we have had over four and approaching five hundred thousand streams, and as a young musician that is one of the last things you expect, you just hope a couple people listen and dig what you are doing. To everyone who has been so kind and listened all over the planet it is really cool and we appreciate you being on the journey with us so much.

Taunjua: What is the funniest story behind your work?

JAY LUKE: A funny story about some of my work is that for each album I have the ideas and the songs somewhat rehearsed. and pretty well thought out on how everything is going to go before I hit the studio. For this newest album, I was actually going to call it, “Winging it” because I wanted to take this new approach of going into the studio with the idea so fresh that they are still malleable. Basically, until we recorded the song Me and My Demons, I was still of the idea to call it “Winging It” (Laughs) All the songs were very loose and off the cuff, I am always looking for a different style or way to come at things differently.

I previously had heroes such as David Bowie and Prince and the guys from a band called Hanoi Rocks, where a lot of the time their stuff is so different. To me it is very important to not paint yourself into a corner. It was very different and I found it funny to have so many people believe that it was planned out and ultimately it did come out very cohesive. Very cool, it was the experiment I wanted to go for but I found it very funny that it was supposed to be called “Winging It” with the idea that the songs were being written as they were in the studio. That was cool.

Taunjua: In your experiences, what works and what doesn´t when it comes to music production and where do you see the music industry in the upcoming years?

JAY LUKE: The music industry and how things work nowadays, it is continually baffling and adapting for musicians that are trying to keep their head above water. and make a career. If you expect an American Idol, or the Voice kind of show, where you randomly walk onto a stage and get a record deal. That is a fantasy life that just does not exist, you have to deal with many years of shows and how to deal with hecklers and having bad audiences, you have to develop a thick skin for certain things. You have to realize you want this. I once heard a quote “Brick walls are not meant to stop you, they are meant to show you how bad you want something.”

I have always felt that way about music, there are so many roadblocks, it has always been a tough industry, but now the playing field is so level anyone can make an album. Being successful at it is very challenging and you are continually adapting and trying to learn new ways to get your music out there. It is an artform all on its own and it is difficult because not only are you the musician but you are your own manager, art person, merch person all these things rolled into one, sometimes you own bouncer (laughs) and it is difficult.

I am grateful when I get some royalties and not alot of friends that I know even get them. They are not enough to buy a new house or a new car, but it's nice to get them. I really hope with whatever is coming up in the industry, I hope they find a better way to take care of musicians. So many people from the streaming services are counting all their cash, while these artists that are actually making their money are struggling and it is extremely unfair. For the time being we are just all adapting to a very unknown world and AI is making things extremely difficult for so many artistic people including musicians, so I hope that all changes

Taunjua: If it were possible, who would you most like to share the music stage with and why?

JAY LUKE: If it were possible to share a stage with anyone, “oh boy” I think it would be a tie between Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones who does not need an introduction as why, anybody who could keep a band together for longer than I would say, probably four times longer than most marriages. Geez, they have been together almost 60 years now, that shows a lot of why they are so talented. I would think more realistically the ideal person I would like to share is Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks., or any member, whether it be Micheal Monroe, Sami Yaffa, or Nasty Suicide the rhythm guitar player what a great name. They taught me so much as the band and their solo projects about integrity and keeping your dignity in the face of such desperation, where it's easy to sell out or do the easy thing. But if you hang on to your integrity and your dignity, you come out a winner in the long run no matter how difficult things are. Any member of Hanoi Rocks but Andy McCoy would be my preference.

Taunjua: What are your plans for the future? Especially the short-term ones?

JAY LUKE: My plans for the future are always pretty simple: to work on the next album and to keep doing shows. I usually do one to two shows a week. That has been since 2003, I like to play whether it be in a closet or somebody’s hallway. I will do a show. I like to play once a week to keep fresh and basically I try to record one album a year since I have been putting out solo records. I am going to be doing a music video for a song called Malice In Wonderland from the new album. So between that, promoting the album and working on a new album, that's about it and doing shows. I usually average quite a bit 100 a year or so I like to keep busy, that's probably the best answer I can give you.

Taunjua: We are a radio station supporting independent artists to get their music heard. Do you have any valuable advice to up and coming artists to get their music to the world?

JAY LUKE: I have got to say I am so incredibly glad I found MuseBoat , it's very hard to but sometimes you do get your songs out on radio stations, but it is very impersonal. Sometimes they play you once , that's it, that's the end of it. I am really grateful I found this community, you know we kind of get together weekly just to talk about everyone's art and music and stuff. Advice for up and coming artists to get your music out, I use any free time I can to look up places to send my music and basically do a lot of research. Whether it's going to be successful or not, you never know, it's like rolling dice. If you send your music to 100 radio stations and three of them play your song, that is a victory on its own, you gotta look at it as not a loss with the other 97. That may not give you an answer or shut you down but perseverance, you just have to persevere through everything, that's what I was saying earlier about developing a thick skin from doing shows when people heckle you or could be any number of things that make most people want to quit, it's your drive, if you really want to do something you will be able to do it. Stick with it, that is the ultimate thing I could say, because the longer you stick with the more you are going to achieve, no matter what obstacles come in your way

Taunjua: OK, this one is from Andy. What was the inspiration behind the song "All We've Got Is Now"?

JAY LUKE: Ahh, the song All We’ve Got Is Now is the last song on my newest album, Me and My Demons. The story and the concept of it as I spoke on briefly earlier, it is kind of a diary of a person who is struggling with their sanity, living a life that is filled with deadlines and learning to multitask non stop no rest, so many things coming at you where you have to react, always keep your head straight which is so increasingly harder as things get more pent up and pressure is built. I wrote the song All We’ve Got Is Now as the ending of the album to not make it a tragedy but an uplifting story where, if I am going to be completely honest the song is like a note to myself to always remember these things to get your out of your minds, you know when you feel really overwhelmed , that all we ultimately have is now. We don’t hang on to yesterday and we don’t worry about tomorrow. In the song I leave all sorts of cool tidbits to myself and I hope they mean something to a lot of other listeners, saying a time doesn't exist all we've got is now, and things not to stress over, how quickly we tend to fall into habits, it does not have to be so. I thought that song was a big departure for my kind of style but I love love love how it came out. A lot of other people enjoy it as well and I think it's the stand out song on the album and I am glad it has done so well on Museboat. As far as the meaning, it's the note to myself to always remember that no matter how hard life gets, just focus on the now and you will get through it.

Taunjua: Is there anything you would like to say to Museboat listeners?

JAY LUKE: I would just like to say thank you for everyone being so kind, welcoming and such a great community of musicians. We say it often in the chat, the greatest musicians are not the ones you are hearing in mainstream radio, but the ones that are on Museboat and the ones that are continuing to put out new stuff. We may not always get the recognition we are looking for, but if we are satisfied with what we do, that's a win, and I think there are so many winners within our little group here. I am so extremely proud to be involved, there are so many extremely talented songwriters and players. So I am grateful for the musicians and the listeners alike for just having an open mind and being so friendly, kind and cool. Thank you.

Taunjua: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. It has been great!

JAY LUKE: Thank you very much for having me, I certainly appreciate it. and i always look forward to any time i get to spend with you guys so let's keep it going.

This interview was brought to you by
Taunjua aka TJ
host to the TJ´s Muse Bridge show