Jay Hammen Interview
Q: Can you talk a little bit more specifically about when and why you started writing music? It says in your bio that you were the drummer in a band called Brickfoot but when did you start dabbling in songwriting?
A: When I moved from the Baltimore area to Florida, it was life-altering. I made the decision to move away from the music industry from which I felt chewed up and spit out; I was done with it. A couple of years after being down here (in Florida) and engaging in some very purposeful soul-searching, I picked up a guitar after being influenced by some new music that I had become interested in, just to learn a few chords and play a few tunes. For whatever reason, I lost the joy that I had once felt playing drums, but still felt the need to be musical. It was during this time, probably around 2010 or 2011, that I began writing "Walk on By" chronicling my journey from weathered-musician to proud daddy of my three amazing children. As the technology kept improving, I kept writing until I had enough to release the EP. The whole process was very strange, as I had never done anything like this. I had sung a few backup vocals on Brickfoot records and helped with song arrangements, but being the sole songwriter and singer was something completely foreign. It's a very intimidating experience to put your feelings and thoughts out there for people to critique.
Q: Your EP Give Up the Ghost is dense any way you look at it. It's mind boggling this was all done on an iPhone. Can you talk a little bit about the process?
A: Technology is an amazing thing, to be sure. After (barely) learning a few chords, I stumbled across an amazing music app (Music Studio) that allowed me to record multiple tracks using electronic samples. I was fooling around with this, and emailed the creator of the app asking if they were planning on developing it further to allow vocals to be recorded. They responded that they had been working on it, and when it finally was included in an update, that was the final piece. I was then able to record the music I had been working on. I would always begin by writing the chords on my acoustic guitar. I would then transpose those chords to the electric piano from the app, and begin building onto it track by track, adding samples from just about every instrument imaginable. I put the drum tracks together piece by piece; they weren't lifted from already made samples. In other words, the snare would be one track, the kick another, etc. After that was complete, I would simply record the acoustic guitar track directly into the phone app, and do my vocals the same way, usually sitting in my bathroom for that natural reverb from the tiles. When it was all recorded, I would spend a lot of time mixing all of the tracks together, and would take it out to my car to play it on speakers I was used to listening to music on. I wanted to get it sounding as "natural" as any album I listened to. I also bought a mastering app to adjust levels a bit, and read up on certain techniques to help get the tracks sounding as professional as possible. Obviously, I realize that this doesn't sound like Led Zeppelin IV, but that was part of the point; I wanted to see just how far I could take this technology and run with it.
Q: Overall Give Up the Ghost felt like an upbeat, optimistic experience. I can't help but sense the songs were cathartic for you as you mention in your bio that you were healing from a devastating car crash at the time. Did you feel that way while writing and recording these songs?
A: It was incredibly cathartic for many different reasons. Touring over thirty countries with Brickfoot had quite the toll on my back, and by 2008, I required back surgery. This is the first time that I am going to come out in public and admit it, but I had an awful time getting off the pain medication that was prescribed to me. It was a dark, unimaginable fight which frightened me to the core, but it convinced me to become completely sober and concentrate on my family. After that, I finished school, became a teacher, and the rest is history, with seven years under my belt at the time of this interview. Part of me has been cautious about saying this because of the profession I am in, but I also believe in the importance of bringing awareness to those who are suffering or love someone addicted to narcotics. There can absolutely be a rainbow at the other end, and I want my success story to help others who may feel like there's no end in sight. It CAN be beaten.
The car accident happened a few years later, on December 8th, 2015. While recovering (with no pain medication), I wrote the other half of the EP. So yes, recovery from different situations through the art of music has been incredible...just amazing. When I finished the EP it felt like a ton of weight slid off my shoulders. I said what I needed to say, in the way that I can express it best.
Q: There is a good amount of ambiguity in your lyrics. Are you willing to divulge any meaning to the songs that might not be so obvious?
