Join Joe Kelley as he welcomes the renowned bassist and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Jay, known for his work with "Weird Al" Yankovic and his impressive solo career. Stephen discusses his recent double album releases, "El Natural Seven" and "Spontaneous Symmetry," highlighting the unique blend of world influences and innovative polyrhythmic grooves that define his music. With a career that includes collaborations with jazz legend Wayne Shorter and numerous Grammy-winning projects, Stephen shares insights into his creative process and the challenges of balancing touring with personal projects. He also reflects on the joy of performing in front of appreciative audiences and the magic of musical collaboration with his sons, who are also composers. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with musical anecdotes and a deep dive into the life of a versatile artist.

www.stephenjay.com

www.joekelleyradio.com

Takeaways:

• Stephen Jay discusses the creative process behind his dual album release this year.
• Despite busy touring schedules, musicians like Stephen find time for personal projects.
• The contrasting styles of Stephen's two albums showcase his versatility as a musician.
• Stephen shares insights about collaborating with notable artists like Wayne Shorter.
• His experiences working on PBS projects have expanded his creativity in composition.
• The upcoming tour with Weird Al Yankovic will feature more original music and less theatrics.

Joe Kelly welcomes the incredibly talented Stephen Jay, a bassist and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Weird Al Yankovic and his own innovative solo projects. In a lively conversation, they explore the creative process behind Stephen's two recent album releases, 'El Natural Seven' and 'Spontaneous Symmetry'. Stephen reveals that despite his extensive touring schedule with Weird Al, he has been able to carve out time to work on his music, showcasing his ability to balance performance and composition. Both albums represent distinct facets of his musical identity, with 'Spontaneous Symmetry' leaning towards experimental funk and instrumental pieces, while 'El Natural Seven' features vocals and a richer, more layered sound. Stephen also discusses the inspiration behind his tracks, including a unique collaboration with his son, Miles, highlighting the familial connection to his music.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• WVOF
• Weird Al Yankovic
• PBS
• RIAA

Stay tuned to WVOF 88.5 FM, the voice of Fairfield, Joe Kelly here with the up room till eight this evening.

And as mentioned in the opening today, we have a multi instrumentalist, Grammy award winning musician.

He's a bassist with weird Al Yankovic, but he's got an amazing solo career.

Prolific.

In fact, this year he released two full cds, one entitled El Natural Seven and spontaneous symmetry.

His name is Stephen J.

And we welcome once again to our show.

Thank you, Stephen.

How you doing?

Doing great, Joe.

Thanks for having me.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well.

And, you know, we were talking about all the touring with weird Al Yankovic that you have done over the years, and how do you get all the time to put two albums together?

Well, these albums are a few years in the making, so I had a lot of time there and they just happened to get done sort of at the same time.

So even though it didn't make a whole lot of sense, decided to let them go out at the same time.

So when you're on the road, do you get a chance to do some production work and the rough drafts of what you were working on for your own stuff?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

There's lots of time.

We don't have too many responsibilities other than doing the show every night.

So there's plenty of time in hotel rooms and a bus, you know, to work on music.

And it's really a cool part of the process to do that, to be able to perform and compose and forefather on the road.

Let's talk about the two different cds and, you know, how you split it up with the instrumental cd and primary vocals and music.

Talk about that.

Okay.

Yeah, they're two entirely different works.

The instrumental cd spontaneous symmetry is just all kinds of really experimental forms of funk I've been messing around with lately.

And some pieces that came from film score worked at work on that.

I adapted and turned them into full on pieces of music.

So that's just an all out funk album.

And El Natural Seven is the latest in my solo cd series with vocals and all the bells and whistles on there.

Once again, entirely different except for one song, a song that my son miles j wrote called amijdehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe I included an instrumental version of that on spontaneous symmetry and also a version of it on el natural seven that I wrote lyrics and added vocals to.

So that kind of bridges the gap, that one.

Yeah.

