Classic Rock From The UK

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Today we're headed across the pond to meet a band proving that rock and roll is alive and louder than ever. With killer riffs, powerful vocals, and a modern take on classic rock, Jaylor is stirring up a new fan base across the globe. Hey everyone, it's Randy Hulsey with Backstage Pass Radio. And today we'll talk music, influences, and growing up in the UK and what's next for Jaylor. Hang around, and I will introduce you to James Bartholomew and Tyler Aerosmith of the rock band Jayler, and we'll get to it right after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio, a podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. From chart-topping hits to underground gems, we explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a casual listener or a die hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melodies. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Holsey.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Tyler and James, welcome to the show, boys. It's great to have you. Good to see you.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Hey, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Hey, thanks for having us. Yeah, it's my pleasure. Well, how's how's life? How are things going over in the UK for you guys right now?

SPEAKER_05 2:12

I mean, it's it's it's been pretty hot, I suppose. Um we don't yeah, yeah, we can't really handle the heat of spritz, so it's been pretty hot, but uh it's cool enough now, and we're we're we're getting there, we're getting you know back to what we're used to having, and that's crap weather.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah. Wow, you know, like I'm in Houston, Texas, here in the US, and it is bloody hot here. Uh it's it's tough this time of year. But the nice thing is come December, January, we can still go out and play golf and do a lot of stuff outside that most people can't do in those months, right? Because we don't have to worry about snow and stuff like that. So if we just brave through these hot months of summer, uh, we're pretty good to go here in Houston.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, man. Well, I want to uh give a quick shout out to my lovely friend Michelle who lined us up to chat today. So thanks, Michelle, for that. And uh, Michelle. Yeah, yeah.

Sammy Hagar Dates And Tour Prep

SPEAKER_01 3:08

So, what's life been like for Jaylor recently? You guys have a big tour coming up, and what's been shaken like pre-going out uh at the end of September? What's going on with you guys right this minute?

SPEAKER_05 3:20

I mean, we've we've just got off the Sammy Hagar tour. Um, that was a couple dates around the UK, and that we we called that the kind of um rehearsal for the Deep Purple tour coming up, you know, in a in a handful of weeks. Um and but but since then when when wait, when did we stop touring with Sammy? When was that?

SPEAKER_02 3:43

I mean, that was like mid-July. It feels like it wasn't that long ago, but it was over a month and a half ago now, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

Yeah, so I mean, from then till now, I suppose it's just been knuckling down on some new music, second, third album stuff, and kind of planning for this deep purple tour, because we're we haven't gone on tour for this long, you know, in a bus, especially. So we're just making sure everything fits and that we're gonna be comfortable and you know, well rehearsed, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

It's super cool. I mean, you guys are young guys, and I grew up with the Red Rocker, let's be honest, all the way back from the Montrose days, then Van Halen, then of course all Sammy's solo stuff. What what a what a cool thing to be out with such a legend uh from the US anyway, right? Sammy's a a great guy and uh very well respected in the music industry.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, going into that, you don't know what you're gonna expect. It's like, oh no, this is like rock royalty here, you know. They can they they could um treat you really badly, but you'd still respect it because of who they are. But I mean, the whole time on that tour, the bands, the crew, everyone involved from Sammy's team were like the nicest people. We got along with them really well, and they were I think they were just happy to see um some some younger guys playing rock and roll. I mean, on our social media, there was videos that I mean, Sammy came over to us and wanted to film a video, that was his doing, and they they were lovely people, they're really nice.

SPEAKER_05 5:09

Yeah, and all all the all the techs as well, like Joe Setriani's uh guitar tech and Sammy's guitar tech and the drum tech. I mean, but my favorite personal favorite was Doogie. Um bass tech. He there was like some in-jokes going around, he was filling this in. We got him a crispy cream donut because we thought that's like the most American thing we could find from a UK shop. So we were like, oh, let's get him that, and he loved it. So yeah, shout out to Doogie. Doogie's the best.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

That's awesome, man. Well, if you know, of all the people out there in rock and roll, you you see videos of Sammy, and he seems like one of the coolest people that like a real guy, like you know, there's a lot of them that probably may not be as cool as Sammy, but Sammy seems like one of the cool ones for sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah, well, you've guys you guys have a lot happening with the band right

Fast Growth And Album Two Pressure

SPEAKER_01 6:03

now. And when you look at where Jaylor is today, uh, you know, with where based on where you started, what what surprises you? What like things develop fairly quickly for you guys? Like what what is the difference, you know, four years ago versus today? A lot's going on with you guys.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

I think I think the biggest thing is the kind of response we've had through our music, and may it be a bad response or good response. We didn't think it'd get any response at all. Because, you know, we we were just doing it for laughs and kind of we were just trying to make some music that we would enjoy listening to. Uh we're not trying to impress anyone per se. We when we first started out, we were just trying to be us, and I don't know, somehow people dug that and we're very grateful for that. So I think that's like the biggest shock to me is uh you know meeting all these people meeting all these famous people and people actually digging the music and kind of getting an understanding behind us.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Is there really like when you guys put Jayler together, was there really was there an intention to go far, or or you guys really didn't take the band seriously? It's like let's just get some guys together and jam and see where it goes. Like there was no intention of like going to the level that you're at right now.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

I mean, there there was always some sort of, you know, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it right. Yeah. In the sense of that, you know, we're not we're not taking this whole thing as a joke. This is very serious to us now. But back when we first started, we were just playing for whoever and whatever, just to kind of get that experience of playing live in front of random people we haven't met before. So we're all for that. Whatever we had to do to make that happen, we'd have just done it. You know, so we didn't take ourselves that seriously at the start, but as the EP came out and there was some sort of pressure to kind of release newer music after that. Um, yeah, that's when like the band was like, Okay, yeah, 100%. This is what we've got to do. We've got it, we've impressed people, now we've got to not let them down, in a sense.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah. Do you guys feel like if you're you we'll talk about this a little more later on, but like, you know, the soft they always say like the freshman effort, you have all your life to write for the for the the debut LP, right? But then you get to that sophomore, uh the sophomore record, and it's then you have like a year or a certain amount of time to write. Are you guys finding it hard to to write now post you know you've got you've got the new record out? Is it harder to write now than it was before?

SPEAKER_05 8:49

Uh I think I don't think it's any harder. I think to actually write the song no to make it as impressive as the first album, that's what that's what I think is getting to us, you know, because we we had about 30 to 50 songs before we released the album, and we had we picked from this kind of list of songs for the first album. So we had loads to play around with after. So we've got loads of material, maybe some lyrics have been changed, some riffs have been changed, but you know, we have we had a really good foundation before the first album was even out. Yeah, so I think just picking out the ones which will make the most sense and what will impress people and trying to draw more people in, and also songs that we enjoy playing live. That's that's another thing, because you know, you can't play songs live that aren't ready to be released. We've we've learned that now, and um so yeah, it's just also we're just trying to find a happy balance between it all is that's the tricky part, actually. Just finding a happy balance between live, uh what people want to listen to, and just the whole thing in general.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Yeah, well, they say don't don't play them live if they're not ready to be play live, right? So don't don't go out

What Jaylor Sounds Like

SPEAKER_01 10:04

and ruin it. Yeah, well, for listeners that uh are hearing the name Jaylor for the first time, how would you guys describe the band? And I and I would like to hear from from like James your your tape take on that, and then Tyler, your take. Like, how would you describe the band to somebody asking who Jayler was?

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Uh well my goo my goofy answer would be a a glass of whiskey and a uh a tab of LSD. That's how I would describe it. Uh that's just a silly answer, but the probably just all around 60s, 70s vibe, you know, with the kind of got that Bob Dylan kind of country feel or that acoustic falky feel. And you've also got the hard rock of bands like Sabbath and the Who kind of coming in. And so, yeah, I mean it's just an all-round 70s kind of vibe. Sure.

unknown 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

I think if um if you're like of our generation and you've never kind of heard this vibe of music before, I think that we can um sort of be. I mean, obviously, one what if you get into jail and you like jailer, um, we hope that you're a fan for life and you'd be a part of this for life. But also it can be like like a gateway drug, maybe, into like that vibe and genre of music. Um, we we like to say vibe because when whenever someone asks us, like, oh, what's the genre of jailer? It's kind of hard to say one because we try to give it loads of variety. I mean, it's classic rock, as most people say, but there's also so many other genres like James's folk influence influence and country, and there's like more harder rock and blues and jazz and stuff like that. But we're it's that that vibe, that 60s, 70s vibe. Yeah, it's kind of like a an entrance into that world, and this is just some of it the four of us put together. This is this is what we love, and this is what we like, and that's that's what Jalen's about, really. It's got together.

Where The 60s 70s Vibe Starts

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And and I'm probably stealing a little bit of my own thunder here, but I but you since you brought it up, I think it's important to ask does the parents, like the upbringing, have a lot to do with the vibe that you guys love today? Because when I think like my kids are grown now, right? Um my youngest is, you know, in their 20s, right? And you're your age, right? And it's funny because a lot of the stuff that they vibe with now is the stuff that I instilled them, you know, when they were young kids, listening to the old classic rock, the BGs, stuff like that, right? Would you say that that came from the home? Or where did this vibe come from? Why how are you young guys gravitating to nostalgia like that to the 60s and 70s?

SPEAKER_05 13:03

Well, for mine, it wasn't particularly my parents. They were kind of introducing me to 80s and 90s stuff, and I was I was okay with that, and it's great. Massive Nirvana fan, massive Foo Fire's fan, and I I love all that grungy Pearl Jam Allison Chains, it's great. But for the more the classic stuff, um for me, it was my nan. She showed me uh Bob Dylan, John Denver, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, and I kind of got into that folky acoustic rock stuff that way, and I just started looking at kind of bands that were also kind of inspired by them per se, was you know, Zeppelin and The Who, um, so and Anne Sabbath, and I looked at who that band was influenced by, and then who that guy was influenced by. So it all came down to the blues. So I was a big blues fanatic um when I started playing guitar, and uh I was gonna say start singing, but it wasn't it was uh it was just guitar at that point. Um, so that's how I kind of got I kind of showed myself, and then the psychedelic rock vibe, that was kind of the one thing that shined to me. And I'm like, well, you can't really see many bands doing this. Like the 80s kind of stopped, you know. Everyone was in black leather, we never evolved from black leather and wearing your own bands merch on stage, you know. We never evolved from that, right? We're stuck there, yeah. You know, see any metal band today, they're just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. And I'm just like, okay, music's cool, but where's the atmospheric and the theatrical part? That's what I personally miss about rock and roll today, is the theatrical part. But I'm going off on a tangent, Tyler. Please take over.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

You make a good point. You make a good point though, James. Like it's a vibe, right? And if there's no vibe, then there's just no vibe at the end of the day, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:54

True. We always say the uh the performance element of the music. Well, you go to watch a band, you're watching performance, you know, you're not going to watch a band just play uh in whatever they recorded the album in, you know, like they're they're joggers or just just like casual wear playing the music, you know, they're performing it, that they are gonna wear something to complement the music, and that's what that's at least always been our our theory, and and James has always been very good at that that vision of you know, not just the clothing but the stage, it all has to match, you know, it's all it's all the vibe. Yep. Yeah, anyway, um I um got you know from a very, very young age, I always heard ACDC in the house. My dad was always playing the rock radio. Um, it was mainly more heavy rock. I mean, he's a massive ACDC fan, but he also brought me into like I I went to see Metallica when I was quite young, when I was like 11, um, and got into Van Halen. That's really what got me into guitar. And um the more psychedelic sounds, um I think when I discovered Pink Floyd, it was like a real trip. And then I found out that my granddad actually got my dad into rock because my dad's my grandday got into Pink Floyd. So that's where that came from. Um and then I found some old CDs that had there was just like a compilation CD of more like the the late 60s rock, um, you know, stuff with like clapping on it and um those kind of sounds, and more the psychedelic sounds, and um, yeah, that that kind of brought me into that world a bit more, and then obviously meeting James and meeting the other guys, uh, listening to more of that, like James said, you know, the Ho Zeppelin. Um, and we used to play songs like from bands like Stephen Wolf. Um, and that's really where that all came from. But um, you know, when I first started playing guitar, I was really into my shreds. Um, I still am, I still I still love him. Eddie Van Halen's like my one biggest um guitar inspirations, but yeah, I that's not really something that um jailer is not the sound of jailer, it's just like a more personal influence to me.

