Once in a Blue Jay Walking Moon
We jay walked on the way to meet Blue Jay Walking to a hip place in the city (if you are a law enforcer we are just kidding about the jay walking). We had to go to a hip place to meet with the hip Northern Virginia band, Blue Jay Walking. They have a striking and creative name that they admit they only grew into recently. However, Blue Jay Walking is not exactly clear how they got the name as they finish each other’s sentences. What prompted them to create a name was in accord; they needed a name for the Santa Cause compilation and they were on a “time crunch.” “We were sitting around the table looking at books and everything,” begins Freddy. Matt continues with, “We were yelling out names. Nick said Blue Jay...” Then Nick interrupts to clarify or give his side of the story, “My place mats on my table were blue...I looked up at the clock and said ‘What time is it?’ and it was 3:11 and I said 311 is a good band. ‘Doesn’t it mean a police code or something?’…then I wondered what the police code for jay walking is.” Matt still disagrees and insists that Nick said “blue jay” and he said “jay walking.” No matter who was right or wrong, they still have a great band name: case closed. Some names that were thrown out were “Tricycle Wars” and “Seven Eight Nine.”
Freddy (vocalist/guitarist), Matt (bassist), and Nick (drummer) all attended Hayfield High School and even were in the same gym class. Despite those connections, it took an event hosted by one of their friends who started an organization called SMILE. The bassist who was playing with Freddy and Nick couldn’t play that day, so the host asked Matt to step in for bass. From that day on, Matt kept his position as bassist and the line-up has stayed the same ever since. Freddy explains, “We maybe thought about [adding more members] but it never really became a discussion. “We’ve been playing together for three years and right now I think we have kind of a close relationship.” Nick admits, “When they went off to college, I did feel some emotional distress…withdrawal. I’ve tried a couple of side projects and none of them did it for me.” “I kind of like the three person sound, I think it makes us sound not more unique, but I think too many bands have a guitarist thrown in and it’s not necessary," explains Matt. Freddy suddenly leans in and asks us suspiciously, “Do you guys wanna join the band or something?” when we asked them about plans of adding new members.
They really began becoming a full-fledged band during the summer of 2001 by writing more songs and eventually recording a demo. They were event called up to participate in the Battle of the Bands competition at Nation, a venue in DC, against about 40 bands. Matt expounds, “The name of the show was Exposure and what we did was actually use it for exposure. We had just finished our first demo and handed out these free CDs just to get our name out there.” They also happened to win that year. Each of them rattles on about how excited they were, because they were in such disbelief probably as a result of them being so humble. Not bad for a band that was only together for a few months.
They cite Army of Me, Ben Folds, Phil Collins, Radiohead, Nirvana, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane among many of their influences. Nick begins, “When we started playing together we were striving for a sound that was a mix of our influences, but now I think we’re doing it more for ourselves more than anybody else.” Matt comments, “Earlier we sounded a lot like Cactus Patch (Army of Me) when they were Cactus Patch…We were going for a rock sound that wasn’t as hardcore as bands that were popular at the time. Now we’ve developed a band with more depth. We have some fast songs and some slow songs. We do a good balance of both. We’re testing our limits; we’re experimenting with new chords.” Freddy clarifies, “We don’t want to sound like we’re changing the music. It’s just matured.” It is perfectly understandable; any band that wants to grow must experiment and it might bring them to a better and fuller sound. A lot of bands fall into a rut, where they cannot advance their music. Those bands do not use their full potential and their songs start sounding the same-the same melody and the same themes. Blue Jay Walking is an exception, because they realize in order to make extraordinary music there must be a lot of experimentation.
This is one band that’s playing music for all the right reasons and putting all those arrogant rock stars to shame. Most of their career is based on helping people, because “we have the ability to” confesses Freddy; from Santa Cause and SMILE to gathering canned foods at their shows to donate to those who need them. “People have said that they can relate to some of our music,” says Freddy. “We’re always willing to do SMILE, to help things like Santa Cause, these are all benefit things and fundraisers. Unanimously we’d all be definitely willing to participate to help others,” adds Nick. Matt comments on “Count on August as a “positive message-to tell people to achieve their dreams” and quickly adds, “I would hope that we would help.” Freddy explains that the best thing in being in a band is the “the good times, the band of friendships, and the good experience.” While Matt extends, “Our music is a lot of fun. It is a cool experience to share with two other guys and hang out. Some day when we’re old, we’ll show our kids that we were cool once.”
The fall of 2003 was when the future of the band seemed a little uncertain. Freddy was accepted to the Berklee College of Music, Matt was accepted to the University of Virginia, and Nick was accepted into a college in Northern Virginia. They were at a crossroad; they could either drop the idea of college or the band. Fortunately, they didn’t drop college or the band. They met and played together during the breaks-Christmas, thanksgiving, etc. Also during the school year, Freddy explains, “I write songs, record them on my computer, convert them to MP3s, and send them to Matt and Nick.” Matt continues, “Then we work on them, while we’re at school. I would listen to them and think of ideas, stuff that should be changed-a bass part, or things I’ve heard so when we come back, we’re all ready to go. We have all the work done and we just need to play together.” Freddy admits that this process may be better, “Somehow we’re better when we haven’t practiced. We can go on two months without practicing, we become better than if we practiced a week straight.” Matt continues his thought, “At school we get to work on our own-Freddy gets better individually, I get better individually, and Nick gets better individually. When we come back we’re better musicians than when we left.” Nick explains that aside from working individually from school, they maintain and advance their musical talents at church (him and Matt) and at school (Freddy).