Our special guest right now, stephen j.

And stephenj.com.

s t e p h e n j a y.com.

you can go there and find out just all the accomplishments of this great musician and ordered these two cds.

I mean, it's available on most Internet portals, right.

People can go there, peer to peer and get them.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's on itunes and all that.

That's right.

Stephenj.com.

and we talked about the funk.

You talked about the spontaneous symmetry.

We're going to play a track right now from this.

It's called the and of two.

Now, that's a title.

You gotta explain that one.

Oh, okay.

Well, you know, you're counting beats in a measure, you know, one and two and three and four.

And the end of two is, well, it's a pretty darn historic place in the measure, you know.

Okay.

So it's having such an important location in our time frame of music.

Decided to name a song after it.

All right.

Love this track.

This is from Stephen J.

Spontaneous symmetry.

We'll come back and speak again with Stephen J.

Three track from spontaneous symmetry.

This is Stephen J.

The end of two.

And you told me that you do a lot of music with PBS national, including that song, right?

Yeah, yeah.

That was a.

A track that went with PBS special or editor?

PBS, part of a series on skateboarding.

It was called the Eddy Files, and it looked at all the incredible athletes in that sport and a lot of great shots, really incredible tricks and feats of magic that they were able to perform.

So I was really inspired to do something musically that could measure up to.

To what they wrote.

But, yes, a lot of PBS shows, lots of different subjects, mostly science and education.

It's been a great chance to stretch out as a composer.

So do you write music?

You know, the program's all set and you get a clip and you write the song to that?

Well, that's the best of all worlds.

It's kind of all of the above.

Sometimes they'll get in, like on some of the specials we did.

They were so in depth that I'd get into the process early when they were still writing scripts, so that I could be cooking up ideas and everything.

And so it'd be like a long process of working with the writers and the editors all the way through production and production.

But at other times, we were working on series futures with Jaime Escalante, and we were doing a lot of shows really fast, have a chance to be there at the formative stages.

I did at the editing stages, and usually with film composers, especially with tv people, like to keep on editing right up to the last minute before the release.

And so what you meant getting a finished product and then scoring it.

That doesn't happen too often for you to get a final cut to edit, too.

Usually you're working and doing changes with the editors right up until the last minute, because like all creative artists, the editors, they can't stop their ideas.

And they, even though production is over with, they get a great idea to add something or subtract or extend something, and they would be wrong to resist it, even though it make the music that you just finished composing obsolete.

Right, right.

But that's the way it goes in the business.

So you've got this year, practically a year off from big tour in support of a really popular album with Weird Al Yankovic.

What are some of the plans for this upcoming year?

2017.

Well, yeah, it's a great tour.

208 over two years.

All those countries, I think 22 countries.

It was really great.

There's going to be a lot more originals and a whole lot less costume changes and videos.

It's going to be more of a get up on stage and play kind of show.

So I know this year we're going to be working on that, getting that all organized and ready to go.

Right.

And for myself, I'm working on some things.

My son Miles J and his brother Ian are both composers and film composers, and they bring a lot of projects here to our ranch.

And so I'm working a lot with them, which is a really great joy because they're wonderful guys to work with.

A beautiful place up in the mountains above LA where we have our studios and we have livestock and plenty of inspiration.

It's up in the Los Padres National Forest, so I kind of worked a lot with them.

Do you have horses up there?

No, we have llamas.

Oh, llamas.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, they're great.

Packed animals and cool friends.

And then I plan on doing more shows with my buddy Pete Gallagher, my long time drummer from the band Akimzoo.

We're gonna be getting out and doing doing shows, and that should be it.

So you mentioned Pete Gallagher.

So I think it's perfect timing to play a song from El Natural Seven, which you and Pete do some magic on.

It's the last cut off the record called Cold in the sun.

And how did you guys go composing it?

How far back did this go?

Okay, well, Pete and I have been working together since, God, since the late sixties, actually, in more bands than I can count.