SPEAKER_04 17:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

We're just not we're just not ready for the shreddess. I can't handle it anymore. My I've had plastic surgery about 50 times because my face keeps melting off because the title is playing, so it's like it's so contradicting. It's like I love hearing it, but I can't handle it, you know. So we're gonna do it then.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Massive flying V guitars, maybe not for Jayler.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Yeah, dude. I miss it. Bring it back.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, well, you know, I'm I'm glad that you guys have this vibe because um, you know, I'm an old rock pig myself, and the and the music has changed so much over the years, and it seems like you know, everything is kind of hip hop or pop or RB these days. And there's nothing wrong with those genres, don't get me wrong. But man, I just I I yearn for some good rock and roll. And I'll tell you that when when Michelle and I were talking, she's uh she's hooked me up with a couple of bands, uh, I think um not Crocus, uh Saxon and uh Europe uh were on my show, and uh she reached out and said, Hey, I I I'd really love to bring these guys, Jaylor, on your show. I said, Oh, let me let me go see what these guys are all about. And instantly it was like, Okay, now we're talking. Now this is what I want to hear. So yeah, this is good stuff, and I like the vibe too. So what do you guys think separates Jayler from a lot of the other young rock bands that are up and coming? If the does anything come to mind that separates you guys from everybody else? Because there's gotta be hundreds of you out there, right? Does anything come to mind for you?

SPEAKER_05 18:39

I mean, there there is there is a lot of bands out there, especially in the Midlands area where we're from. There is some few bands out there who haven't been spotted, and they're doing the kind of the same thing as us. But I think we're doing it in a way where we're reminding people of a certain decade and kind of making them, especially the I suppose the older listeners who grew up on 70 70s and 60s music. So I think we're kind of reminding them of a time and a place, you know, where they were when they first heard it, or how they felt, what partner they were with, you know, it's all these emotions of of like where where they were. So I think that's what we're that's what we're doing, which other bands aren't, you know, and especially with the clothes, I think it's a big thing, like what what we wear on stage as well, you know, because the flamboyanciness of Elton John or Freddie Mercury, you know, you don't seem you know, there's the these Benson Boons and they're wearing cat suits, but they're they're missing the the flamboyciness of being a front man, I personally think. You know, they they yeah, cool, you can do a backflip call, like, yeah, but where's your where's your flamboyancy? Um so I think that's another thing. Um, and just the fact we're tapping into not just one genre, you know, look like if you listen to the album, there's funk in there with over the mountain the bass line and the guitar line, the the drum groove, you know, also Riverboat Queen like heads on that back beat the entire time. And I'm just like, okay, that's cool. It's a funky soul stuff. And then we've also got Bittersweet, which is really soft and dramatic. So I just don't I think there's a lot of bands that are just focusing on one thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

And we're not doing that. We're trying to trying to expand ourselves as as much as possible. And uh yeah, I I mean, Tyler, you anything you want to add?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

I think a lot of the I mean there might be hundreds, I don't know. I know you mentioned there's before you hundreds of others. I think it the scene that we're in that in in the UK, most of the bands that I know of that are our age are mainly doing either the heavier stuff, like they're going for more of like a an 80s like heavy metal, or they're going for like an indie vibe. Okay. Um, and that that seems to be quite popular among amongst our age. Um and yeah, there are there are a lot of bands out there. I mean, when when I look on on social media, it it is it is flooded. But as far as like this this vibe of band, this kind of decade sounds, um, I don't think there are that many, as James said, that are doing it in it with the style, with the the the look. And yeah, I mean, and it as James said, it's um, you know, the older generation can relate to it, but also um the younger generation, our generation, who've never they may have never seen bands dressed that way before, um, it's new to them as well. And that's I think I think that's what's working.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Well, when some when somebody comes to see a jailer show, what are you guys hoping they walk away remembering from your show? Like is there something that you want them to take away from the show?

SPEAKER_05 22:05

Just uh loaded question. Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

I didn't say these questions were gonna be easy, James, right?

SPEAKER_05 22:13

I mean a a s a sense of hope, I suppose, that this genre music is not dead because I don't care what Gene Simmons says, I don't care how long he's been around, it's not dead. Yeah, and he's uh he's a certain something. Yeah. Um so uh yeah, just a sense of hope and just well being, I suppose. That's the only thing I want people to take back and hopefully reflect on their lives and how they've led it, and if there's anything they could change. To make the world a better place, I suppose. Yeah. That's all. I know it's a bit hippy-dippy, but it's true.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Well, I mean, and we need a lot of that these days, right? There's a whole lot of help the world needs.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Exactly. Yeah, it's that sense of community. I think that that's you know, going to a concert, a gathering, wherever you might be going to with many people there, uh, like-minded people, it's that sense of community that you you don't get from sitting at home, scrolling on social media, you know, you have to actually be there amongst people. And I think that's really powerful.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yep.

James Childhood And Musical Turning Point

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Well, I want to walk back in time just a little bit with you guys and and talk a little bit about growing up in the UK. And I kind of I wanted to kind of divide you guys out. And I'm gonna I'm gonna put James in the hot seat first, right? And then Tyler, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get you in the hot seat. I'm not gonna neglect you, don't you worry.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

But you've got time to prepare for it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Yeah, you you can you can listen to James and hear what he says wrong and then perfect your answers from there.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

Hey, he's been doing this since the band started.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

I'll let him start. Right on. Well, James, so to talk to me about growing up in the UK. What what kind of kid were you growing up? And you're and and I mean, like I say you're young with all due respect because I'm I'm older, right? But what you know, early pre-teens and then teen, what kind of kid were you?

SPEAKER_05 24:11

I mean, pre-teen, definitely somewhat of a troublemaker. Um really didn't do well in school. Uh didn't pay attention, didn't care. All I wanted to do was be outside and just explore. Because like where I live, it's it's a five-minute walk to like loads of naturistic stuff and a forest and fields and you know, and a farm. So I loved exploring that as a kid and climbing trees and just sitting up there eating a sandwich or something. I don't know. No technology was nice as well. Right. I was very uh late coming to the to the phone and the tablet. You know, I had an Xbox, but that's not something you can just take with you. So I was very late to having a portable technical device.

SPEAKER_04 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:59

And that so uh yeah, so just wanting to be outside all the time and just make people laugh and have fun. That was me as a kid and then teens. Uh I for some reason went emo, dyed my hair black, straightened it. I was just not a happy kid. To peak James, bring him back, bring him back.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Alright.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

So I don't I don't know why I did that, and no reason to. I think I just really enjoyed the music, and I still do. I'll still put on a Screamo, um Piss the Veil, or sleeping with sirens, and I still enjoy it, and it reminds me of my youth. So um, and then I don't I don't think I was in that for that long. The emo life was not for me, it was a phase, Mom. I apologize. And um uh so yeah, I started growing out my hair, listening to more psychedelic music, getting into yeah, John Denver and Bob Dylan again, because I stopped listening to them after after the like before the emo phase, I stopped listening to emo camo. But um, so yeah, I started getting back into my my roots, I suppose, of country and western and folk music because of my nan. Um so yeah, that's that's kind of me. I just yeah, just went, did the emo thing and then left it and just started doing this, and I feel a lot happier now about it.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

So well, you know, when you when you mention names like John Denver, I mean what a what a troubadour. I mean, the guy was you know like I I don't know that I mean I'm sure a lot of people like John Denver. I I think that he may have not been taken as serious as he should have been, but what a tremendous singer-songwriter that guy was. Like I'm a huge John Denver fan, man, you know?

SPEAKER_05 26:46

Yeah, he's got he's got some triumphant lyrics and really heartfelt lyrics, and then he's got grandma grandma's for the bed. Yep. I'm just like, really?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah, like I'm fine as live universal amphitheater, and I'm just like really beautiful song, the music is you, and all that, and then it's book cat book cat book cat, and I was like, no, and it was it was just like a stereotypical country song, and I was like, it's a good song, but it's just like it's not what I imagined uh to come out of him, but it it's great, it's great, it's a country quarter, yeah, and yeah, and a lot of people, you know, like the music that you guys have gravitated to, you know, from the 60s and and the 70s, it was it was all about love and hope, just like you said, and that was what John Denver wrote about, like, you know, the beauties of the land and love and loving one another and that kind of thing. It it kind of comes from that whole hippie era, right? It was all about love and and family, that kind of thing. So yeah, love John Denver myself. Now, were your parents were they musically inclined, or were they just like listeners of the radio? What kind of people were mom and dad?

SPEAKER_05 27:57

Uh I think mainly listeners of the radio, but um, you know, my dad had some CDs and some tapes left over. They never kept their vinyl, which I was very upset about when I started collecting. I was expecting loads of vinyl, but Nan came in to clutch with that. So um I have a couple of vinyls upstairs in the loft. So yeah, I mean, my mum and dad were definitely just radio listeners, and it was always different every time. If it was my dad was on, it'd be like classic 80s or anything like that, 90s, and then my mum would put on reggae. Okay, and then but not the Bob di not not the Bob Marley reggae. It's more like the UB40 reggae, which is like reggae. Yeah, it can get quite jarring very quickly, but you know, the only reggae I really like is like the Bob Marley and the Wailers, they're like, oh man, right on great organic.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

When do you believe music became important to you? Like, like when did it really hit you? Do you remember about what age?

