Nat Jay is celebrating 60K streams of “Sleep” with prizes to help you sleep!
She'll be giving away this prize pack from from Saje Natural Wellness, her favourite sleep wellness store:
♥ An Aroma Gem® Diffuser (valued at $75), and
♥ Bedside Essentials Restful Night Essential Oils (valued at $65)
To participate, click the following link: https://app.hive.co/l/2xr2q3
Contest closes on February 21, 2020 at 12pm PST after which, one winner will be selected at random.
Listen to Nat Jay speak about types of sync licensing deals, one-stop sync companies, approaching music supervisors, and more on the Music Growth Talks podcast! https://mgt.band.link/0145
"Sleep" music video out now! A message from Nat:
"One day my producer, Ovi described to me this insomniac world he lives in where it's just him against the night, and I tried to create that nighttime world through this song. It was amazing to see this angst come alive through Billy Mustapha's incredible dancing and the artistry of Mike Southworth (Director/Editor) and Byron Kopman's (DOP) imagination. Thank you to all those who helped make this video happen!"
Supported by Creative BC and City of Vancouver through the Vancouver Music Fund.
Nat Jay is incredibly excited to share with you her new album, The Flash of a Fight, out TODAY on all digital platforms. Click here to listen
Read on to hear a message from Nat about the creation of the album...
Creating The Flash of a Fight was a learning experience for me. It was a lesson in the practical (songwriting), but also in trust; trust in the people around me and trust in my ability. These are a few things I discovered about myself during this process:
I thrive with the right team. I’m that person who likes to do it all on my own. I like things a certain way and I know I can rely on myself. But that’s also a lot of pressure and can make for a lonely work life. On The Flash of a Fight I decided to let down that wall and invite some team members into the mix. Co-writers Mary Ancheta, Luca Fogale, and of course my producer Ovi all brought a new flavour to my songs. At the same time they allowed me to be myself and gave me the freedom to write how I write. Finding the right collaborators made all the difference, not changing what I do, but nurturing and enhancing my vision to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
I can adapt. I’m a creature of comfort. I like what I know, and once I’ve found it, it’s a tug-of-war to wrestle it away from me. I’ve written 95% of my songs with a guitar in hand and a full band recording in mind. The Flash of a Fight brought me a new challenge as a songwriter: write a modern pop song. Put down the guitar and write to a track. I had to shift my focus from the vast expanse of an acoustic folk song to the succinct, rhythmic bubble of the current pop trends. Often using the same musical sample throughout the whole song, I had to find new ways to create movement and separation between the different sections, using more dramatic changes in melody and rhythm. Outside my comfort zone, I was able to take the familiar, push it to grow, and trust it to take on new life.
I found my strength. When we are so focused on doing what we’ve always done, we can get stuck in the limits of our ability. Bringing on collaborators to take off some of the weight and challenging myself with a new way of songwriting highlighted a skill set I hadn’t been aware of previously: I’m a topline writer. In the pop/EDM/urban music world, this is a legitimate role, meaning a songwriter who writes only the melody and lyrics. It is the most important role in a conventional pop song, since without a topline, it isn’t a song. While I can write the other parts, having another writer working on the chords and the track allowed my ability as a topline writer to shine, as I zoned in on creating thoughtful lyrics, innovative melodies, and unique hooks for my listeners to take in more than ever before. Narrowing down this skill set so specifically not only refreshed my love for what I do, but also gave new direction to my career.
I hope you enjoy listening to The Flash of a Fight as much as I enjoyed making it. If you do, please share it with everyone you know, as this is what helps us indie artists the most! I would also love your feedback—let me know your favourite songs and how they are meaningful in your life. As I have learned through this process, music at its best is a collaborative experience, and I’m honoured and thrilled to be sharing this experience with you.
With love + music,
Nat Jay
Nat Jay is excited to announce the release of her new full-length album, The Flash of a Fight, out worldwide on November 22. Read on for the story behind the album...
This album almost didn’t happen. After a serious car accident and two abdominal surgeries, one of which led to life-threatening complications, I didn’t know whether I had the energy or the passion for creating music anymore, let alone whether I could sing properly. I envisaged the car accident daily. I could feel my scars every time I tightened my abdomen to sing. I thought if I opened my mouth to sing, I would just cry.
I put off the album and didn’t write for almost a year and a half. During that time, I was lucky enough to receive grant funding for the recording of the album from both Creative BC and the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR). I honestly thought about giving all the grant money back and walking away.
But then, I didn’t. And what resulted are the songs on The Flash of a Fight.
I started writing on my own at first, and then decided I wanted to take a more collaborative approach to my writing, and engaged some friends. A couple of the songs stuck: “Déjà Vu,” written with Cookie Cartel’s Mary Ancheta, and “Quiet,” written with artist Luca Fogale. The rest came to life in the studio after finding the right partner in my producer (and neighbour), Ovidiu “Ovi” Bistriceanu.
Ovi and I took a huge risk, as I threw away most of what I’d been working on, and we arrived at the studio each day starting a song from scratch. After hours of talking, we would sit for several more hours in silence, Ovi building a track and me writing the topline (melody + lyrics). We had a mic next to the console, and every once in a while, I would pipe up: “I’ve got a verse!” – at which point I would stand up and record the part I’d written for safe keeping. We found it difficult to recapture the excitement and magic of some newly written lines when we tried to replace the vocal later on, so we ended up using most of those “first take” vocals on the record.
The Flash of a Fight brought out many new sides to my artistry. After everything I’d been through, I had changed, and so had my writing instincts. They were telling me to try something different, to find a collaborator that could bring out a side of me I’d been hiding: I like pop music! Though raised in a classical household, I spent my teenage years listening and dancing to pop and R&B, and I wanted to find my way back. I was so fortunate to find Ovi, one of the country’s most talented pop producers, who encouraged me and made me smile every day in the studio.
I hope my fans will like this shift in my musical aesthetic. I hope you’ll still hear the old me: just a girl trying to make sense of life through her songs. But I also hope you’ll bop your head or tap your toes to the new electro in my pop.
Pre-save The Flash of a Fight here.
With love + music,
Nat Jay 🖤