It's just one of those situations where his groove is inevitable.

I mean, I don't know how to describe the shape of it, but you just can't help it fall in.

So that's why I've always just looked with Pete, and he's also a great vocalist, so he contributes a lot of harmonies to things.

That particular song, I don't really recall the origin of it.

There's probably just a bunch of ideas we're working on and grabbed some pieces and decided to go with.

Right.

So this is Akinzui, the bass and rhythm section, drums and bass, but they play all sorts of instruments on this.

Stephen J.

El Natural seven cold in the sun.

Please go to stephenj.com.

and this is Stephen J.

Great track from spontaneous symmetry.

This is Stephen J.

The ant of two.

And you told me that you do a lot of music with PBS national, including that song, right?

Yeah, yeah.

That was a track that went with PBS special or editor?

PBS, part of a series on skateboarding.

It was called the Eddy Files.

It looked at all the incredible athletes in that sport and had a lot of great shots, really incredible tricks, feats as they were able to perform.

So I was really inspired to do something musically that could measure up to what they wrote.

But, yes, a lot of PBS shows, lots of different subjects, mostly science and education.

It's been a great chance to stretch out as a composer.

So do you write music?

You know, the program's all set, and you get a clip and you write the song to that?

Well, that's the best of all worlds.

It's kind of all of the above.

Sometimes I'll get in, like on some of the specials we did.

They were so in depth that I'd get into the process early when they were still writing scripts, so that I could be cooking up ideas and everything.

And so it'd be like a long process of working with the writers and the editors all the way through production and sort of direction.

But at other times, we were working on series futures with Jaime Escalante, and we were doing a lot of shows really fast and have a chance to be there at the formative stages I did at the editing stages, and usually with film composers, especially with tv people, like to keep on editing right up to the last minute before the release.

And so what you meant getting a finished product and then scoring it?

That doesn't happen too often for you to get a final cut to edit to.

Usually you're working and doing changes with the editors right up until the last minute, because like all creative artists, the editors can't stop their ideas, and they even though production is over with, they get a great idea to add something or subtract or extend something, and they would be wrong to resist it, even though it make the music that you just finished composing obsolete.

Right, right.

But that's the way it goes in the business.

So you've got this year, practically a year off from, you know, big, big tour in support of a really popular album with weird Al Yankovic.

What are some of the plans for this upcoming year?

2017.

Well, yeah, it's a great tour.

Two of the dates over two years.

All those countries, I think 22 countries.

It was really great.

Yeah.

So for the next.

There's going to be a lot more originals and a whole lot less costume changes and videos.

It's going to be more of a get up on stage and play kind of show.

So I know this year we're going to be working on that, getting that all organized, ready to go.

And for myself, I'm working on some things.

My son Miles J and his brother Ian are both composers and film composers.

They bring a lot of projects here to our ranch, and so I'm working a lot with them, which is a really great joy because they're wonderful guys to work with.

We have a beautiful place up in the mountains above La where we have our studios and we have livestock and plenty of inspiration is up in the Los Padres national forest.

So I finally worked a lot with them.

Do you have horses up there?

No, we have llamas.

Oh, llamas.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, they're great.

Packed animals, cool friends.

And then I plan on doing more shows with my buddy Pete Gallagher, my longtime drummer from the band Akim Zooey.

We're gonna be getting out and doing, doing shows, and that should pretty much be it.

So you mentioned Pete Gallagher.

So I think it's perfect timing to play a song from El Natural seven, which you and Pete do some magic on.

It's the last cut off the record called Cold in the sun.

And, you know, how'd you guys go composing it?

How far back did this go?

Okay, well, Pete and I have been working together since, God, since the late sixties, actually, in more bands than I can count.

It's just one of those situations where his groove is inevitable.

I mean, I don't know how to describe the shape of it, but you just can't help it fall in.

So that's why I've always just looked, working with Pete, and he's also a great vocalist, so he contributes a lot of harmonies to things.