SPEAKER_05 29:02

I think I think I think when I was about six, um, round about that age, I knew I wanted to be a performer. I didn't know what. I wasn't thinking singer, I was mainly thinking dance, because I'm a massive Michael Jackson fan. Okay, and his dance moves were incredible to me. I've actually got some videos of like home video of me dancing to Michael Jackson with my face like right up against the screen, fucking copying his moves and everything. Nice. So uh I'll I'll send it. No, I won't. That's embarrassing. And um, so yeah, we we we kind of yeah, I knew I wanted to be a performer, I just didn't know what to do. But and then I think as I started listening to vinyl around about the same age, just after probably eight or nine, I suppose, um, then I started to f actually focus on the music. Because when you put music videos on, and like you we didn't we don't really have a uh MTV over here, we just had like the top 40, and it would just play the music videos along with it. So you would just watch the music videos and kind of try to get behind the storyline. For me, anyway, I was more focused on the videos, not for everyone, but me. And I sat down, put on headphones, and I watched the vinyl just spin around and I listened to the music, and I understood lyrics a lot more, because I for me lyrics were just words, and some of the times it didn't make sense to me. But when I actually sat down and focused on it, I understood what they were saying a whole lot more. So I think that it was, yeah, around about uh just before I turned 10, I suppose that was my kind of losing my musical virginity.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Sure. I think it's interesting because so many people don't listen to music like probably us three guys do. Like I was the guy that would open up the vinyl, put it on the turntable, and then read the liner notes and intently listen to the music. It's a three and a half, four minute story that's being told, right? And I think a lot of people hear they hear the beat of the rhythm section or or you know the groove of the rhythm section, but they're not hearing the story. I mean, they know the words, but they're not making out what the story's about, right? And that's how I listen and and took music as a young kid and still do to this day. Like that's how I listen to music. And it's it's like out of 20 people, you might only get one of us guys that listens that way anymore, right?

SPEAKER_05 31:27

Yeah, I mean, like when when listening to Rocky Mountain High the first time by John Denver, I I just didn't really understand it. And then I realized he's actually talking about a friend, and I'm just like, like a friend that he lost, and I'm just like, whoa, okay, that's quite sad. I just didn't expect it because it's such an uplifting song. Yes, but it's actually about him losing a friend, so I'm just like, okay, damn.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah, and I and I and I'll bet you I'll bet you that when you figure out what you're listening to, you listen to that song completely different than you did before you knew what it was about. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_05 32:00

Yeah, I get like when listening to Rocky Might High, I get teary-eyed now. I'm just like, oh it's yeah, because it has so it takes on so much. It's sad now.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Exactly. Well, you've talked about seeing ACDC's uh if you want blood video and how that helped inspire you to pick up the guitar. What

Albums That Built Their Taste

SPEAKER_01 32:21

what was it about that video that that grabbed you?

SPEAKER_05 32:27

It was it was literally Angus being impaled by the guitar by Bomb. That was literally it. That was what it's just like I never understood the true meaning of rock and roll until I saw that, and I was like, okay, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Did you say that's what that's what I want to do? Did you see that?

SPEAKER_05 32:45

Yeah, Tyler, watch out. I'll impale you. I'm done. And um, so yeah, we we that's what kind of got me into like electric guitar and like learning that kind of Angus was my was my first. Yeah, and um it wasn't much later I then realized the brilliance of Bon. Yeah, you know, when I started singing, and like it's just uh any the whole ACDC, that whole entire band is just uh incredible, especially Malcolm. Malcolm don't get enough much love, yeah. But Malcolm genius, yeah, genius rhythm player, right? 100%. I need to take more notes off Malcolm. I need to stop being this lead guitar, you know. I need to keep the rhythm.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

I think I need to take some notes off him as well, to be honest. Everyone does that's it.

SPEAKER_05 33:35

No more lead guitar in J Let, no more solos.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

No one wants their solos, only bass solos, right? Well, you know, there I guess when you think about ACDC, there's probably the rhythm, nothing overly technical about what they're doing, right? But it just worked for them. It was just magic. Everything they did was just magic, it seemed like very melodic, costagenious. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

You know, there's not many bands that can pull off just sticking with one sound and it gets boring. Yep. ACDC somehow nailed it. They use the same four chords, the same drum beat, and they nail it every time.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

And so and somehow the songs all seem different, right? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

It's there's there's differences in the same like thing, but it's just like, ah, dude, AC DC do no wrong and have done no wrong and will do no wrong. That's a lot of quote me on that.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Yeah. Were there certain albums, or was there a certain album that that you just absolutely wore out as a kid? Like you just played the shit out of it?

SPEAKER_05 34:41

It was Dark Side the Moon.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:44

Um it would have been hysteria, Death Leopard. And then I'd probably have to say I got the best of Bob Dylan, and that was like mainly his late 60s, early 70s stuff. Like uh the freewheeling was like some of the songs off the freewheeling was on there, you know, Highway 61 revisited, so just all that kind of late late 60s Bob that was best of, and it was yeah, I wore that out. I had to throw it away, literally. I did break it. It was yeah, it was bad. Um, but I got a new one. I've got all of his albums. Well, most of those late 60s albums.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

So I'm happy. You know, Def Leopard was one of those bands where I don't think they wrote a shitty song. Would you guys agree with that? I mean, everything they did was great, it seemed like.

SPEAKER_05 35:36

Yeah, no, they were they were great. And what even when they first did their EP, I can't even remember what it was called. I think they just called it Death Leopard. But it was Death Leopard EP, yeah. Yeah, riding to the sun and all that stuff, you know, get your rocks off. Yep, you know, they were recorded bad and they didn't know what they were doing, but they still sounded like Leopard. So it's just like, and you can you can just see how you know Joe Elliott's voice has just improved over the years, and you know, and he's still great to this day. So I need to find out his secrets very soon.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Keeping the voice young. Well, you know, I've talked to a lot of older a lot of older singers have been on my show, you know, like Graham Bonnet was, you know, in Rainbow, Singer in Rainbow. That's cool. And you know, a lot of them say, I think my voice is stronger now than it ever was back then. Uh, you know, and that's usually you would think the older you get, it would just wear out over time. But yeah, for for a lot of vocalists, it seems to get stronger over time. It's a muscle at the end of the day, right? And if you don't use it, you lose it. That's that's what yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:42

There's a vocalist I look up to quite a lot, and it's not my genre at all. His name's Devin Townsend. He used to sing with uh I think Joe was it Joe Set no, not Joe Sicciani. Steve Vai, used to sing for sing for Still Mart. And his his band, the Devin Townsend project, and he's got a different one as well. Incredible stuff, and he used to practice every day with screaming until he like coughed up blood, and now he has calluses like you have on your fingers on his vocal cords, so he can just do that and snap straight into singing without even warming up. And I'm just like, Wow, I don't want to do that. I want to cough up blood. That's scary. Doesn't sound fun. Yeah, doesn't it sound fun?

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Sounds like there's better things to do. Well, are you the are you the warm-up guy as a vocalist though? Do you warm up or do you just I very much try?

SPEAKER_05 37:27

It's like sound check is slight warm-up, and then I scream into a t-shirt, and like I need to get better on it. Tyler's on my ass.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

Yeah, I don't want to be the annoying, like, I mean you warm-up and it's like the big brother.

SPEAKER_05 37:42

You know what? You don't have to do anything, Tyler. James will do it for you. Our sound engineer, James. He'll do yeah, you don't need to worry about tour manager. Yeah, that's this deaf leopard. My this def leopard, I'm gonna really try on deep purple vocal warm-ups.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

So we I know what you meant. Oh, deaf leopard. Do you know what?

SPEAKER_05 38:05

I'm just I'm just foreshadowed.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

We're in the group right on.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

I'm putting it out in the ether. Hopefully, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

You've you've leaked the deaf leopard tour now, James. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 38:16

I've leaked the def leopard. No, son, I'm Joe Elliott. Yeah, I've leaked the def leopard tour, mate. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Well, I have to say, if that happened, you heard it first on backstage past radio. There you go. Foreshadowing. That's

Tyler Guitar Origins And Jam Nights

SPEAKER_01 38:29

it. Well, Tyler, listen, you started playing guitar, I think, uh, and you you correct me if if any of my times and dates and all the things are wrong. I don't profess to know everything about you guys, but I think you started playing around. Right, exactly. That would be kind of strange, wouldn't it? Uh, you started playing around what, nine or ten years old? And and I'm curious what what made you pick up the guitar? Where did that love come from?

SPEAKER_02 38:54

Uh, so that was uh, I mean, as I said, my dad was always playing rock, hard rock, ACDC all around the house. And um, my the first concert I went to was a tribute to ACDC, and I was about seven, and I was in this really grungy venue that you know, there was like the floors were sticky with boo booze and it stunk like like uh cigarette smoke. And um I think my mum was with me. I mean, I was only seven years old, and um and she was like, This is awful, Gil, get get him out of here, this is not a nice place to be, and I was loving it. And um, and then the first like large show I went to was Ace the real A C D C at uh Wembley Stadium, and that was 2015, so I was about 10 years old, and that really that really did it for me. That's when I started getting guitar lessons. Um I had previously wanted to play guitar but never got into it. But my um my grandparents uh bought me an acoustic guitar, um, which I don't really know why in my head the acoustic guitar was like that that got me into the guitar, even though I wanted to play electric, but I never really had any luck with the electric. But this acoustic guitar just really caught my attention, and they were like, Well, you I think my birthday might have been coming up, and they're like, you know, if we get you this, will you will you get lessons? And I was like, Yeah, I promise I'll do it, and I did. And I think I did about three or four lessons of this acoustic guitar, and once I could do like an A and E and a D chord, and then was like, Right, get scrap the acoustic, get the electric.

SPEAKER_05 40:27

You've learned half of the ACDC described.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

I was like, there we go, I could play ACDC, I could play back in black, I could play How as L. And then I was in my element then.

SPEAKER_05 40:37

Yeah, that's another weird thing. Mine and Tyler's first ever concert were both ACDC tribute bands.

SPEAKER_02 40:43

Really?

SPEAKER_05 40:43

Yeah. Two different ACDC tribute bands bearing mine, but that's just like the weird thing is that we didn't even know each other at this point as well.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

And we saw Def Leopard's like two days at the same tour, he was like two nights before something.

SPEAKER_05 40:57

It was uh cheap 2018 cheap trick were opening for Def Leopard, and I didn't realize how many Cheap Trick songs I knew.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Oh, yeah. I know loads so many hits, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 41:07

They're very prolific, a lot of songs.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Yeah, yeah, wow. Do you remember what that uh guitar brand was? That first acoustic that you got?

SPEAKER_02 41:17

It wasn't it wasn't a big actually, I think it was no, I do remember it was um Alvarez.

SPEAKER_04 41:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

I don't really know. Um I mean, I I've seen a couple Alvarez since, but it wasn't anything special. It was like, you know, bottom of the line. I think it might have been like it was just over a hundred British pounds, so probably less than a hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Sure, yeah. Well, it doesn't take a you know, it doesn't take an expensive one to get started. I I had a guy named a guy named Jimmy Fortune on my show who is a four-time country music hall of fame artist and was in a band called the Statler Brothers back in the day and had many, many hits, and his first guitar was found in a dump site and only had two strings on it. So you think about that, that's cool as shit because this is a guy that is a four-time Hall of Fame artist, right? And he started out on your Alvarez was probably like 20 times better than what he found in the dump, right? So it does. I mean, it just takes a little desire and a and a halfway good instrument to get the love for music really flowing through your bones, right?

