Who is Beady Jay? Exclusive interview with the featured band
A glance inside what makes Beady Jay a unique band
Beady Jay was one of the original bands to be showcased on Musicology Features. Within two weeks, they reached 200 votes as their loyal fans feverishly hammered the vote button on their page – some managing to do it twice after remembering they could vote once per week.
We decided sit down with them and peel the onion and find out what Beady Jay is all about at its core. Enjoy the exchange.
Why did you choose your band name?
We didn’t take too long choosing our band name. It took about two weeks after we started jamming to decide on our name. It started off as a joke and shortly after Kyle adjusted it to disguise it. We’ll keep the joke a secret for now. ;]
What was the first song you produced and what was the inspiration behind it?
The first song we worked on and then recorded was “Liberation.” Luis already had the main guitar riff for a while, but it wasn’t until he had his heart broken did he come up with all the lyrics and a complete structure for the song. He spent the day sadly on a beach near Tijuana writing and fleshing it out.
What other bands and artists did you get your inspiration from?
Luis gets a lot of his inspiration from grunge bands like Alice In Chains, Screaming Trees, and Soundgarden, most notably from singer/songwriter Chris Cornell. He’s grown up listening to rancheras, corridos, and Spanish pop, but would eventually stray away from, while never forgetting, his parents’ musical upbringings and begin on his rock n roll path.
Kyle also is a big fan of 90s-era alternative, and Alice in Chains was a big influence with him while he was just learning to play guitar in middle school. Lately he’s been into more aggressive, effect-laden guitar playing, ala Tom Morello and Denver Dalley from Desaparecidos, and generally passes the time looping spacey shit alone in his room.
Alex’s musical tastes tend to be a bit obscure as he gets enjoyment from various film and video game OSTs. However, as a bassist, he’s heavily inspired by the works of Chris Wolstenholme from Muse and Flea from RHCP due to having a commanding presence on the many tracks that they’re in.
For Jerry, The drummer that made him want to play the drums was John Dolmayan from System of a Down. He’s also taken a lot of influence from Sean Kinney of Alice In Chains and newer post-punk and garage rock drummers like Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys and Darren Lackie of We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Tell us a fun fact about your band:
Jerry and Kyle have known each other since middle school, when Jerry used to beat up Kyle for as little as 17 cents. Somehow they reconciled, and they started their first music project in high school with another friend of theirs, calleing it Left Hand. The project never produced anything of significance, and most of the music was lost when all the music files that were uploaded to MySpace (lol) got corrupted in an alleged database error. They continued to play music together after Left Hand and developed really good musical chemistry with each other—so much so that you can see them on stage both constantly looking at each other and directing the songs with just head motions.
The band also likes to do many group activities together, such as going to karaoke bars or sometimes opting to stay at Jerry’s place to play Smash Brothers.
Tell us two truths and a lie about your band:
- Luis and Jerry both have cats.
- Only one member of the band has a tattoo.
- Alex plays competitive Yu-Gi-Oh.
What were some of the challenges you’ve run into as a band?
Coordinating schedules for rehearsals and performance dates, finding rehearsal spaces. Sometimes we’ll have disagreements on how a song should be played, or on what the exact BPM of a song is before it is recorded. Other than that, we’ve never had any severe obstacles to overcome as a band.
What else you want the world to know about your band?
We thoroughly enjoy composing our music and we hope you’ll enjoy listening to it just as much.
We’ve also been recording and hope to have a new album ready sometime in the beginning of next year, so keep a look out for us on Spotify and other streaming services!
To support this band further, please check out BEADY JAY – MUSICOLOGY FEATURES and give them a vote! The more votes they get, the more perks they get, the happier they will be and the more they can make kickass music for you.
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