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J*Davey Interview

J*Davey Interview by Norman Mayers To talk about J*Davey is to literally talk about the Nu-Soul movement. This innovative duo consisting of the slim, striking, mohawked vocalist Jack Davey and the fresh-faced, sneaker-rocking producer Brook D’Leau, is getting ready for the big time. They have the sound and look that a new generation just might gravitate towards. Influenced by everything from 80s new wave, gritty hip-hop, seductive soul, and punk, J*Davey has crafted a sound that has had the underground buzzing for years. They won’t be the underground’s best-kept secret for long though as Warner Brothers has blessed them with a major label deal. But before J*Davey invades MTV, they are independently releasing the double disc The Beauty In Distortion/Land of the Lost to show the world why they deserved the big record contract. Featuring collaborations with Questlove, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Little Brother’s Phonte, this double disc collection solidifies the sound of future soul as a force to be reckoned with. J*Davey is leading the march into a brand new musical revolution. Nu-Soul: How did you guys meet? Jack: I met Brook in 1999 at my senior prom. I went to an all girls’ Catholic school and one of my friends took him to prom. We became friends and about a year later I discovered that he had been making music in his dad’s studio. I was an MC at the time looking for someone to work with so we started to work together and that was pretty much the start of it all. Nu-Soul: So for someone who has never heard of J*Davey what would you say is the J*Davey sound? Brook: It’s just a gumbo of everything you like. J: I think for this generation, we’re the Ipod generation, pretty much. When we were kids it was all about you listen to a radio station and that’s where you got all of your music. Your R&B, your soul, your hip-hop. And if you wanted to listen to anything else you had to find another station. Now we have the luxury of having Ipods and Itunes and it feeds into the idea that everybody has eclectic musical tastes. They’re not feeling the same way every minute of the day. I think our sound is indicative of that. It’s a little bit of everything all in one. Nu-Soul: Why did you decide to releases your two EPs now? B: We’ve been wanting to release them for a while. We did a promo release a few months back just to gauge the response. I think a lot of things just fell into place. All of this stuff didn’t get planned. It just felt right to do it now. Nu-Soul: There’s been a lot of press about your deal with Warner Brothers. How did that situation come about? J: Basically someone at Warner Brothers came to a show of ours and they liked our set and our sound. It was just one of those weird things. We weren’t looking for a record deal. We were just doing our own thing and it kind of fell into our laps. It was a “why not” situation. Let’s see what happens. It hasn’t been the easiest ride we have taken but compared to other experiences in the industry it’s going pretty well. We’re actually finishing our record now. Nu-Soul: I saw your ad in Nylon for Luxurie. Is that one of the things that has come about because of your deal with Warner Brothers? J: Kind of. The thing about Brook and I is that we have done a lot on our own. A lot of the connections we have are independent of Warner Brothers. The LRG thing, I have friends that work on the design team at LRG. So when they started doing Luxurie they wanted me to be a part of their campaign years ago. The major label does help and give us credibility with certain people but we’ve done a lot on our own already. We don’t sit around and wait for Warner Brothers to make it happen for us. Maybe if it was 1993. But now even though we are signed we still function as independent artists. B: You kind of have to as an artist nowadays. The old model of waiting for a label to blow you up and make you famous doesn’t work. They aren’t exactly sure how to sell it so we have to show them. Nu-Soul: Do you feel any pressure being the first artist as a part of this progressive soul movement that has scored a major deal? B: Yes and no. J: The only pressure is what we put on ourselves. It’s not like we’re reading message boards and blogs and saying, “oh shit we gotta do this.” We don’t really get into that too deep. It has nothing to do with us being the first. We just want to put out the best possible product that represents who we are at this point in time. Of course there is always pressure because there are other people’s opinions involved. B: I think the pressure is always self-imposed. There are always going to be people who will think we should have done it differently. But we’ve created our own lane so we just have to keep moving forward. Nu-Soul: How do you approach your live performances? J: Each live performance is different. We’re still stumbling across what our live performance is so it’s always changing. We get up there and see what happens. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s not so great but each time we’re learning. A great man told us recently to keep doing it and it will figure itself out. So that’s what we’re doing. Nu-Soul: Who are some artists you are feeling right now? J: Musinah, the Doors. B: We listen to so much random stuff. It’s a combination of new mixed with old. Nu-Soul: You guys have had the privilege to collaborate with some great artists before you have even put out your first major debut. Who are some of your best collaborators? What are some of your best experiences with collaborating? B: I think Questlove was probably the best experience because of how he came into the picture. We had been friends with him for a bit. But he was the only one who flew us out and put us up to record with him. That definitely showed a great deal of respect for the type of music that we were doing. It let us know that there are people in the industry who still just care about the music at the core. And it’s not about anything else and it’s very simple instead of going through all the rhetoric and the hoopla. Nu-Soul: What else is on the horizon? J: We’ll definitely be going on tour at the end of the summer and early fall. Right now all we can think about is getting this album out and getting our Warner Brothers album out. We’ll see this indie record through and whatever comes out of that we’ll deal with it. www.myspace.com/jdavey www.jdaveybaby.com Purchase J*Davey at Itunes Purchase J*Davey at Amazon

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