SPEAKER_05 42:25

Yeah, I was quite lucky with my first ever acoustic guitar, and it was my Dan's 12 string from 1970. It was when Ibanez were copying Gibson, but before the lawsuit. Yep. So it looks like a Gibson Couture and Western 12 string, but it says Ibanez on the head stuff, and it's a really cool instrument. That's super cool, and um, you know, that's been used on loads of songs uh on the EP and the album. Yeah, so you know, and it's it was a great guitar to learn on my first ever electric guitar, though, that was felt also found in a dump. Some guy was about to put it in like the scrap, yeah, and it was like a knockoff strap. Okay, and I was like, okay, that's I went, Oh, is that a fender strat? And he went, no, it's this cheap da-da-da-da. I'm gonna throw it away, but do you want it? And I was like, Yeah, so that was my first ever electric guitar, and it got me this far. Yeah, so absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

What do you Tyler? Do you remember the first song you ever learned on the guitar?

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Um, acoustic guitar. I think it was nothing else matters because it was like, Oh, I don't have to for anything, I can just play the own strings. Yeah, uh, and and and then it was probably back in black, uh, Highway to How and you know, bunch of ACDC tracks.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Did you did you feel like you were like naturally good at the guitar at you know when you were starting out, or was it like everybody else when they start out where your your fingers have a mind of their own, like your head saying, Okay, you're supposed to do this, but your fingers are not doing those things, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:55

It was it was a chore. It was it didn't come, it didn't come to me straight away. Um, it's that I think if I picked up the guitar in 2015, it wasn't until late 2017 that I actually started to get a grip of it. I think the there was like a turning point from like where I started to get a technique for like picking and getting the coordination between the picking hand and the the fretting hand and getting all that interlinked. Um I think once I'd learned all my basic chords, it was then like ACDC Heaven. But then trying to learn some of the more difficult riffs. Like when I when I saw Metallica live, I'm like, I've got to learn how to play uh Mash for Puppets and trying to get that picking speed, I was just like, how the hell do you I mean that's a whole different beast. Yep. Um Um so yeah, and then I'd say around 2019 I started to go to um jam nights, like open night nights, um with I mean it was mainly older musicians there, and that's what really got me um used to improv. Uh you know, going on stage with musicians I've never spoken to before and being told, right, we're gonna do a blues number. And I remember the first time doing it, I'm like, Well, I don't know this song. They're like, it's fine, it's just the blues, you never play the blues, right? And I'm like, I think so. It's just, you know, that is yeah, yeah, you know, 12 bar blues, it's that sequence, you know. You go E, A, B, and then back, and it's like, right, yeah, I can do that. And then they're like, take a solo. I'm like, uh, I don't know the solo. It's like, it's fine, just just play a pensatonic, you'll be fine. And learning how to improv like that really, really improves confidence and the you know, ability to pick up songs, because if you can improv, then you can hear a song and go, Well, I don't know exactly how it goes, but I can kind of work it out. And that was a real big turning point. I think then, which was I mean, that's like almost four years into playing, was the point where it was like, Okay, I I'm now really confident to just go up on stage and play. Sure. And and I'd recommend that to anyone, jam knights, open knights.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah, I agree. In fact, the one of the guitarists that I play with said the very same thing. Um, and I've heard him say it to multiple people. You just got to get out there. You put yourself out there and surround yourself with better players, right? And you can't do anything to get better. You don't ever want to surround yourself with more shitty musicians, right? You want them to be better than you, so you you elevate, you know, to to them. But I think I think you've already answered the question because you talked a little bit about taking three or four lessons and then you dipped, right? Like that was all you said. I I got what I need and I'm gonna run it from here. But you're not a theory guy, right? At all. Is that safe to say? Or do you know some theory now since since the all the years of play?

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Well, I did learn some. I mean, I had lessons for a couple years, um, but they were, I mean, like most of the lessons were trying to learn theory, but because I in my head it was like that was what was really important to to get the technical stuff. But then to be honest with you, once I learned how to play live and improv, I kind of you know, I'd stopped the lessons at that point, and then I wasn't really that interested in theory, and I'd I I know like okay, if I'm in in this key, then these scales will work, but I don't know a lot, and sometimes when I try and think about theory, it actually ends up getting in the way of the playing rather than just playing something, and if it sounds good, it works. Um, so yeah, I I know a bit, and and I did learn a little bit in in high school, but as I say, it doesn't normally come into play. Um, mainly in a bit of production, if we're like trying to work out like parts on keys um for like harmony. That's about it really.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Yeah, that makes sense. Well, this I mean, this is kind of for both of

How Jaylor Formed At Open Mic

SPEAKER_01 47:57

you guys, right? So you guys jump in, whoever wants to answer, but when did Jaylor get going? What what year did you guys kick off as a band?

SPEAKER_02 48:09

We we met in 2021.

SPEAKER_05 48:15

Yeah. Uh I think possibly late 2022. Twenty probably twenty twenty-three. Was it EP 2023?

SPEAKER_02 48:26

So I met James, yeah. EP was so EP was late 2023. So that was like Jayler actually that was our first step into like being kind of pro. Like, okay, we're actually gonna take this more seriously now. We're not just a pub covers band. Um, but yeah, throughout 2022, it was just like tiny pub corners, like trying to cram as many marshals into a corner and pissing off all the regulars of the pub. Uh that that's where we really, you know, Cartifa got started. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

James, you did you develop your vocals and the songwriting? Like, how did how did you go about developing your your style over the years? Has that just become a guy just come about organically, or have you tried have you tried certain things to evolve your your vocal style over time?

SPEAKER_05 49:28

I mean, when I first started singing it was it was kind of more grungy stuff, so a lot more screaming than I anticipated. Uh, but the more Jaler went on, the more I got into John Denver and Bob Dylan, maybe not so much Bob Dylan, but John Denver for vocal stuff, and his his high notes are impressive, and the vibrato he puts on it is really impressive. So I really worked on getting a clean high note, and then the blues influence came in a little bit more, and it was more of a screamy high note, so it's a it's a good balance between a clean and a dirty blend, like of uh when it comes to that. So and uh there's also like uh Retha Franklin was a big inspiration to me. Uh she's amazing. Um there's a lot of different blues artists that I really enjoy, but yeah, probably just Aretha Franklin and John Denver are like the biggest two for me, vocally, anyway. They're like impressive in their own field. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Tyler, how about you? How did how did your guitar playing style develop and how do you see it changed over the last five years since jailer's been together?

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Well, I think um obviously at the beginning it was ACDC um that was the big influence, and you know, because I played that, I had an SG and I was playing a lot more of that cordy, um you know, big big open chords and then like roofie power chords and appendatonic scales for solos. And um I think right around where the start of J Lo was in 2022, just before that, I was in more of like a hair metal, kind of heavier phase of like as I like Van Halen. Um I've been listening to like Poison, uh Motty Crew. Um and that was like kind of the the peak of of the the shred stuff that I was listening to. And um so going into JLer, we it was quite interesting because like hearing the the kind of more psychedelic stuff and the the more I mean for back of lack of a better term, like sloppier like playing of like the 60s, but it's still like in a in a good way, like it it's cool, it it fits the music. Um it was really interesting to me, and I tried to make sure. I mean, even now I I do go a bit overboard. Um yeah, get a bit excited and have a bit of uh that 80s influence, but I always um I you know me and James have I've chats about it, trying to make sure that it fits the song.

SPEAKER_05 52:14

Um play it play to the song, yeah. Play to the song. And like I like I said at the start of the interview, I can't I can't I can't afford any more plastic surgery for my face to be put back on after Tyler's done this omega 20 minute solo. So I was like, come on now. I'm gonna start charging him actually.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

So yeah, that was the that was the the peak of that. And then I think uh in more recent years, um some of the some of the more like the the LA kind of I don't know, LA session guys, I guess you'd say. Uh I mean Doug Aldridge is a big influence on me um in recent years and like Phil X, um people like that, you know, some people who are maybe not um pushed to the the front of the scene image-wise, but amazing like plane-wise and technique, like unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Yeah, yeah. Well, how did you guys how did you guys meet? Uh where where did the meetup come at or come from? And and how did you guys come to know one another?

SPEAKER_05 53:17

It was from mutual friends, pretty much. Uh and it was at an open mic in Tamworth, which is my hometown in the UK. And it was at a place called the Coven, which is like a witchy themed pub. So there must have been some voodoo in the air when I met Tyler, you know, we're bound to meet there or something along the it was written in the in the stars. In the stars, you know. Uh so so yeah, Tyler came down because I think his dad saw pictures of me on stage, what stage it was pub floor, uh on tape balls with uh with acoustic guitar and a bass guitar and electric guitar, and I was doing it all uh singing. And um, I think Tyler was looking for someone my age to kind of play. Um so he came down and we we just hit it off instantly, really. That was uh that was kind of it. And I was he had a he had a Gibson guitar case, and I couldn't afford a Gibson at a time, so I was just like, Oh, is that real Gibson? And we always joke that's like the first thing we ever said to each other was that a real Gibson, and um so yeah, I mean that's how it kind of met. That's a nutshell.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

So he wasn't carrying a shitty guitar around in a cool case, huh?

SPEAKER_05 54:35

No, it wasn't that's a good trick. That was what I was expecting. That's why I said it's not a real Gibson.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

I do the opposite now, right? I do the opposite. I put a I put a Gibson less pool in an epiphone case and people don't try and steal it.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah, yeah. It's like putting putting the fender in a squire case, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:55

Please, Mr. Gibson. Please, Mr. Gibson, nothing wrong with epicone.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

Less stable, okay. So you guys knew you guys knew pretty quick that there was something special there. Is that is that fair to say that you guys knew there was something special between you?

SPEAKER_05 55:12

Yeah, I mean, I think I was so overwhelmed I gave myself a migraine and had to go home. That's how excited I was. The true story, you know, the first time I met Tyler, I got really like a migraine out of nowhere after we played and I had to go home like early from this open white night. But we we exchanged socials and we kept touch and he was at a six form, which I don't think you guys have six forms over in America, um which is essentially it's it's it's essentially college. Yeah. Um, but you but it's at the same place where your high school is. Oh so you don't actually leave, it's a high school college. I got that. Um so he was doing science, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Math, science and music.

SPEAKER_05 55:58

Math, science and music, and he was explaining his music stuff, and I was just like, that's crap. You've got a little crappy amp and no like a bad interface, no MacBooks, no like this isn't good. You're not gonna learn anything here. And I was like, You're too much of a good guitarist to be learning science and maths, you nerd. So I was just like, let's this off. So I brought him down to where I was studying Music and Music Tech, which is Litchfield, South Staff, and it's about like 25-minute, 20-minute drive from mine and Tyler's house, you know, different directions, but it's around about there. And um, so we went there to study, and we I met Ricky and aired our bass playing drummer beforehand. But when Tyler came down, it was just like we all hung out and it was great. We well well, and on an occasion we hung out when when we could, yeah. Um, so yeah, that's how we kind of met in a nutshell, and then it was great, you know. Me and Tyler hit it off instantly. I think we all did, we all hit it off instantly. I mean, Ricky's a a crack up and takes nothing seriously. Um, Ed is quite quiet sometimes, but he comes out with some zingers that can make a whole room laugh. And Tyler's just a genius, so you know, but it somehow he rubs off on me a little bit because I'm not the brightest tool in the shed. So he rubs his smartness, rubs off on me.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Tyler, you're gonna you're gonna owe this guy some money for all the nice compliments he's given you, bro.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

This is really nice.