The debate: Lyrics or Melody-which is more important? In their full-length debut both are apparent and prevalent through the entire album. For the melodic and ornate songs, there are pensive and thoughtful lyrics. While the energetic and fun songs have smart and joyful lyrics to go with them. Freddy begins, “But lyrics are important-“while Nick quickly cuts him off, “You realize that now, but a year ago you would’ve been like lyrics suck, I hate them.” Matt quickly adds, “Whenever we would write songs, basically up until now, he would always have the melody at the very onset of the song, and he would kind of sing gibberish and little phrases. We wouldn’t actually write the lyrics until we were in the studio. The lyrics we would write would sometimes be based loosely around the gibberish he was singing earlier. The reason the lyrics are so good is probably because it was a subconscious thought anyway. So melody definitely.” Freddy argues, “[Melody and Lyrics] are kind of equal, it kind of depends. For the listener the lyrics are more important, because that’s what they listen to. For me, it’s the melody. A good melody helps the lyrics.”
For such talented youth, they are as humble as can be. They are ambitious, but not too ambitious to seem arrogant or annoying over-achievers; they just think practically. The band agrees that they would sign onto a major label if they had the chance, so there was none of that snotty indie rocker ideal of not selling out to a major label. Essentially, selling out is reserved for bands that end up in place they never intended to be mostly due to major label contracts. If a band, however, knows exactly what they want, they won’t be tricked into compromise their principles and ideals. Nick explains, “I don’t see [signing onto a major record label] as being a sell-out. I hate the word sell-out, because it’s just music. Now if we did it all for the money, then we’d be a sell out.” Matt extends, “I would just want to do it, because it would open a lot more doors to be heard, like radio play and distributions in the country. We wouldn’t want to change out music. I like to have a say in the music that we play.” Even when we asked Matt what would be the venue to host a show and he responded, “Our ideal spot is my church, that’s where we actually do some shows. They have a lot of nice set up and those shows are usually a lot of fun. We like to invite other bands. That’s our practical place.”
What’s in the future of Blue Jay Walking? In the immediate future, they are releasing a new EP that they recorded in the month of July. We asked them where they would be in 10 years and they responded politely with credible answers. None of that “oh yeah, we’re going to be big rock stars and play arena tours.” Nick comments, “You can do recordings for McDonalds as Freddy jokes “McDonalds [is in my future]. Matt answers seriously, “Musically, it would be cool if we were still playing. I think our attitude has always been one step at a time. We have a long term plan which is to make good music, but we don’t plan out like we have to break up at this point or we have to make it big at this point.” Nick responds, “Call me crazy, but I think we have something. We have the attitude to do something.” Freddy hopefully adds, “We’re realistic-it’s not like [getting a record deal] is going to happen no matter what, but it could and it might.”
The interview is almost over-we were on an extended lunch break. Matt concludes with advice, “Focus on songwriting and play music for yourself and write music for yourself. Nick alludes to the movie That Thing You Do for advice “Just keep playing no matter what you’re doing, no matter what band you’re in, always just keep playing and you can never go wrong.” Freddy pipes up and says, “Stay true to yourself” while everyone else laughs, because Nick mentioned that comment earlier. They turn to their friend who has joined us a few minutes before and put him on the spotlight. He ends the interview with, “they’re awesome-really good. So everyone come hear them play!” Got that? Good. Check out their website.
Other stuff we asked them, but decided didn’t have the room to put in the article:
If you could reunite any band who would it be?
Matt: Nirvana “paved the way for most of the artists of today. Very innovative”
Nick: Run DMC “Just Classic”
Freddy: Creed (he was kidding or….not) Ben Folds Five and Cactus Patch (now known as Army of Me)
Open for any band?
Nick: Jack Johnson
Freddy: Maroon 5
Matt: John Mayer
Agree: Not Slipknot “we would get killed on stage”-Matt
Who do you think is a rock star in the band?
Nick: Freddy is
Freddy: Well me, yeah (sarcastically)
Matt: I think we’re all rock stars
Nick: It’s just me and Matt
Freddy: What are you talking about?
Nick: At concerts, Freddy tries to get people to sing in cannon, so I don’t know if Freddy is the quintessential rock star.
Matt: I would say Nick. Nick leads the rock star life. Nicks is more like you wear your home-made t-shirts
Freddy: He’ll go out with girls after the show
Nick: I do not
Freddy: We’ll make plans to hang out afterwards, and then he’ll always break them
Matt: Freddy is also a rock star. He’s really creative and he definitely rocks out on stage. He knows how to lead a band.
Nick: He’s a great leader
Matt: Ok, talk about me
Freddy: Matt’s the shy one
Nick: In all honesty, people, who actually recognize the bass guitar and who can listen for it, will always tell you how good Matt is. How rocking he is ‘cause Matt’s good.
Matt: Bass guitarist like me. All the people that play usually guitar all say ‘oh you rock’
Freddy: You’ve made a lot of progress. You used to just stand there and not do anything and now you jump around the stage
Matt: I used to be shy and I sort of am…kind of
Freddy: So Matt’s a rock star
Matt: We are all rock stars
If you were hosting a concert where would it be?
Freddy: Constitution Hall
Nick: Wolf Trap
Matt: any big place