Jay Nomád is a producer and artist from New York City. He has a strong multicultural influence, having explored many different genres throughout his musical career. Since November 2018, he has released three singles: “Hanabi”, “Gone”, and “Wanna Be Mine”. His music could be described as a blend of pop, urban and electronic genres. Born and raised in New York City, he was influences as a child by classical, rock, hip hop and pop music. He learned how to play guitar and sing in his teens and started several bands throughout high school and college. In 2013, Jay took a hiatus from music due to a lack of inspiration, choosing instead to travel to several different countries where he discovered a whole new world of sounds in the various cultures he encountered. Jay took several years to build his knowledge of music theory and composition, and in 2018 he decided to pursue music production for pop and urban music. Currently, he is working on new songs with Colombian producer Juan David Morales and Taiwanese-American producer Tony Yang (Paprtape). With his current project, Jay aims to collaborate with artists from Latin America and Asia, bridging the gap between cultures that represent his heritage.
“Wanna Be Mine” is a recently released single by Jay Nomád. The song launches immediately with a beat that’s catchy as anything. It’s clear just from a few seconds that this artist is also quite a competent producer. Every sound is clean, and all of the elements of the beat and synths fuse together remarkably well. The vocals themselves are clean, passionate, rhythmic and tuneful. The chorus is laden with hooks and will definitely become an instant earworm. The beat comes across as fairly straightforward, but there’s plenty to listen for in its complex and well planned arrangement. The middle of the song is nicely broken up with a verse in Spanish. True to this artist’s word, there are elements of several genres tastefully blended into this single. There is a definite urban feel, but the pop vibes are also undeniable. There is even a bass guitar, a subtle nod to rock music and instruments that are more traditional. “Wanna Be Mine” has a little bit of everything, and will definitely have you grooving in no time. We highly recommend you check it out and see what else Jay Nomád has to offer!
Listen to "Wanna Be Mine" here. Read out exclusive interview with Jay Nomád below!
Hey, thanks for catching up with us! As a New Yorker born and raised, can you tell us a bit about your thoughts on the music scene there?
Thank you! I think New York is an awesome place to learn from fellow artists and explore different sounds. Music is always evolving here and you can always meet artists that are doing amazing work. You can also find venues for every kind of genre I would say. It's also very competitive but if you have a good list of songs and make good connections you'll find places to showcase your work.
Who would you say are your primary artistic influences at this point in time?
Mainstream pop, urban or electronic music. I try to avoid sticking to just one specific genre and with my third single I can see how different each song sounds one from the other. For example, I think "Wanna Be Mine" was mostly inspired by listening to J Balvin, Bazzi and Louis the Child while "Gone", my previous single, had some more pop influences and perhaps even rock. The music I'll be releasing later on this year takes on a bit of trap, reggaeton, and pop so I guess it's really hard at this point to identify a specific kind of influence for Jay Nomád.
Would you mind walking us through your production process? How does your music go from ideas to coming together to form a fully fledged song?
I usually sit down and play random ideas on the keyboard or guitar while mumbling vocal melodies. Eventually, I lay down the instrumental tracks of the song on Logic Pro X to start working on lyrics. To write lyrics I think of a personal situation or I just imagine something completely different from my own story, as if a movie were playing in my head. So yeah, some of my lyrics are personal experiences and others are just a mix of reality and my imagination. Once that's done I send the project over to my producer Juan David Morales in Colombia and he does the magic. Sometimes he'll redo what I've already recorded and lay down new arrangements to the song or just improve upon what I've already done. After that, I record vocals at my studio and he does the final mix. The mastering is done here in NYC at another studio. Recently Juan stayed over at my place in Queens and worked on another three songs with me at my studio. It's always a fun process especially if you have someone with his experience overseeing the whole production.
You said you spent a long time honing your skills in music theory and composition. Does this more traditional education help you in some ways in your own musical process?
Totally. I came from a background that didn't require much music theory which was pop-punk back in the late 2000s. I think that learning piano and theory altogether has helped me understand how to write better songs especially for the genres I'm working on nowadays. I see improvement every time I release a new single and especially with the upcoming songs I have ready for release in my studio. Working on my skills has also involved understanding more about music production altogether. So in a way, I would say I'm still an apprentice regarding production and working with Juan and Tony has been a great learning experience.
What can we hope to see from you in the future?
This year I have four more songs ready for release, they're just in the final stages of post-production. Three are coming out with Juan and another single is a song I worked on with Tony Yang (Paprtape) and with a Thai singer called Fawkes. I've also got two music videos I'll be working on during the summer and my first show coming up in June/July. Altogether I'm excited because the response has been great not only locally in New York City, but also in parts of Colombia, Mexico, and South East Asia. So I'm really looking forward to seeing where Jay Nomád will go from here.
Stay in the loop with Jay Nomád on social media!
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jaynomadmusic
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jaynomadmusic