SPEAKER_01 57:27

Yeah, you've never you've never I bet you've never heard James talk this nice about you, have you?

SPEAKER_02 57:33

I played in the premium subscription for all this. This is great. Yeah, it was it was quite exciting though. That the whole, you know, like I'd been at this high school, which is right, you know, not far away from my house, and before that I'd been at like a promise school, not far away from my house. You know, it all really like close. So then to to go all the way to where James is, meet James, and then completely change my course. I literally scraped my way into that college um class because I mean the class has been going for three months already. You know, I'd miss halfway through it. Yeah, I'd miss like a lot of it. So you know, Dan and Jeff, the lecturers, uh thankfully, they they some something happened. They they I think they told me they were so close to saying, nah, you know, no way we can't do this. But for some reason, just something felt right for them, like we've got to do it. And it's really weird. It's like James said it's like at the the coven, the witchy place, is like there was there was something there, you know, there's some energy there, but it was very exciting, you know, moving, bunch of new people, yeah, um, meeting all these new people, like-minded people who all were in it for similar reasons, and yeah, it was just great. And actually doing what I wanted to do. Some of them were the kids in our class, some of them were just slackers.

SPEAKER_05 58:50

I'm gonna call them out.

SPEAKER_02 58:52

Well, yeah, I mean more made us look great, though.

SPEAKER_05 58:55

The band, the the the band people were the the band members are, but uh anyone who's in a band could really make a difference. But to the people, I mean they probably won't watch this, but anyone from my college class, you know who the slackers are. I'm looking at you.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

That's right. Yeah, James knows who you are.

SPEAKER_05 59:14

Exactly. Bigley Dean, Ashton Smith, Pampla.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

Not gonna call anybody out by name. Uh, do you guys remember that first original tune that you put together and said, Okay, this is Jaylor, this is the sound, that this captured the sound. Was there that one song that kind of like tipped you guys off that this is what we're all about, this is what we sound like?

SPEAKER_02 59:40

We've done that a few times.

SPEAKER_05 59:42

Yeah, like I think the one thing that really stuck out to me as soon as the vocals were done was Riverboat Queen.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

Like the dirty dawn of a new jailer.

SPEAKER_05 59:51

Yeah, it was like dirty slide riffs, groovy backbeat, you know, with the drums and the bass, and then soaring high angelic vocals. And I'm just like, this is something like different. Like, we haven't done this yet. You know, we've done the heaviest stuff with like acid rain, we've done a ballad with Peace in Our Time, but we'd never done it. We'd do acoustic on me. We've done all that, but we haven't done anything like that, like really putting all of our different influences together. So I think that's the one song on my yeah, if I had to if I if I told anyone to listen to Jayla, it'd most likely be River Boat Queen. We're constantly trying to beat it. Okay. Yeah, it's nothing's beaten it yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:33

I mean, no, no, no, the second album, it's great. Get ready.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

Um you guys in your live shows, is there is there an acoustic piece of that show at at all where you know a lot of bands have done the whole, all right, we played a lot of our songs, now we're gonna come out, pull out the stools, and do like this three-song unplugged. Are you guys doing any of that? Because I I think of Led Zeppelin, right? I think of Led Zeppelin like going to California and the rain song and some of these more prominent acoustic type things. Like, are you guys doing any of that in your shows these days? And and if you can't talk about the shows, that's perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:10

But when it comes to our shows, you know, we try and cater to what we have. As once again, we're a stone band. We don't have a lot of inputs in our snake for our in-is, you know. So we're talking like complete wusses when we say in is, but you know, I want to hear it at the age of 50.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:32

So, you know, so we we've all it's all got to be well looked after, and that costs a lot of money to make sure we're fit and able to do it in late 50s, early 60s. So we're putting it kind of down now, so we don't have to delay. And um, so yeah, we're just limited at the minute for what we want to put in the set lists, you know, because it's not what we have a couple acoustic songs like Bitter Sweet and I'll Meet You There, which are prominently acoustic. We have those, but it's not worth putting in the set right now because we want four or five acoustic songs, yep. Or maybe turn an electric song into an acoustic, you know, it's it's all on the bit, it's all in the cars and on the table. I know I'd personally want to do that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

We've done it a few times, it's always really, really fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:18

We definitely have done it a few times. We're not doing it as much now because obviously we're mainly supporting bigger bands. We've got a short time span to woo the audience. And I I don't think doing one electric song, three acoustic songs, and one more electric song would win them over. Yeah, so um, we're just trying to hit them. Heavy hitters at the minute with the songs.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Totally makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:41

Yeah, so we would love to, and that is something definitely for our headline tours or anything like that to come across.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

Yeah, when you when you can go up on stage and play as long as

Band Chemistry And Stage Vision

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

you want, that's when you'll do it, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:53

Yeah, well when we start to get about like five-hour shows, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

We used to do three hour shows, so doable. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:01

Before we went management, it was about, yeah, we used to play for about three hours. Yeah. So that's where the acoustic kind of course. Yeah. Yeah, came in. But you know, so we we don't get to do it anymore, which is sad. We still get to write them, which is nice, you know. People still enjoy listening to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:17

Well, you you guys will be you guys will be headlining before long, and there'll be plenty of time to do all that. Um James, what what does Tyler bring to the band that sticks out for you? I know you've already given him a lot of a lot of kudos, but I'm gonna put you on the spot and make you give him one more, right? What what does he bring to the band that sticks out?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:41

I tend to dream big quite a lot, and I get carried away with getting stuff done. Like, we've gotta do this, we've got to do that. Tyler brings me down to earth. Now, there's a pinch of salt in that, you know, but like it's not the biggest conflict, but it helps me, and it helps the rest of the band. Because I if I start going off on a tangent about what we're doing on stage and how we're gonna do it, and the song lists, and it's just like I'll be like, Okay, so we're gonna do this song, this song, it's gonna merge into that song, and it's gonna do this, this, and then Tyler goes, We've only got 20 minutes, and I was like, Oh no, and then Tyler will help me so he's the voice of he's the voice of reason, then right? Yeah, he's definitely the voice of reason. Like he goes, even when it doesn't come down to music, like if an emotion or something, Tyler helps me think logically and not with the caveman brain. Yeah, so that that's his yeah, that's why we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

Yeah, no, that's that's a huge compliment, man. You know, like uh because we're all like different personalities, and you find out the strengths of one personality and how to offset those. So, you know, like they say opposites attract sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:55

So definitely, yeah, yeah. But the the only thing is, Ricky, our bass player, is the exact opposite of Tyler. So if I want if I got angry and said, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, Tyler go, no, here's the consequences, here's the thing. And then Ricky's a little devil on my shoulder going, you should do that 100% further. Yeah, it's it's a contrast, but it works.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:16

That's that's good that Tyler has the level head in the in the uh band. That's that's good. I figured that out in the short time that we've been talking. So uh Tyler, I'd ask you the same uh the same question. What is Dra what does James bring to Jayler that really sticks out for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

Well, it's interesting because it is kind of like an opposite attract kind of thing here, because I mean I'd say that the like uh back to when I uh I was just doing like jam nights at Mike Nights, everyone was older because no one was into what I was into. And then when I met James, not only because the music connected, it was just that the fire, you know, James has always had that fire burning and and that like that will and want to to do something and progress is just really inspiring. Like to, you know, when when we first met, and James would straight away be like, oh, for you know, like for example, we're playing the corner of a pub, like bigger, sorry, like this room is bigger than a lot of the pubs that we we started in, right? But James would would say, we need like an intro tape, we need to make a dramatic, you know, we need to make everything massive. You know, this is this is like us playing in an arena in a pub, and there's always been that fire, and it's always yeah, I think that maybe it is just because we then meet in the middle. You know, try are try and make it happen, and James is the one with the ideas. Um, but I think that a lot of the things that occur in the band are because of that because James is always pushing, yeah, and um it's inspiring to me. I think it's inspiring to everyone around.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

Oh, you make somebody.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:06

You know what, though, like that's I think that's a great chemistry because he has the creative juices like that, and the has all these things like he's a visionary, like, and but then you also have to have that voice of reason that is like, dude, that's stupid, knock it off, right? You know, bring it bring him back down a little bit, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:27

Yeah, it's pretty by saying that stupid.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:30

Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's so true, or like we don't have the budget for it, and it's just like we're gonna go ahead and really, really so I love the idea, but but but we're not we don't have ACDC's money yet, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

Yeah, well, of all the of all the guys in the band, uh is it safe to well, I'm not gonna put words in your mouth. Who's the perfectionist in the band? Who's the OCD guy? Is that this guy up up here? James. That's me.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:00

Well, it depends what I'm OCD about, because if it's if it's some it depends, because if it's like a sloppy blues guitar thing, I don't care. You just play and have fun. But if it's like a really strong ballad with symphonic stuff in it and like gong smacks, and you know, I'm quite particular about that. It needs to sound like it was meant to be. With a blues and rocky song, it kind of it it's loose, but with like something powerful and symphonic, it needs to be tight and snatched. So it depends what I am like particular about and uh OCD about it. You know, it all depends. And the stage outfits too. If both pers like if there's more than two people wearing all black, I hate it. Oh yeah. Oh, really? Put colour, come on now. Colour theory. All right, yeah, yeah, it's all it's all gonna be all the our costumes are gonna match, or uh go hey why.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:54

Yeah, you're not the Jackson 5, right? You don't have to wear matching uniforms, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:59

Not yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:00

Not yet. Not yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:02

Imagine.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:03

Well, who's the who's the guy? Who's the guy in the band that's most likely to say, eh, that's good enough, let's move on. Is there one of the the you guys in the band that is not the perfectionist that says toss it between Ed and Ricky? Yeah, the rhythm set.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:23

I think I've heard Ricky say it quite a few times.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:25

Yeah, especially when he's doing keys, like he's like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:30

But this is like for demos. Like, I think if you were doing something, I mean Ricky gets like if he if he wants to get something right and he's f he's if he can't get it right in the moment, he gets so pissed off himself. Like we've got this little MIDI keyboard at the studio, and if he doesn't get something in like three or four tapes, he just takes it out. He just takes it out on this keyboard. We look like it's a cheap little thing. Um, I would want to put a nice MIDI keyboard in there because it just gets ruins. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:59

Imagine if he did that to his Hammond and snapped a key. Uh that wouldn't be good.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