That particular song, I don't really recall the origin of it.

It was probably just a bunch of ideas we're working on and grabbed some pieces and decided to go with.

Right, so this is Akinzui, the bass and rhythm section, drums and bass, but they play all sorts of instruments on this.

Stephen J.

El natural seven, cold in the sun.

Please go to stephenj.com.

go like this.

That is a collaboration with our special guest, and we're honored to have him on again.

Stephen Jennae with his buddy mister Wayne Shorter on that particular track.

Wow.

Some heavyweights, yourself and Wayne Shorter collaborating.

How did that collaboration start?

Well, Wayne was recording an album at Producers Workshop in Hollywood, and the owner of that studio, Joe Vitarelli, who's also a producer and very famous film composer, I worked with him, and he called me up to come and add some talking drum to some of Wayne's tracks.

And in exchange, Wayne agreed to play on a couple of my tracks.

So it was very opportune.

And of course, the double cd release El Natural seven and spontaneous symmetry.

Stevenj.com.

you know, we mentioned the success of Weird Al Yankovic's latest CDK.

It's quite an achievement these days.

Number one release and hugely successful tour.

You guys still get a great charge from having those things happen to you.

Oh, absolutely.

It's a super great charge.

Standing up in front of any appreciative audience is, of course, a really great charge.

Alice audience is unique in that people come there just to have fun.

It's just all about having fun.

So they paid their hard earned, congealed energy to buy a ticket.

They're determined to have a good time, and we kind of give them the circuit they need to do that.

And so when you're on stage with Al in front of huge audiences, especially these festivals and things in the large outdoor venues, it's really.

You're looking out on the spores of nature.

Everybody is feeling so good and joyful and happy, and they beam this energy up at you.

It's.

It's just absolutely thrilling and exciting to seeing everybody out there appreciating.

It's a real blessing.

Do you have any particular songs out of the repertoire that he's done these years that are your favorites?

I sure do.

Yeah.

Well, on this last tour, we did an unplugged segment where everybody goes acoustic and we sit around the little semicircle, like the MTV unplugged thing.

And that's right in the middle of this show.

That's the action packed and full of big, huge rock and roll textures and all sorts of orchestral things.

And all of a sudden just comes down to this quiet moment where we do four songs in a medley acoustically.

And that is a real blast to do.

It feels so good to bring the audience to that point and to be such a new acoustic instrument.

So that's always fun.

And when I always enjoyed playing our chili pepper parody, bedrock anthem parody of give it away, because it's just so.

It's just so much fun rocking out on that flea base part.

It's ball.

And also in this tour, the song that we did is a parody of blurred lines called word crimes.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah, yeah.

That one is really fun to play.

There's a strange thing going on in the bass part.

The bass guitar and the left hand of the piano play the bass part, trading notes in that song.

I don't know if you've ever noticed.

It sounds like a part that's going bump, bump, bump.

But actually, every one of those notes is alternating between the bass and the piano.

And so either one of them is a piano player.

Bass player.

When we play our parts, they feel syncopated because you might just be hitting an upbeat here and there where it sounds like you're hitting a downbeat.

But the effect of playing that live is just really, really liberating.

It's just so funny.

That's why I love that one, to play live.

Yeah.

You guys are working on.

You're working on your own projects.

And hey, thanks, Stephen, for coming on the show again.

And a double cd blast.

El natural seven, spontaneous symmetry.

So thanks again.

All right, thank you.

It was a pleasure.

Yeah.

And you got to get your son's music over to us.

Axon Orchestra.

Yeah, yeah.

I will send that over right away.

Yeah, yeah.

Love to play, you know, Miles J's music as well, so.

Okay.

Yeah, I'll send.

I haven't sent you some cds.

You're going to love it.

All right, we're going to go out with one final track from El Natural seven.

This one is called some of this stuff.

And Stevenj.com is where you go.

Thanks again, Stephen.

All right, thank you, Joe.