Gareth Jay is a Sydney Blues artist with raw talent with his live looping, intricate guitar skills and his passion for the Blues. He’s a perfectionist, growing up he had to listen to his step father yelling at him to stop playing the same thing over and over again on the guitar. Luckily for us he never listened, and now he’s infusing our soul with the Blues.
With influences such as The Beatles, Fon Covay and Albert King, Gareth Jay optimizes how a musician feels on the inside should be reflected on the outside when he performs. We chat to Gareth about bringing the blues to Sydney, how his musical career began and how a failed attempt at crashing a wedding ended up being a night filled with creating music.
Where did your musical journey begin?
I think my earliest music memory is probably my mum singing in the house. We still come together at Christmas with all my uncles and cousins and sing together. There’s nothing that beats a spontaneous 15 part harmony, just makes you smile.
Do you remember the first moment you picked up a guitar?
I don’t remember the first time, but I do remember my step dad telling me to shut off that racket and stop playing the same thing over and over. I still am a bit of a perfectionist.
Your influences include Albert King, Elliot Smith and The Beatles do think that’s where your passion for music started?
Music is in my family. I think that passion was just there and then over time unlocked by the amazing musicians that filled my mum’s CD stack. I still come back to those musicians that influence me. I recently got addicted to Don Covay just because it’s crazy to listen to Jimi Hendricks when he was just the guitarist & before he was really famous. It really inspires me to create and to keep working to find my place in the music world.
If you could share the stage with anyone who would it be?
There are so many people! I think I’d say Paul McCartney
It’s not every day you hear a blues artist in Sydney, how are you finding it?
There’s a little bit of blues in a lot of styles and I’ve been called Folk, Indie, Pop, Delta, Jazz. I feel the most at home performing Blues. I feel like I can let go in the blues and just lose myself in the raw emotion of the music. I’ve been lucky to find venues and other musicians who are passionate about the blues and love where I take it. It’s a great time in Sydney for live music and it’s pretty easy for people to get into it especially now with so many pubs, cafe’s and restaurants seeing the value in live performance.
You performed in Japan for a few months, what was that like?
Japan was my first trip overseas and I was freaking out when I left. I got to perform every day over there which I loved and the people just blew me away with how respectful and appreciative they were. During the day the community are very proper but then they really know how to let loose after a drink or two. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone and it was just what I needed. I look forward to going back.
You perform at weddings as well, any wedding crasher moments?
Not that I can recall, though my best mate and I did plan on crashing one once. The girl he was in love with was the bride and we may have planned an elaborate horse-back, sweep-her-of-her-feet scenario. A minor flaw in the plan was we didn’t have any horses. Which worked out, because horses really freak me out. We wrote some pretty blue songs that night instead.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/MrGarethJay
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/garethjaymusic
Facebook: www.facebook.com/garethjay
Website: www.garethjaymusic.wordpress.com
