The Band J4 Indie band

“We are excited about the changes we are seeing in the business. An artist can communicate directly with their fans 24/7 and no longer has to be on a schedule bound by a recording studio or a label.” – @thebandj4

Listen to the interview
Episode #311 : A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2016/03/31/episode-311-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax

Jacqueline Jax logo photoGETTING TO KNOW JESSI THE BAND J4
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio

 

Music business…
We are excited about the changes we are seeing in the business. An artist can communicate directly with their fans 24/7 and no longer has to be on a schedule bound by a recording studio or a label. The internet and the technology in home recording has changed everything.

Pros and cons…
Getting the word out and rising above the sheer volume of what is available to people is probably the biggest issue for us. People are bombarded daily with tons of information.

Hurdles and pitfalls…
We are working to build our fan family, one fan at a time, and keeping the communication going. Our music video and new music has gone a long way in reaching new fans with our music.

Social media…
That it can so easily make you feel a part of something big. People you see in magazines feel more tangible and you now feel more engaged with things and people who inspire you.

Singles vs an album…
We like the idea of singles .. Why? Fans don’t have to wait for us to do a large project. If you have a great song, you can get it out there to them immediately. We are using social media, especially youtube to put the song out there.

I would love to have 5 minutes alone with….
Taylor Swift. Because of her songwriting skills and the lyrics she writes. I would love to know how she goes about taking a normal occurrence, and turns it into her own unique descriptive situation. I’d love to find out what inspires her, and learn from her experience.
While writing we try to find the hook in every song…
I think ‘trendy and current’ music is simply the songs of that week or month that get stuck in everyone’s head, the kind you catch yourself singing even if you don’t love the song. We strive to always have a strong hook, lyrical or musical, (preferably both) that just universally speaks to people. That being said, we do listen to trends and patterns in the industry, but mostly for inspiration for new ideas rather than copying what sells.

I am most afraid of…
Surgery. Needles….oh wait is this a musically inclined question? 😉
Musically I am afraid of becoming bored. I’m afraid of being turned into something I’m not, or being pushed to make music that isn’t naturally inspired. I’m most afraid of becoming a face in the crowd and losing our uniqueness.

My personal definition of success..
isn’t from how many people know your name or your face, but it’s reaching that one person out there who needed to hear their feelings expressed out loud. To me success is being that outlet to others, if we as a band are helping one individual’s day be a little bit brighter, then we are being successful.

My over all goal for my life & career is…
to make our music full time as a band. I’d love to travel and perform for a world of people I haven’t met and get to experience that mutual love for music with them.

3 Ways that I challenge myself…

1) I try to stay focused. I remember who I am, where I came from, where I’m headed, and most importantly to whom I belong.

2) I remind myself that the mediocre things are all lessons, that every small menial task is teaching me to appreciate greater things.

3) I challenge myself to never grow tired or bored with life, but to always look for inspiration and excitement everyday. ( It helps with songwriting)

The Band J4…
We were raised in a musical family, however we formed a band to enter a national contest on the CBS Early Show, which we won. It was our first time performing live as a band, ever! After winning, we had to learn how to really be a band. For the past 7 years we have been doing exactly that.

Don’t Let Me Know…
The story behind this song is one I think many people can relate to: A relationship gone wrong. Like everyone else I have personally had my share of breakups from toxic situations. Right before I got inspired to write “Don’t Let Me Know”, I had been in contact with a guy who turned out to be that guy. You know the type, the kind of guy who’s exceptionally talented at disappearing right when you needed him most, and reappearing the moment you don’t? That guy. Fortunately for me, I was wise this time around. As I was sitting at my Mammaw’s piano in the back room of her house in East T.N, I sent ‘the guy’ a text message, severing ties and ending with a line that read, “.. And if you ever start to miss me again, don’t let me know.” I set down my phone, and hit a D chord as I took in what I had just said. Don’t let me know… and the melody just hit me. I always give credit to God for my inspiration, and in the moment I felt as if he had set up the entire situation just so that this song could be written.

I didn’t finish the song right away, I brought it back out to show my Mother and Brother (my writing partners) a few months later. By the time the whole song was completed, arranged and performed for the first time at Puckett’s Grocery, I was talking to a new ‘guy’. Ironically enough, the very next day we got in a fight and parted ways… giving our new song “Don’t Let Me Know” a whole new fresh meaning.

But that’s the beauty of it I guess, it can be sung over and over again and be personal and yet mutual because of a shared human experience. That’s the joy of music and songwriting, it brings people together. Parting ways with someone who you’re afraid will come crawling back, separating yourself from emotionally toxic relationships.

Don’t Let Me Know was definitely inspired…
writing it started at my Mammaw’s old piano in her home in Elizabethton T.N, and ended up being completed while living in a camper in Nashville T.N. Needless to say it was quite the journey.

We had a BLAST recording the song…
with our Producer, Andy Sheridan at Ocean Way Studio in Nashville. (You can catch a glimpse of the recording process in our music video on Youtube).

During the writing process…
I personally went through alot (evident in the song subject itself) but we went through a lot as a family and a band during that time too. Living in a camper together for a year begins to wear on you, but I’m thankful for the experiences because they taught us to appreciate what you have, even in the smallest of things.

Buy the song iTunes Download: http://tinyurl.com/dontletmeknow

You can always expect something unique…
we pride ourselves on being different. You can always expect variety, because we as siblings all have different tastes in music so we try to keep things interesting. Overall, you can always expect family harmonies and a positive message in our music. Our harmonies are the glue in the variety and we always try to incorporate a positive spin, even in the saddest of songs.

This EP project was COMPLETELY funded by our fans via Kickstarter…
making it immensely special to us. We loved making this project,”our” project, a coming together between us and our fans, so we hope it is equally as special to them as it is to us. We hope to be able to reach people with our music and this project, wherever they are and no matter who they are, music is a powerful tool to us and we hope to connect and touch people through our songs.

Smyrna Nashville Tennessee
We live south of Nashville, in a town called Smyrna, and there isn’t much of a music scene here, but travel about twenty seven minutes away to Nashville, and well, it’s music city.

We drive to Nashville a lot to enjoy live music and the great music environment
Tell me about one fun thing you like to do that can be music or non-music related.
All four of us have our different hobbies, our favorite thing to do is perform, but I personally enjoy photography and art, and spend a lot of my free time doing that outside of music.

 

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Announcement: http://avaliveradio.tumblr.com/post/141967642672/dont-let-me-know-by-thebandj4-live-interview