You know what's funny is I have a I have a guitarist that does that too, where if he misses a lick in a solo or something, he'll throw the pick and get a new one, right? And you can always tell how many mistakes he's made during the course of the show when you look down at the end of the show and there's like eight picks laying on the ground, right? It's like, hey Chris, what happened tonight, dude? Yeah, exactly. Well, tell the you know, we we talked a little bit about the rhythm section just now. Tell the listeners a little bit about the the other two fellas in the band, what their roles are, introduce them since they're not here with us, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:37

Uh I'll do Ricky, you do Ed, Tyler. Okay. Uh Ricky is the biggest goofball you'll ever meet. He takes nothing seriously, literally any nothing. He is he's so fun to be around and brings the whole morale up of the band, and kind of when we're not in the best of moods and we've we've been rehearsing for a couple of hours, you know, he's always the one to kind of make us all laugh and get back on it. Uh, and he's a fantastic musician, you know, he's a he's a great bass player, and uh yeah, he's lovely, he's lovely, and when it whoever gets to meet him, you know, is just also very lucky to meet this person.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:22

I always say that um when we talk about Ed and Ricky, it's like one entity. I mean, they've that so sometimes I call themselves the bat line in the rhythm section, you know, they're they're the the two that they they travel together and they they're just they are their own entity. I think that um Ed's is this like I think you know when we first met Ed's, he was very indie, you know, listening to a lot of indie music and he never heard a rock and roll. Um boy, do we would we change him when we introduced him to to rock music and um yeah he's uh Ed's we've had many chats because he's so particular about things, like he gets so like down to the nitty-gritty of like how things how he wants things to sound, like he he has a sound in his head through his drums, and like me and him work hours on it to get it perfect. And um yeah, he he he loves music, he loves his job, he's so into it. But also, if you if you let us fall loose, he has the loudest laugh, he has the silliest, like loudest laugh. Like if we could be like in the next town over, you hear him. He'll do it once though, he will just go, ha! Yeah, the slight definite one. That's it. You're like, I know that guy. Oh no, I I don't know who that is. But like Ricky will like do something stupid or silly, and then it'll set Ed off, and them two are like the two like kids at the back of the class, just like doing that, and it it's a good vibe to be around, you know. It's funny, as James said, like, if the vibe is a bit off, when them two fire up, you just it just makes you laugh. And yeah, they they come as a pair, yeah. They they've known each other the longest, you know, them two have been friends since they were like three or four years old.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:16

Yeah, the only way I can describe it is like when most bands, when you think we're just as a punter going to watch a band, you think, oh, the guitarist and the the lead singer are probably the coolest of the band, they'll probably you know do all the cool things. And then when you when you get backstage with Jayla, you notice that it's Ricky and Ed are the coolest people in there because they are so manifestive of them being the coolest in the room, it turns out they are the coolest in the room. Yeah, I'll put it on, I'll act like I am, but I know deep down inside Ricky and Ed are and they just talk about tea. They just talk about tea. That's all they're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:54

There you go. What's what's cool about you guys is is I'm I like to say that I'm a good judge of character, and what I see in the the 50% of jailer that I know is that you guys genuinely uh admire and adore one another, right? And I think that that makes for a great brotherhood, right? Because a lot of times people they just don't get along in bands, and it you all seem to have a mutual respect and adoration for one another. And I think that's cool, just so you know. I don't want to get all sappy and shit on you guys, but but you know what? I mean, that that's an that's a huge accolade, right? And you're young, and and most most I guess younger people may not be that mature in their thought process yet, right? And so I mean that's that's a that should be a huge compliment to you guys, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:45

Yeah, we've we've experienced that as well, seeing um bands that don't get along. And uh you know, it it's something that you don't always think like, oh, you know, they can go on stage and they could perform, you know, it doesn't it doesn't really matter. But then when you actually you know there's something going on and you see it, it's like we're not gonna we're not gonna name names, but it's some bands. No, but it's yeah, it it you you can you can feel it, like you could feel it on stage in the music. Um it was like a bit of an eye-opener for us, like wow, you know, that actually does really make a difference. But then when you watch videos of us on stage, like when I watch back, some of them forget the silly, silly stuff we did. Yeah, we were slapping each other's asses, yeah, yeah, bumping into each other, taking the piss on the stage, because that's live music, you know. When you go to see it, you want to see the the humanity in the music personally, and and that is also what makes it still fun and enjoyable to us, and hopefully it will still be fun and enjoyable in 30, 40 years' time.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:42

Well, not only is it fun and enjoyable, but it's it's easy to remember things like that, right? And that's what makes a mental impact on people when they see that you guys are having a good time. Everybody there at the show can't help but have a good time, right? At the end of the day, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:59

Yeah.

How They Write Songs

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

So when you guys write, right? Uh does do most of your songs start with a lyric or uh a riff or a melody? What can you tell the listeners about how you guys and Jayler write your music? Where do the ideas start normally? Normally, I know they're not always one way, but where do they normally start, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:25

It's different every time, you know, that I've got loads of ra random stuff in my phone, notes, just random lyrics, never finishing it, or just random words that I kind of find intriguing, or a story that I find in intriguing. Uh, or a scenario, I suppose that's also another thing. But you know, it all comes down to music first. You know, I I I music paints a picture for me, and uh you know it does for everyone else, but I think having music first definitely helps me write better and kind of get the feel for the song because I could have some really profound lyrics of being really sad and depressive, but the the riff is all happy days, and that don't make sense. Yeah, so you know, I it's always it's always music first. Uh that could be a riff I come up with, or Tyler or Ed or Ricky comes up with, and we all work on it together, or sometimes I'll demo it myself at home, play play it all the instruments and put crappy logic drums on it just to get a feel for it. And then by the time I bring it to the studio, it's a completely different song, you know. So it it it all depends.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:33

Yeah, all depends. So there's nothing structured about you guys in the way you write, because I've had people on my on my show um that that set a time every day, 10 o'clock a.m. I'm going in the studio and and writing, right? Some people just don't know. That don't work for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:50

No, we're quite chaotic when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:52

And sometimes it's like called what time to work. We're quite juvenile. Right. Um, well, you speaking of the

The Story Behind Down Below

SPEAKER_01 1:18:00

music, right? You guys released a new record called Voices Unheard, uh, that was released this year, and there's a song on that record called Down Below, and I'd love to play like a 20, 25 second clip of that song, and then come back and chat about that song specifically. Is that cool with you guys? Yeah? Yeah. All right, here we go. Uh that came out this year. Uh, down below. Guys, great song. Uh all the stuff on that record is good. I've listened to the uh the uh the record front to back several times uh prior to coming on with you, but good stuff, man. Good stuff. I love the song. Cheers, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:17

Tell me about Down Below and and how that came together for you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:23

Um it kind of it started like while we were recording the EP, I had a strap that I butchered and turned it into a slide guitar. And I came up with that riff, and I immediately thought Z top something about the groovy boogie blues, and I was just like, okay, that's cool. And I called it Give Me the Beans. I don't know why, but when in England, when you say give it some beans, it means you give it some oomph, some so that kind of kind of that's what that's what came to mind when I heard it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:57

Uh it was very slow, tempo was very slow. Oh wow. Yeah, like sludgier.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:07

Yeah, it was definitely like a bit more. I mean, you could probably swing it as well and turn it into jam. We tried it, I think. Yeah, we definitely tried it slow, and it just down it. And um, so yeah, at this time, uh if we're really big into the blues, and most blues songs are about heartbreak. So I was just like, okay, I've just recently experienced that. Let's just jot it down, let's just write that down. And I think it took me less than 10 minutes to write that song, like lyrically, anyway. It took probably some time to actually get the riff right and the the backing track, but no, it was it was quite quick, and we didn't have the middle section. The let me tell you about a girl that I wants new that was just an idea. So after the harmonica solo, it was just gonna break down, do come back in and speed up near the end. But um, we were given extra five minutes at a festival called Fire Vault. Uh, we played, it was like one of our first ever like festival gigs, proper festival gig, anyway. And um we were like, Oh, we've got an extra five minutes, let's just extend something. So we extended down below, and we just like okay, let's just jam it out, see what comes out. And I came up with the lyrics on the spot. And thank god we were recording that because I didn't remember what I said, but I now have it rough, you know. So, yeah, that that middle section was not planned at all. Uh, and then we we we demoed it with the with the middle section in, and it worked well. And we were like we were even speaking to our producer about it, and we said, Do we keep that alive thing? Do we do we should we throw it in? And all he said was just play what you do live. So that's what we did. It took us three takes, and we were like, Okay, that's it, done.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:04

Yeah, and like yeah, like throughout the the year or two, maybe been two years, was playing it before we recorded it. Uh, every night it was getting quicker and quicker and quicker. And James was always like, when we went into it, it was James was like, spin up, and then yeah, the first time we played it as like the opener to the show. I remember coming on and playing it, and and James was just like keep going. And even in the studio, you know, we've been playing it for over a year, and even in the studio, it was always like let you know it it we don't want it to race. I think we did hit this one moment where it was too quick at the start, and then it had nowhere to go because the end of the song speeds up again, so it had to start quick but not racing, and then at the end it is racing and kind of goes into chaos, control chaos. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:53

This is this is where that mine and Tyler's thing comes in. You know, I want it to go faster and more chaotic. And Tyler's like, Well, if we go chaotic now, we can't go into that.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:01

Where do you go? It's already on 10. Where do you go? 11.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:04

Yeah, well, they didn't he's always talking you off the ledge, isn't he, James? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Well, I think that uh I think that down below when Michelle asked me if I would bring you guys on. I think I said, okay, look, I wonder if they have any videos. And I think that was the first YouTube video that I saw. It was a live show that you guys were playing somewhere. Real high quality, whoever did the video for you did an outstanding job, by the way. But I think it was uh down below, and I said, Oh shit, this is really good stuff. So I think that was the that's probably why I gravitated to to kind of single this song out. Not that all the other ones are not great on there, but this one stuck out to me probably because it was the first one that I heard from you guys. Yeah. When you play, when you play that song down below live, does it take on a different energy than some of the other songs, or what what's the energy like when you guys play that live?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:07

It's like the it we we always well we have been opening of it for quite a lot a long time now. It's always been the set opener. And so, especially it's some of the larger shows, you get that bit of nervous energy and you get that like anticipation. Yeah, so especially like for example, when we played in Brazil, the first time playing in a stadium, that side of stage, there was so much like there was so many nerves and emotions going on there. You gotta do something with that. And I think for all of us, that walking onto the stage, and as soon as the downbeat hits and we go into the song, and as soon as for me, as soon as I hear my guitar and I know that there's no problems, and we go in and everything's fine, that then just goes, right, here we go. We're in it, we're in the moment, and that those nerves get turned into this shot of adrenaline, and I think that really fuels that song.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:00

Yeah, it definitely gets us through that. And like, I remember uh we played a gig, I can't remember what festival we played, and obviously the intro music builds and builds and builds, and I go, Good evening, and then Tyler's guitar comes in, and Tyler's guitar went dun lind it and stopped playing, and it's just like oh okay, and then we've got to sort it out. So, you know, it does come with uh that that's the one thing that comes come to my mind when we kind of play that song sometimes, and especially walking up to stage, and then me hearing the riff all the way through. I'm like, okay, yeah, right, nothing's gone wrong.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:36

