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Interview and write up by Emma Tandy
Jay Mitchell was born on 9th January 1980 in Sutton Coldfield. Even though no one else in the family was musical his fascination with sound was apparent at an early age. At the age of four he started learning the piano. Jay quickly went through his grades gaining ABRSM merits and distinctions in all of the exams. At the age of twelve he started a fascination with the guitar:
“I was listening to a lot of 60’s music and people like Chuck Berry and Status Quo had a real appeal to me. All my training on the piano had been classical so I was eager to explore new genres of music. I went and bought a small Spanish nylon stringed guitar for 15 quid, it had a chord book so I started learning a few chord shapes. I had real difficulty in moving shapes around quickly and lost faith – I put the guitar down and didn’t pick it up again for another year. When I finally came round to playing again I found that everything I had learned on the piano was the same on the guitar; the notes, the sounds etc – I started tuning the guitar by ear to the pitches I knew from the piano.”
After about a year Jay had mastered most chords and scales on the guitar. New bands were starting to play an important part in Jay’s development.
“I was in school one day and someone gave me a Guns N Roses tape. I took it home and it changed my life forever. I was totally blown away – Slash’s guitar solos were so cool I had to figure out what was going on with this stuff.”
The piano was still a massive part of Jay’s playing life and he started playing small recitals around the area. At fifteen Jay stopped playing guitar to focus seriously on piano playing.
“I had to make a decision. I was having real trouble finding a good guitar teacher. The one I had taught me everything he knew and I was real bored. I stopped playing guitar and concentrated on A-level music with the piano. I didn’t play guitar again for two years.”
During this time Jay was concentring on different musical genres. He started writing a lot of music - piano sonatas, preludes and fugues, violin sonatas and small quartets and quintets using different combinations of instruments. He wrote the music for all the school plays and continued playing solo recitals. At seventeen Jay entered the Young Musician of the Year competition but missed out on the finals to go travelling with friends.
“This stuff was all good and I learnt a lot, but I craved the guitar. Any piece of guitar solo work, no matter what it was fascinated me. I decided to start playing again, but this time I just taught myself from listening to records. I learnt more in 6 months than I had ever done in my whole life.”
At nineteen Jay went to study music at Cardiff University. To get by he taught his friends and other student’s guitar. However the piano was still the main instrument and the practise regimes were becoming more and more difficult to deal with.
“I chose to do all the practical modules and the practise schedules were hitting at least six hours a day. I started to resent sitting on a piano stool for so many hours and so I started spending more and more time playing the guitar.”
After the first year at University Jay formed a band and started playing the local Cardiff circuit. The band played every single live music venue in the town and become the official ‘University’ band that played all the parties, functions and events that were held.
“It was an awesome time. The parties were fantastic and I learnt so much from playing with other people. We did lots of acoustic gigs and played the beer festivals in the main hall, it was a real cool time.”
In Jay’s final year he developed an immense passion for composition and the repertoire flowed profusely. He worked closely with Professor Adrian Thomas and Professor Anthony Powers in developing his portfolio, which included string quartets, piano preludes and fugues, piano sonatas, a piano concerto, piano song cycles, piano two-part inventions, various orchestral works, solo acoustic guitar projects and many acoustic guitar songs. Jay was commissioned to write the music for the university plays which contained full orchestra. The Sorrel Quartet, the UK’s leading string quartet ensemble, also commissioned Jay to write a piece for them to tour with; the piece became highly successful and was recorded by local and university radio press on its debut. The final practical recital was a public 45 minute program of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Bartok. Jay hasn’t played piano since that day.
“The problem was I knew deep down I wanted to play guitar but I was stuck in this ‘classical’ world. I was learning Rachmaninoff’s first piano concerto and was getting real depressed with the amount of time I was spending learning it. I was invited onto a Masters course in composition but I spoke to my band and we decided to head for London – a place where I knew I could find a decent guitar teacher and so I went to have a look at the Guitar Institute in West London. I had an interview and decided to go for it.”
Jay moved into a house in West London with this three other band members and continued teaching to survive.
“I decided to do the one year diploma. It was cool. I met loads of great guitar players and had a cool time.”
In the meantime Jay’s band TNT went into the studio to record their first album. They played solidly for two years around the London scene with their blend of fusion funk. Gigs ranged from small regular appearances in Soho acoustic cafes to London Astoria. Jay finished the one year course with distinction and continued having lessons with Martin Goulding (head of rock) and Shaun Baxter (head of guitar) privately. By this time Jay was teaching extensively and was being offered session work by leading record companies and artists. The problem was, and still is, is session work is limited. Once a session is over the next job has to be hunted down. A position Jay felt was inadequate.
“The two and half years in London were a fantastic experience and I’d recommend it to anyone thinking of going to study there, not just music, anything infact. However there was a problem with the music scene. It was swollen. It was difficult to see a future.”
Jay was becoming more and more disillusioned with London. Then an opportunity arose to develop some studios in the West Midlands. It was a split decision to move back home but Jay took the risk and set up JJM Studios in April 2004. It was at this time when another project was starting in the largest music store in Birmingham, Soundcontrol. This was the Academy of Music and Sound – a Midlands based music school to rival Guitar Ins, Guitar X, ACM and BIMM. The course was written by Shaun Baxter and Jay was invited to teach as head of guitar.
“I set up JJM because bands need a professional set up in which to rehearse. London hasn’t got anything special to offer in terms of quality of rehearsal space so I believe we have created one of the best facilities in the country. And the business is still very young. There’s still so much more to do. I’m now looking to get back into the studio and record a double album of acoustic and electric guitar tunes.”
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