By ALEX WHEELER
Features Editor
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Brian Jay has been a musical staple at Saint Rose since anyone can remember. His debut album, Human Nature, hits iTunes, Spotify and many more online distributors tomorrow, and he couldn’t be happier.
Brian Jay’s musical journey began when he was around the age of 9 or 10 when he started playing the piano. “By the time I was 13 I was making my own instrumentals,” Jay said. “I also got into poetry a lot and started adding beats and sounds to it.”
When The Chronicle sat down with Brian Jay, he described the core makeup of the music as “poetry with rhythm and with a beat,” and that his favorite genres originated in the R&B and pop genres. Lately, however, Jay has been listening to all genres to elicit inspiration from every angle. He pointed out that he has been listening to a lot of country lately, citing that he enjoyed the genre for the lyrics, mostly.
On the topic of the best sound recording system out there, Jay said that Sound Cloud was the most effective in helping him reach an audience over the past four years. “I’ve quadrupled the amount of views,” Jay said. Social media has a lot to do with pushing music or even any sort of medium nowadays and Jay primarily uses any form of his social media to help promote his musical endeavors.
About the reasoning behind the title of his album, Jay said that he was asked by some people: “Why do you make music?” and he recalled that he had a hard time finding the right answer to that question. He believes the answer lies within the album’s title, saying that, “Why I do [music], helps me relieve things in my life. Everyone can relate to music because of our human nature and that is what brings us all together as people.”
Recording of the album started about seven to eight months ago and some of the writing for the music dates back at least a year. Jay recorded the album at various music studios, including some off-campus studios in Albany, a few studios in New York City, and studios here on campus.
When speaking about the production process, Jay said that for every song on the album “there’s a producer,” and that there were nine producers in total on the album.
Students familiar with Jay and his music have been highly anticipating his album the past coming weeks, due in part to Jay’s social media coverage of his work and his countless performances here at the College including both Family Weekend and even this past weekend at Fall CLASSIC.
During CLASSIC’s karaoke night, Jay took front stage to perform a song from the album and the crowd was really eating it up.
Erica Schipani, a junior here at Saint Rose said that, “I’m very excited to see his new material because of how hard he works.” Schipani was even in a photo shoot with Jay to help promote his work. Reflecting on the experience Schipani said that it was “great and I really enjoyed it.”
Another Saint Rose student, Mckenzee Greene, said that she has “really enjoyed following Brian throughout his career and I have high expectations for Human Nature.”
Ashley Ramharracksignh, another student, said that she is “very, very excited for Human Nature. I’m a die-hard fan. He’s a good person making good music.”
The album has 12 tracks and runs no more than 45 minutes. “About 60 percent of the album is material I’ve already performed,” Jay said. The lead single is the track titled after the album, Human Nature. “The track was originally called ‘Affliction,’” said Jay. “It changed once I named the album. So the name of the album came before the name of the track.”
When it came down to financials, Jay informed The Chronicle that he would be selling download cards at various events on campus in the coming weeks priced at $3. The download cards come from the company DropCard and even though those who receive the download cards don’t get a physical copy of the album, they get the card on a lanyard with the album artwork on it. The album will be available for $7 on iTunes and other music download sites and Jay said that those sites get about “30 percent of that and I get the other 70 percent.” Jay went on to say,“I’m not for the profit. I’m for the professional platform; I want to be taken seriously. Now people will see that I’ve put this work into a production.”
The Chronicle was unable to get an official sample of the album before it hits online shelves on Oct.1, but it goes without saying that after Jay’s performances at Family Weekend and at Fall CLASSIC, audiences are in for a treat. If you see Brian Jay anywhere around campus, he will have the download cards for the album with him and you can preview and purchase Human Nature on Oct. 1 on iTunes, Amazon and many other places.
