Joey Stuckey is known as the blind artist with an insightful vision. His vast range knowledge when it comes to production and music creation is 2nd only to his musical abilities and phenomenal stage presence. We enjoyed getting to know Joey a bit more.
What was the last show you attended that wasn't your own?
---JS
I’ll answer this question in three ways.
The very last show was a Broadway show while the band was on tour in NYC. It was “Book of Mormon” and it was amazing. Right before that I saw one of my favorite comedians, Iliza Shlesinger,in fact, I had to have a complete shoulder replacement last year and my wife Jennifer reached out to her and Iliza sent me a personal message and I even got to meet her after her show in Atlanta—what a wonderful and funny person! Finally, I saw a totally musical act, the Foo Fighters.
Who are your top 3 new/ modern bands?
---JS
WOW, so hard to pick just three LOL.
I like, in no particular order:
Austin Collins and the RainBirds, HER, and lovin’ the new album by The Raconteurs, who played Coney Island Baby the night after we did on our NYC tour back in June—cool, huh?
What is the greatest misconception about being a blind musician?
---JS
LOL—it’s actually really funny. Thanks to Ronny Milsap, Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles, everybody expects you to play piano if you’re a blind musician. I am a guitar player. It always makes me laugh when someone asks, “Will you come play piano at our event?”
The other misconception is that people think my ears are magically better than a sighted person. There is no physiological difference between my ears and yours, the difference is that I process audio information more thoroughly and efficiently than people that have sight. I explain it to my students like this—if you’re working on your iPad and you have 8 or 9 applications running, your iPad can get slow an behave erratically. If, on the other hand, you only have 1 application open on your iPad it’s efficiency increases. It’s like that for me. Sight takes up a lot of space in one’s mind so that all the other senses are secondary to it. I don’t have the sense of sight or smell so I am primarily listening.
What is the best part of being a songwriter?
—JS
There are lots of amazing things about having a job where you create art for a living. However, one of the greatest perks is when you’re upset about something, you can write a song an feel better. It’s super cheap therapy. LOL
Big plans for this summer?
-JS
We’ve had an incredible summer and it’s not over yet. We toured NYC, NJ, and Washington, DC from June 16-June 28. It was awesome!!
I am headed to Santa Barbara, California, to spend 4 days with my friend Alan Parsons doing some recording. I then have a solo performance on 7/29 at The Mint in LA. The Mint is a bling pilgrimage for me as Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles both graced the stage at The Mint.
I will also be attending a NARIP music supervision session. In addition to having lunch with my dear friend and fellow producer Ross Hogarth, I will finish up my time in LA by visiting the factory where the remarkable CS75 mixing console is made and will round off my LA trip by checking another MLB park off my list, as I want to see a game in each of them, when we visit the Dodgers.
We will then fly to Detroit and I will be performing solo acoustic sets on 8/3. 8/4, and 8/5 at a variety of venues and will take in another baseball game with the Detroit Tigers.
Then it’s home for a few days and back on the road to the AES Audio Educators Conference in Connecticut. I will return home in time to start teaching my music technology class for Middle Georgia State University. Later in October, I will headed back to NYC for the Annual AES Convention and two really cool shows—one at Caffeine Underground and one at Dinosaur BBQ.
To keep up with everything I am doing, I encourage you to visit www.joeystuckey.com, read our Events Page, Calendar Page, and explore our Fan Zone.
What is the greatest part about living in Georgia?
—JS
Southern women—lol, I mean woman, my lovely wife, Jennifer. There are so many wonderful things about Georgia, but for me what makes living here a blessing is that I am able to give back to the institutions like Mercer University where I teach music technology, that helped nurture me when I was first starting my musical journey.
Vinyl or 8 Track Tapes?
—JS
I have to laugh. My students have heard me get on this soapbox a lot. I really dislike the 8 Track. Besides the micro cassette, 8 track is probably the worst format that has ever existed to play music. I like the sound of vinyl, with the caveat that you dust your records and turn table regularly, but as a blind kid growing up in the 80s, vinyl and I did not get along. Imaging that you want to raise the needle and place it down in the groove that has your favorite song. This is apparently hard to do when you can see, but when you can’t see, it’s darn near impossible. I can’t tell you how many times I had to repurchase MJ’s “Thriller”, U2’s “War”, and Def Leppard’s “Pyromania” because I had scratched them up so badly trying to put the needle in the groove.
Where can our readers follow, share and buy your latest releases?
Website: www.joeystuckey.com
FB /joeystuckey
Twitter @jstuckeymusic
IG @jstuckeymusic
iTunes—my 2019 release “In The Shadow Of The Sun” https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-the-shadow-of-the-sun/1450976425