A: I guess the cliched response would be to say that "art is subjective." I have dealt with anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder since I was a child, as well as the situations mentioned above. My demons are going to be different from the person standing next to me in a crowd. I would hope that when someone listens to the song "Darling Demons" they apply it to what is relevant to them. I'm also an English and Language Arts teacher, and therefore love to play with figurative language. So instead of just singing, "Man, this anxiety I'm feeling is awful; it's really bad today," I played around with how it makes me feel. "Over and over and over again, I'm a snake inside of skin I can't shed." That way, whether it's anxiety, addiction, or any other type of feeling one may have, it can be relative to the person who is listening to the song.
When I was working on "Fade Away," I read a quote by the band "Beach House" that said something to the tune of "writing a love song during times of war." I thought, "that's exactly what I did with 'Fade Away'." That was the tune I wrote during my accident recovery and I was feeling very existential. The chorus sums up the rest; you never know what tomorrow is going to be like, so let's treat each other with love and respect.
I guess one of my favorite lyrics on the album is from "Walk on By," - "cold hands shape my dreams; and this shadow holds every story told that remains a part of me." Yes, I'm doing very well now, but my dreams are always there to remind me that the danger could be lurking right around the corner, and not to let my guard down. Also, even though I am a happy, successful daddy, husband and teacher, I think that sometimes people may feel that there is a darker part to my persona, and I guess that's the shadow of my past....
Q: Do you feel compelled to keep writing music now that Give Up the Ghost has been released or is this a one time deal?
A: I thought at first that it might be finished once it was released, but I've written two more since. I am working on one now that the other members of Brickfoot are helping me out with called "The Kid's Gonna Be Alright." My guitarist just put a killer solo on it - the first guitar solo on a Strange Creatures song - and I'm patiently waiting for the other two to add a few more parts to it; an electric rhythm guitar part, and hopefully some backups from the Brickfoot singer, who helped with a few tunes on this EP, as well. I also was asked by my loving mother to "write something that doesn't make me cry," so I wrote a song about aliens. If that one makes her cry, it's certainly no fault of mine!
Q: What can we expect from you moving forward? Live shows, more releases?
A: I will probably release another one as soon as I write enough for an album. Part of me wishes I would have waited a few more months so that these two new ones could be added, but they'll find their home somewhere, I'm sure. As far as playing live, I think I'll keep Strange Creatures as a "studio band." Or "iPhone band"...is that a 'thing?'
Q: Can you talk a little bit more specifically about when and why you started writing music? It says in your bio that you were the drummer in a band called Brickfoot but when did you start dabbling in songwriting?
A: When I moved from the Baltimore area to Florida, it was life-altering. I made the decision to move away from the music industry from which I felt chewed up and spit out; I was done with it. A couple of years after being down here (in Florida) and engaging in some very purposeful soul-searching, I picked up a guitar after being influenced by some new music that I had become interested in, just to learn a few chords and play a few tunes. For whatever reason, I lost the joy that I had once felt playing drums, but still felt the need to be musical. It was during this time, probably around 2010 or 2011, that I began writing "Walk on By" chronicling my journey from weathered-musician to proud daddy of my three amazing children. As the technology kept improving, I kept writing until I had enough to release the EP. The whole process was very strange, as I had never done anything like this. I had sung a few backup vocals on Brickfoot records and helped with song arrangements, but being the sole songwriter and singer was something completely foreign. It's a very intimidating experience to put your feelings and thoughts out there for people to critique.
Q: Your EP Give Up the Ghost is dense any way you look at it. It's mind boggling this was all done on an iPhone. Can you talk a little bit about the process?
A: Technology is an amazing thing, to be sure. After (barely) learning a few chords, I stumbled across an amazing music app (Music Studio) that allowed me to record multiple tracks using electronic samples. I was fooling around with this, and emailed the creator of the app asking if they were planning on developing it further to allow vocals to be recorded. They responded that they had been working on it, and when it finally was included in an update, that was the final piece. I was then able to record the music I had been working on. I would always begin by writing the chords on my acoustic guitar. I would then transpose those chords to the electric piano from the app, and begin building onto it track by track, adding samples from just about every instrument imaginable. I put the drum tracks together piece by piece; they weren't lifted from already made samples. In other words, the snare would be one track, the kick another, etc. After that was complete, I would simply record the acoustic guitar track directly into the phone app, and do my vocals the same way, usually sitting in my bathroom for that natural reverb from the tiles. When it was all recorded, I would spend a lot of time mixing all of the tracks together, and would take it out to my car to play it on speakers I was used to listening to music on. I wanted to get it sounding as "natural" as any album I listened to. I also bought a mastering app to adjust levels a bit, and read up on certain techniques to help get the tracks sounding as professional as possible. Obviously, I realize that this doesn't sound like Led Zeppelin IV, but that was part of the point; I wanted to see just how far I could take this technology and run with it.