As soon as the band comes in, because I I start it one repetition of the riff, and then I hear Ed snare drum, and it's just like we're good. Yeah, there we go, we're in.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:45

I can hear everything. Yeah, that's

Big Support Slots And Global Fans

SPEAKER_01 1:25:46

super cool. Well, like pre Sammy Hagar, and I guess I have to ask you, is it safe to say that Sammy Hagar was the first big supporting act job that you guys have had, or have you opened for some other bigger names before Sammy? Fill me in there.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:07

Uh we opened for Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons twice. Okay. That was cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:13

I think the biggest one was probably Lynn Skinners. That was in Brazil. Okay. Um it for Skinner over there. That was that was really something. And most of the other gigs where we've supported have been festivals. Um, so as far as an actual tour, a run of dates supporting someone, yeah, he's probably the Sammy's the biggest so far, and then probably deep purple.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:35

Yeah, and then we how how does that how does the crowd differ say playing opening for Sammy versus that of four years ago for Jayler or five years ago for Jayler, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:50

I mean, yeah, it feels it feels definitely different, but we've defin I I feel like we've earned it. You know, we've earned this break, I suppose, because we've worked hard, us four lads, we've worked hard to kind of we've well, we've done the graft playing low every weekend for about two years, two and a half years, on top of college, you know, sometimes work for some of the other bandmates, um, and kind of pouring our heart into this, and and it's not just a joke, you know. So we we feel like we just oh I personally feel like we deserve it, and it's and it's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:27

I I was talking to uh Nibbs Carter, the bass player for Saxon, and I was talking to him about when you're playing these festivals that there's a hundred thousand people out there. Do you ever get nervous, even to this day, coming on stage? And he said, No, because I can never see past the first four rows anyway, just because of all the lights in their face. So it's like I'm playing to like a hundred or fifty of my closest friends, right? Because you don't see everything else that's behind, right? Is that is there some truth to that for you guys as well when you when you're opening for Sammy? And I'm sure you probably see this on Deep on the Deep Purple supporting tour, but can you only see past the first few rows? And do you see the whole audience?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:14

Yeah, I mean, definitely like the first four rows is like very visible, and then the there's a couple behind that which you can kind of vaguely make out a face. No, anything past that is just blur, and you can't see anything, and it until they put on the big house lights at the end of the show, and you're like, that's a lot of people, actually, surprisingly. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:37

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:38

You were trying to stare as well. If you stay it's like one pus for a while, they might get a bit freaked out.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:43

Yeah, you know, I but you know what I love that. Some of the Sammy Hager, some of the front row, and I'm calling them out, they're on their phones. Oh. So they were too busy doing this. Yeah. And I was just like this, singing at them. Right. See if they had noticed. And they never did. So I'm just like, well, that sucks for you, I suppose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:02

I think that the biggest change from um like in the pubs, because it was covers. You know, you you got used to people singing back songs because it's like you know, the covers they knew. And then as we started to do more originals, like no one obviously knew the lyrics because a lot of them hadn't even come out. But now, in like the last year, especially Brazil, you know, Brazil is a place to top. Looking down at like all the first four or five rows that you can see, everyone's singing the lyrics, yeah, everyone knows the songs, and that was really. I mean, James mentioned it as soon as we got off stage, the first show we did in Brazil, and and I I saw it and I was like, wow, that's really, really powerful. And and James can pull the mic away for a chorus and do that, and you just hear him singing it. And that is that's that's a really special moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:46

That yeah, I think I think I did it with Lovemaker, and I was like, Yeah, that's that's interesting because you you speak of Brazil, and I remember seeing um it was a live uh performance of ACDC. I think it was live at River Plate, and I think that's in Argentina, maybe I could have my location. Yeah, that's right, yeah. But you you have to think that a lot of the people in if that was Argentina, maybe don't speak English, right? But they're all singing. And it it's just crazy, like when you get to that point where people are singing your songs back to you. It's one thing to sing like a Scorpion's cover song that you're doing, but when somebody is singing uh your song back to you, that that has to be one of the greatest feelings in the world, I would think. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:36

Yeah, it's I mean, it's that um as I said, uh you go to a gig and it's that like community, it's that that sense of community and and belonging there to the the the show, and and to like you see people singing the lyrics and it takes me back, just like how when you listen to uh a song it takes you back to memory. When I see that, it takes me back to sitting down with James, and James is writing the lyrics, or you know, someone's come up with the guitar part and the that we've come up with a song. It takes you back, and it's like, you know, there's been this process, this song may have been written three years ago, and it's gone through all this evolution, and we've played it this many times, and then we recorded it, and now look, we're here, the other side of the world, and there's someone who doesn't even speak English, yeah, who is singing singing this back to us, and that uh it's that that's that connection right there.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:30

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Voices Unheard Meaning And Album Themes

SPEAKER_01 1:31:32

Well talking about the voices unheard LP, what does the title mean to you guys? Where did the title where was it derived from? What was on your mind when you came up with that?

SPEAKER_05 1:31:46

The the title was actually from a song lyric off the album. It's uh Over the Mountain, which is about kind of new beginnings, getting over hurdles in your life, or something calling you back, getting to somewhere where you want to be in life, you know, that's what that is about, that song. And uh I think the vo voices and herders for our fan base, you know, they're the voices and they can be heard, you know, they're not hiding behind a phone or anything like that, and you can speak your mind, and hopefully we can all agree on something, you know, because we're all individualistic, yes, and we've all got our own opinions, but there's definitely some compromising with these opinions and kind of hearing each other out, which we're not doing a lot of right now. Um, you know, there's obviously some bad ideas and some good ideas out there, but whatever profits the world, that's the idea we should go for, not what profits one person more than the other, or what high, you know, kind of thing is. But you know, so voices and heard is just for people who don't feel welcome, and they're obviously welcome here with us just having a good time.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:59

Yeah. Was there a particular theme or idea that connected all of the songs together on this record for you guys?

SPEAKER_05 1:33:10

Uh so some of the songs have a storyline. Yeah. You know. Uh Riverbook Queen and Need Your Love have are quite connected. Um, but I when I write songs, I write music videos in my head as well. So as soon as we did, as soon as I was writing Riverbook Queen, I was like, okay, I've got I even wrote down underneath the lyrics music video idea for it. And I do it with most songs, not every song, but most songs. Uh Need Your Love was an instant one, which I thought of when I was writing those lyrics. Um so yeah, you know, there's definitely some sort of plot and storyline, but we just gotta hold fire for the plot and storyline right now and probably revisit it for a second, third album, maybe. We don't know. Yeah. Whatever, whatever happens.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:53

There are some ideas that are like bigger than the band as we are right now, and so we don't want to we've been there in the past where we've wanted to execute an idea, but big due to limitations, a lot of the time financially at the stage we're at right now, we've we've jumped the gun, done it, and then not been overly happy with the end result. So we've kind of learned from that, and so we're now waiting for the the right moment to pounce, I

Recording Classic Vibe With Modern Tools

SPEAKER_02 1:34:21

suppose.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:22

Totally. Well, did the finished album sound the way you imagined it when you started, like, or did it take on a whole new life by the time it was completely produced?

SPEAKER_05 1:34:34

Yeah, I mean we we went in the alb to record the album with an idea of quite stripped back and not a lot going on, but then George, our producer, was like, oh, you should add this, you should do this, try this, da-da-da. And we did, and it's made us sound better and more kind of our own sonic space, in a way. You know, we're not gonna claim we have our own sound, which we kind of do, you know, but we're we're so nitpicky from other different artists and different genres that we we are taking influence from them, but we've done it in a newer way and made it sound different, you know. We're definitely with our hearts on our sleeves, and that's how it is. But for the sound of this album is not what we expected at all, and we love that. You know, it's not bad sounding to us at all. It's seeing these genres in a new light and a new sonic space, which we you don't really hear.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:28

Yeah, totally. Did you have a you did you have a uh comment about that, Tyler, as well? I didn't know if you were gonna jump in there and say something about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:36

Well, the the first thing that George said to us, our producer George, it was pretty much like, look, how do we want to approach this? I know that you got the whole 1670s vibe. Do you want me to literally everything we record will take a that approach, you know, of what they would have used back then? Do we want to limit ourselves to the sounds by limiting the equipment? Or are you gonna accept that we're bands that are in the 21st century, you know, we've got all these fantastic tools, you know, we we're not on tape, so we can do as many overdubs as we want to make it sound really full. What do we want to do? And we kind of settled on the middle ground where it's like we're gonna record it live in a room together. The the drums, the bass, and the rhythm guitars are recorded live. That is at the heart of it, but we weren't afraid to experiment with overdubbing to just give it a bit more edge, you know. We didn't want it like not overproduced, but also um like it's it's it's organic at heart, yeah, but it is modern.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:41

Makes sense. If that makes sense, yeah, yeah, it totally does. And and I think that I guess singling out one song over the rest is kind of like you know, singling out one of your kids as your favorite, like and most musicians don't do that, but is there a song on the new LP that you're the most proud of from the standpoint of this is the way we started it, but we really love the way it ended up, right? Is there one that sticks out for you guys?

SPEAKER_05 1:37:19

I I think the getaway is probably the one which I was most nervous to get right, and I didn't you know I think we'd struggle to get right, but we didn't, we got it right quite quickly, and I so yeah, that's one of them that I I really liked how straight to the point the song is, how well it was mixed, and it has that poppy element, that 80s pop element, you know. So that that's one that sticks out for me quite a lot. And I'll speak on Ricky's behalf, not Tyler's, but Ricky's behalf. He loves Electrona.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:53

He really wanted me to put this forward in the uh in any interview. Is his favorite song ever done? Yeah, he said his favourite song is Electrona and that the bass line and how it like captivates him. So I don't know what it was that what he said, but yeah, yeah. I don't know what Ed's would be, but I know yeah, Ricky's would definitely be Electrona.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:13

Yeah, how about you, Tyler? Is the one that pops for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:16

I think collectively live, we all be all have to say the rinse. That's like the one that always really takes on it's like a demon that you know takes its own thing. It kind of takes control of us live. Um, so we had to kind of for the studio, you know, we couldn't really do a 25-30 minute long track in the studio. Maybe, maybe, you know, let it down the line, but not right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:36

Yeah, when we do when we do the live album, I'll I'll I'll I'll chip in uh 20 bucks for you guys, and then you'll have enough studio time to produce. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:46

There we go. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'll do it in my living room. Um, but yeah, I think I mean hearing the original demos, because I've still got all the original, like the idea tracks in the original demos, it really does like me. And in now, you know, comparing them to now, it's like wow, you know, we really have come along, come on a long way with these tracks. Down below, uh as we said earlier, I mean, it was so slow, like bum, bum, and it was nothing like what it is now. Um I think Riverboat Queen, I'm super proud of um just because it was so different, and I uh James was originally like the the guy who played slides. I'd never played slide guitar before, and he wrote a song where it was one guitar player on slide, and um I had to kind of figure it out to do the slide thing. Uh where you go. Oh god, yeah. Oh yes, it was just on the side, yeah. But um, you know, I so I didn't really know what I was doing, and then River More Queen, just something that happened, and it was like, okay, I I'm just gonna experiment with the slide, and and yeah, that that for me, that's probably like taking something that I wasn't very strong on, and then how everyone chips in to make it the song it is now. I'm really, really impressed by that.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:10

