Greenville Scene

by: Michelle Hannon
www.myspace.com/jaycliffordmusic

I had the chance to speak with Jay Clifford before his show at Coffee Underground in Greenville on Monday night. Jay released his first solo album Driving Blind in September of 2007. This is his first release since Jump (Jump, Little Children) disbanded in late 2005.

GS: It seemed to me at times with Jump, that there were other musical avenues you wanted to explore, which you did with Rosebud. Once Jump split, you could have kept doing Rosebud or formed another band, but you did the solo thing. Was that because you just had a lot of songs you wanted to get out, or was it something you had been wanting to do for awhile?

Jay Clifford: Well I think what you’re implying in that question is, is that why the band stopped playing? I don’t know if you meant that or not, but I read into that. I think all of us had something besides Jump that we wanted to do because Jump was more than a day job- it was full on. We committed a lot of years to that band and had a great time doing it and loved it – wouldn’t take a day back. But after awhile, it got to the point where we all felt on the good days that it was a tight family. The rough times, which were at the end of long tours, just being away from home for a long time or whatever. Your mind really wanders, like what else could I be doing? Ward wanted to make a record of his own stuff. Matt and Evan started Cabaret Kiki, they were dreaming of that at the same time. Johnny was having a family.

GS: Yeah, I saw him recently.

JC: Yeah, he’s got three of them now. He’s got his hands full. There are all these different reasons. So it’s not like I really wanted to do anything different. What I wanted to do was to keep doing what I do. Write songs, make records, and go out and play. But I wanted to reduce the amount of touring. That’s the really hard part of the job, just being away from home for a long time. I just wanted to make a record that I really cared a lot about. With Rosebud, I really wanted to make a record that was different from Jump so there would be no confusion. It was kind of tailor made for that. It was kind of the perfect side project. It didn’t get in the way, it didn’t compete at all with Jump. It was its own entity. This record is kind of continuing the vein of song writing that I did with Jump. I feel like I can only do that if the band is not touring. I mean, I could have made this record with Jump if we were all still on the same page.

GS: Like you were saying, the new record is not a complete diversion from the stuff that you were doing, but it does seem a bit more honed in to a certain sound whereas Jump was a bit more eclectic. Was that intentional, based off past experiences? Were you even thinking about that?

JC: Well, the main difference, and the thing that I would never be able to recreate about Jump, is (besides the character of those guys) instrumentation. That was something that was completely unique to us. When we would get on stage and people would see a cello and upright bass and an accordion and all that kind of stuff, immediately we stood out before we even struck the first note. That carried over into our records, so it was a particular sound on the records because of the instrumentation. When you take that out of it, and it’s a more basic setup with drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, then what it does is it really focuses just on the songs. The guys that played on the record are top notch session players, so they knew exactly how to take these songs and interpret them in a standard rock setup. I’ve never had that opportunity before; this is the first time. Everything else that I’ve written was interpreted by the band, (by Jump), with a cello, an accordion, a harmonica, a mandolin. It was a great experience for me to see these songs come to life with a more straightforward approach.

GS: How did your experience writing with other musicians affect your album, or how it came out?

JC: Well, there are a couple of things about co-writing. Number one, I was always hesitant to become a co-writer for other people. It’s always been such a personal experience for me. Then once I started, I realized it was incredibly liberating. Because writing for someone else, suddenly the boundaries of what you can write within your own scope are gone. You can write a silly pop song or a heavy metal song, or whatever is appropriate, and you really have fun with it. I really liked that aspect of it. But throughout that you have to really maintain your vision of what you want to communicate through music and what’s right for your personality. I don’t think there are a lot of people who are singer/songwriters and co-writers. Usually they are primarily writers that help artists. It became very obvious to me that I needed to keep what I love just for me.

GS: I’m glad that you did because I wondered if you were just going to co-write songs with people or if you were going to do something on your own. So I’m glad you did, because I like the record.

In your time as a musician in Charleston specifically, I’m sure you’ve noticed how the scene has blossomed considerably. This is in large part probably due to Jump, Little Children. Do you think the development of a music scene where there was none, or very little is just time and chance, or do you think a town really needs to have certain things in order to foster a good music scene?

JC: I think people attract people of the same ilk you know. If something starts, if someone stands up and does something unique, it attracts a lot of the same type of mindset. So I think that is something that we did (that Jump did) for the scene in Charleston. We injected into the bloodstream of that town some sense of uniqueness. There are some really great bands there right now like Slow Runner, Cary Ann Hearst, The Working Title, Leslie; it’s a pretty amazing scene. I actually do a guitar pull. A guitar pull is when a bunch of musicians get together, and pass the guitar around and sing some songs. I’ve done that a couple of times with Joel from the Working Title at his house. It’ll be me and Sadler and Cary Ann and Michael Flynn and Joel and a couple other guys from town. It astounded me in a small town like Charleston, in South Carolina, way out of the way that these amazingly talented songwriters, and very unique songwriters, are all in the same place. So, I think it’s true; I think there is a certain magnetism that gets started. I think we did for Charleston in a very small way what R.E.M. did for Athens. Obviously R.E.M.’s impact on the world is huge and we were much more localized, much more regional. But you know Athens has like 200 bands and has for the last couple of decades. But I think that’s generally true about the way scenes work is that one great idea brings about more great ideas.

GS: So that’s what we need?

JC: Yeah.

GS: Do you have a particular city that you enjoy playing because of the crowd or whatever?

JC: I always like playing Atlanta and Athens and Charleston of course, and Chapel Hill is one of my favorites.

The other thing that we’re doing now is my first music video. Do you know that guy Zach Braff from Garden State? He’s directing my video.

GS: Oh yeah… yeah I saw that on your MySpace.

JC: Oh, you saw it, ok. We’re trying to spread the word about that. It’s going to be kind of cool. The idea is that you send in a video of yourself singing the song. It has a really creative aspect to it. Hopefully people will really get into it.

You can check out the video project at www.jaycliffordmusicvideo.com.