Q: Overall Give Up the Ghost felt like an upbeat, optimistic experience. I can't help but sense the songs were cathartic for you as you mention in your bio that you were healing from a devastating car crash at the time. Did you feel that way while writing and recording these songs?
A: It was incredibly cathartic for many different reasons. Touring over thirty countries with Brickfoot had quite the toll on my back, and by 2008, I required back surgery. This is the first time that I am going to come out in public and admit it, but I had an awful time getting off the pain medication that was prescribed to me. It was a dark, unimaginable fight which frightened me to the core, but it convinced me to become completely sober and concentrate on my family. After that, I finished school, became a teacher, and the rest is history, with seven years under my belt at the time of this interview. Part of me has been cautious about saying this because of the profession I am in, but I also believe in the importance of bringing awareness to those who are suffering or love someone addicted to narcotics. There can absolutely be a rainbow at the other end, and I want my success story to help others who may feel like there's no end in sight. It CAN be beaten.
The car accident happened a few years later, on December 8th, 2015. While recovering (with no pain medication), I wrote the other half of the EP. So yes, recovery from different situations through the art of music has been incredible...just amazing. When I finished the EP it felt like a ton of weight slid off my shoulders. I said what I needed to say, in the way that I can express it best.
Q: There is a good amount of ambiguity in your lyrics. Are you willing to divulge any meaning to the songs that might not be so obvious?
A: I guess the cliched response would be to say that "art is subjective." I have dealt with anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder since I was a child, as well as the situations mentioned above. My demons are going to be different from the person standing next to me in a crowd. I would hope that when someone listens to the song "Darling Demons" they apply it to what is relevant to them. I'm also an English and Language Arts teacher, and therefore love to play with figurative language. So instead of just singing, "Man, this anxiety I'm feeling is awful; it's really bad today," I played around with how it makes me feel. "Over and over and over again, I'm a snake inside of skin I can't shed." That way, whether it's anxiety, addiction, or any other type of feeling one may have, it can be relative to the person who is listening to the song.
When I was working on "Fade Away," I read a quote by the band "Beach House" that said something to the tune of "writing a love song during times of war." I thought, "that's exactly what I did with 'Fade Away'." That was the tune I wrote during my accident recovery and I was feeling very existential. The chorus sums up the rest; you never know what tomorrow is going to be like, so let's treat each other with love and respect.
I guess one of my favorite lyrics on the album is from "Walk on By," - "cold hands shape my dreams; and this shadow holds every story told that remains a part of me." Yes, I'm doing very well now, but my dreams are always there to remind me that the danger could be lurking right around the corner, and not to let my guard down. Also, even though I am a happy, successful daddy, husband and teacher, I think that sometimes people may feel that there is a darker part to my persona, and I guess that's the shadow of my past....
Q: Do you feel compelled to keep writing music now that Give Up the Ghost has been released or is this a one time deal?
A: I thought at first that it might be finished once it was released, but I've written two more since. I am working on one now that the other members of Brickfoot are helping me out with called "The Kid's Gonna Be Alright." My guitarist just put a killer solo on it - the first guitar solo on a Strange Creatures song - and I'm patiently waiting for the other two to add a few more parts to it; an electric rhythm guitar part, and hopefully some backups from the Brickfoot singer, who helped with a few tunes on this EP, as well. I also was asked by my loving mother to "write something that doesn't make me cry," so I wrote a song about aliens. If that one makes her cry, it's certainly no fault of mine!
Q: What can we expect from you moving forward? Live shows, more releases?
A: I will probably release another one as soon as I write enough for an album. Part of me wishes I would have waited a few more months so that these two new ones could be added, but they'll find their home somewhere, I'm sure. As far as playing live, I think I'll keep Strange Creatures as a "studio band." Or "iPhone band"...is that a 'thing?'