That's cool. Um, I I I never thought about asking this question, but I wanted to ask you, Tyler, what what do you think of James as a guitar player, right? Like and I guess I guess you could lie. I guess you could lie if you wanted to, right? But here and here, let me let me preface this. Let me let me tell you why I'm asking this, because I know you play James, but you're I guess you're kind of known as more of the vocal person, right? Yeah, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:43

Yeah, and that's the one thing I feared about being a singer, and it's come true.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:48

Yeah, that you've been put in a box. You're just I've been put in a box.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:52

Oh yeah, well, I mean, right at the start uh of the band when I when I first met James, like before J Ler, when I met James, he was on about forming a band. I know that he didn't want to form a band with another guitar player because he wants to be the guitar player. So there was this like, I mean, and he didn't want to be the singer, so there was this like um kind of like fight in his head, I guess, and eventually came to his senses. Um so we we you know well when we started, obviously James was playing guitar for like the whole set, um, which was a very very different sounds that we had back then. Um but it's really interesting that I think there is a different sound going on, not just like because there's another guitar going on, but James as a vocalist, it it's a different sound, yeah, you know, yeah, and same with James playing guitar, it's a different sound, it's not better or worse, but we very early on, James will often go, like I'm not gonna play the riff to that. You you just play guitar, or he'll go, I think this could be a bit bigger. I'm gonna I'm gonna pick up a guitar. And and so um it's normally quite early on, and and sometimes we have a little battle over who's into the solos as well. Because um, you know, there's some songs that I think we hear in a certain way. Like, if the song calls for I think if the song calls for something that's more to the roots of rock and roll, it's James all the way, you know, with with that style of playing. Um there's like no it it it's like it's like soloing perfectly for the track, yeah, and no no holding back on just you know giving it some, you know. And I think because James is a singer, James is very good at playing to the melody of the song as well, which is something that I often forget to do. Yeah um, so yeah, I I'd I'd say that it's more of a vocalist point of view. Um and I think with James, because James, am I right in saying that you you often like practice like pitch, like you'll play on the guitar and like copy with your vocal?

SPEAKER_05 1:43:11

Oh yeah, there's there's a couple times I I'll sing and play and see how like in tune I am with the guitar, like uh just play like a random blues lick and sing it as I'm doing it off memory, or kind of guessing what that next note will be. Um so yeah, I've done that a couple times.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:30

I guess if I I guess if I re- I guess if I rephrase that question, like and let me let me put it in perspective. The reason I asked uh Tyler you the question specifically is I'm in a duo, right? So I'm a vocalist and I play acoustic and then I have a lead player, right? And and we and we do covers, right? We're just full disclosure, we're not writing our own stuff, and we play a lot of different places, but I don't consider, even though I play guitar, I don't consider myself a skilled enough guitarist to to play leads and all that. Like I know my role, right? And I was I truly don't know is the reason I ask about James and his playing, because I I don't, you know, short of a week ago when I started looking into you guys, I don't know how good of a guitar player he is, but is it safe to say that he's he's good enough to sit in a lead guitarist role for any band, right? Or is he more of the Randy player and just kind of knows like you know what I'm I think you know what I'm trying to say. Like, I'm not I'm not like this crazy flashy guitarist, right? And and maybe James is, I don't know, right? But I just wanted you to educate me on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:51

Well, I'd say not maybe not like flashy with like technically a crazy, yeah, like a crazy amount of technique, but I mean, like the rinsk we mentioned earlier. I mean, that is a song where James will go out and do a massive solo. It's like it's like a staple piece of the set, you know, it's a big, big like moment in the show, very dramatic, and there's like ups and downs in the solo, and that like absolutely, you know, it's it's a massive ripping solo, and it's my time in the show just to play chords. And I'm I'm sitting back with Ed and Ricky, I'm like joining the rhythm section, and I'm just like, and it's fun, you know. I'm not standing there going, Oh, I want to do in the solo, because um, I'm with the guys. I am, I fucking am. I'm with the guys rocking out, and I'm listening because I've got I can hear James and I've got him in my ears, and I'm going, yeah, you know, this is great. And and so it's like, yeah, it it's a different position in the show compared to like the getaway where James doesn't play guitar, but absolutely he can he can go ahead and do that all he wants.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:02

Well, it sounds like the short answer is he's more than just a typical average player, like he's he's more of an accomplished player. Great, yeah. That's uh uh I ask you to explain all that in in full detail. I guess that's what I was after. Um, like, and I just consider myself a a good enough guitarist to to hold, you know, and I think rhythm players are underrated because you I mean there is such a thing as bad rhythm, right? Like you g if you're a rhythm player, you better know how to keep time and keep using Ricky will Ricky knows all about bad rhythm. Yeah. Well, now that the uh the record is out,

What Comes Next And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 1:46:40

right? What's next for Jayler? Are you guys writing new material? Uh and and I know it was just released this year, right? But are you already looking forward and writing new material for the next release?

SPEAKER_05 1:46:52

Yeah, I mean, we've we haven't stopped writing since the first album, and we're pretty happy with what we've got so far for the second album. There's a couple lyric tweaks, maybe, maybe a structure restructure of a song. Um, but that's what we'll all discuss when we see our producer George Perks. So um we'll get that all sorted. But I think to be fair, we're we're already writing the third one, the third album. So, you know, we're quite far ahead in the the writing department, and we've got a lot to kind of sit back on and not really worry about deadlines too much.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:28

Yeah, that sounds like you guys have some good stuff in the can. And Tyler, that's why it's great to have a a guy like James. I think that visionary mind, right? His you know, you know what I'm saying? Like they're that that can be looked at as a curse, but it's also a very good thing, right? Because like I've just picked up on James, like he has these creative juices that like I don't have that, right? And maybe, and you probably do, but I that's super cool that you know, like when you said I I write the song and then I already have a video in my brain about how this, like, man, you're like thinking like a pool player does. A pool player is thinking about five shots in advance, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:10

It's yeah, I've heard that analogy before. Yeah, and I completely agree. It is, I do think ahead quite too far sometimes. That's when Tyler comes in and kind of is like, yeah, but you know, there's definitely a happy medium somewhere where where he can reel me in, yeah, and I bring him out a little bit, you know. There's definitely a happy medium. Do you see?

SPEAKER_02 1:48:31

I remember when we were trying to get the we were gonna get one more song for the second album, and we went in the studio and and James showed us his idea. We had and we demoed it, and it was awesome. We were like, Oh, this is this is like perfect. And he's like, This is third album song, and like we were all like, oh, especially Ed's was like this one song Ed really loved and was like, This should be second album, this is like really good song. And James is like, it doesn't work. Second album ain't about this vibe. Yeah, yeah, man. There's definitely so yeah, I look like no, but it's it's great because because annoyingly, you're right, but it's that, yeah. It's hard to say, isn't it, Tyler?

SPEAKER_01 1:49:12

It's really hard to take. Can't put all of our eggs in a basket, can't put spread them out in different baskets, but I I love the the I love the uh the thought process that that you guys have. Uh do you feel like like the second record and the third record will sound much along the lines as that debut LP, if you will? Like, does is that the sound that you'll carry forward, or do you see drastic changes in the sound coming?

SPEAKER_05 1:49:38

Nothing nothing drastic, but there's definitely going to be some changes. I think the drastic change will be the third album, which I can't say too much about, but you just have to wait and see. I wonder you'll be surprised, happily surprised, I imagine. But you know, whatever, whatever. Yeah, right on.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:55

Well, I wanted to uh ask you guys just a few quick fire questions and then we'll we'll wrap up. I've uh stolen uh an hour and fifty minutes of your lives, and I really do appreciate that. But I know that when you get to talking about you get three musicians in the same room and we all have the the same love, it's real easy to have a conversation around it, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:18

Time flies when you're having fun. That's right. That's what they say. You've just said that at the right point, my MacBook is on low battery, and so we'll get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:27

All right. Uh so you you guys can both chime in and we'll keep the answers really short so we don't run out of battery on that laptop. But favorite favorite uh British rock band in your eyes.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:40

Uh is it's a toss up, but I'd probably have to say the Who.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:45

Okay. Tyler, how about you, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 1:50:49

Off the top of my head, I'm gonna say death left.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:51

Okay. Uh favorite guitarist of all time. Eric Clapton. Favorite jailer song to play live. The Rinsk.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:09

Uh yeah. Yeah, the Rinsk.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:12

Who who in the band is more likely to be late to something, right? Whether it's Ed.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:21

Ed, instant. As soon as you said who's most likely to be late, it's instant Ed.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:27

Is that a pet peeve for either of you guys, people that are late all the time? Because it drives me nuts. I don't like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:32

I mean it doesn't drive me nuts, but if like when they get really late, I'm like, well, fuck you.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:39

For for you guys, vinyl or streaming?

SPEAKER_02 1:51:42

Vinyl. Uh my my favorite one to do is vinyl. I mean, often if I'm if if I'm doing something else, streaming, just like the background music, if I want to sit down and listen, vinyl. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, so that's the most in touch with this music. If it you sat down and listened to vinyl, yeah, same here.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:02

Yep. Um, so you guys have an extensive tour of Europe that I believe kicks off. You correct me if I'm wrong, end of September. And is the whole Europe tour? That's is that all Def Leopard? Uh not Def Leopard. So you got me doing that now. Is that all? Is that all they both start with D, right? Uh Deep Purple, right? Is is all of the European shows with uh Deep Purple?

SPEAKER_05 1:52:29

Yeah, and then Mammoth, which is obvious Eddie Van Halen son's band, uh he he joins on as well. Very cool. Me and Tyler big mammoth fans, so quite excited to do. Yeah, it's gonna be great. Hello, Frank Sodoris, and another SG player. I'm coming for your guitars, mate. That's all I'm gonna say. Yep.

Final Thanks And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 1:52:50

Where can the where can the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio find you guys on social media?

SPEAKER_02 1:52:57

We are at Jaylabands on uh pretty much all social media pages. Um we also have a website, jailer.co.uk, where you can find all the links. And if you want to be a part of the community, we have a community page, The Voices, and you can find more about that on our website.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:14

Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:15

There you go, as a plug.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:17

Thank you. Yeah, awesome. Well, guys, it's uh I really appreciate you guys taking the time out to join me. I know it's an hour and 53 minutes of your life that you can't get back, but uh super cool getting to know you guys. Um I look forward to hearing what's next for you guys. And uh I I I love your love of music. Uh keep going there, man. Keep keep rock and roll alive. It's good to good to see you guys uh marching on uh with the rock and roll torch. But congrats on the voices unheard record and all the new music that you you guys will come out with. And I wish you guys nothing but good luck and success and good health in the in the very near future, man. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having us. I asked the uh listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and one another, and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:26

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries, and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring, and keep the passion of music alive.