V: When it comes to releasing new music, can you tell us what your usual writing and recording process is like?
whichever way they want. I'm done with trying to explain my lyrics because I feel like it takes the magic out of them slightly.
J: It varies immensely; from song to song, producer to producer, and from writing session to writing session. Every time is different.
The whole EP plays on this whole childhood imagination and using it in life today. There's this magical element to it, this kind of whimsical, circus factor. There's a song called “Carousel” which talks about the way the world goes around and it compares it to a carousel. There's a song called “Six String Soldier” which is about my experience in the music industry and my bond with the fans. The whole running theme generally is about the last couple of years of my life as a musician and finding ways of expressing that kind of child-like manner.
Something that I focus very strongly on is the lyric. I am slightly dyslexic when it comes to writing, reading, and spelling. I'm pretty atrocious, and it actually brings out a creative side. There are studies that show people with dyslexia are generally more creative, although I wouldn't class myself as someone with dyslexia as mine is only slight. Yet there's something about writing lyrics that really allows me to escape from reality and just have my own time with a notebook. It's an absolute pleasure. That doesn't always mean that I write some crazy, metaphorical, elaborate, poetic lyric though. Sometimes it just has to be honest and get to the point. Writing those metaphors and painting a picture using words in a unique way is just something I love to do. All of my huge influences did that, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, all those kinds of singer / songwriters did an amazing job of painting what they were trying to say with words in a really unique way. So, it's all based really, for me, around a great lyric. V: Can you tell us about your new EP, "The Boy and the Broken Machine"? J: This record for me is again independently funded. There's a general theme in there which talks about life and my experiences in life. People can take the name
V: Is there a certain message you try to convey through your music or does it change with each album? J: It honestly changes with each song. That's what I really like. My mentality has always been to just write what I want to write about. I think I've begun to worry less about what people think. When I first started, I was worried about what people would think. I started writing when I was in school, so the last thing you want to look like in school is uncool or like an idiot. Maybe not so much for girls, but for guys, expressing yourself can be quite difficult, especially when you know your family is going to be listening to it and they could question, "Oh, what's he writing about? Oh, his feelings for a girl?" You don't necessarily want your parents at first to listen to what you're really feeling, but for me, right now, it honestly doesn't matter. I am prepared to write about whatever.
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Although I don't feel like this record necessarily has anything that's going to make you shocked, it's all honest and it all comes from a place of what I wanted to say when I was writing it. V: What do you think are the best and worst things about touring? J: I love touring! It's literally everything. As a musician, the live show is honestly my favorite thing and the reaction of the crowd. We recently came off tour with Tyrone Wells in the US, and my favorite part of that was going out each night and playing to a crowd that didn't necessarily know who I was. Obviously I had plenty of my fans there, but some nights it was 21 plus, so it was all his crowd pretty much. I loved that! I loved going out there and winning them over. I was singing my songs with full confidence knowing that if I delivered well, and we all performed well as a band, that we could win over anybody in that room and we did night after night. The response was fantastic! " So my favorite thing is definitely the response from fans and the response from the audience, and the banter with the boys; it's a lot of fun. My least favorite thing is probably missing people. You do have rough nights every now and then. Every tour you have one or two rough nights, maybe it's because it's a poor crowd, or maybe because you've fallen out with a band member, or you're just really missing home. In those moments, you really do wish you were back home with your family or with your friends just for a night or two. That can be hard if you're out on the road for 2 and 1/2 months.