Ashley: Where did your music start? What is your musical background?

Jay: I started doing music about 10 or 12 years ago. Not to do the pity sad story but I used to get my ass beat a lot in middle school and high school and there was one time where I got beat up and they crushed my nose and my cheek bone. I couldn’t leave my house for the entire summer. My mom didn’t want me to just sit in my room all summer. She wanted for me to have something to do so she took me to Walmart and she said, “You have $50 to spend, whatever you want to get, just get it”. And there was this little guitar and I looked at her and said “you said anything”. She thought that I was just going to pick it up and put it back down, but now the joke is that I picked it up and never put it back down.

That’s how I got started playing the guitar, but my musical background is that I was raised on the Eagles and Journey, along with some contemporary worship music. I started playing in churches in worship bands when I was twelve and then it started to grow form there. I did metal bands, I did pop-punk, and everything in between. I’ve done country music and now I’ve settled into what this is, which I feel is more of like an extension of what I am. Considering that the first album that I bought was John Mayer’s ‘Room for Squares’ and I feel like I’m kind of in-line with that now.

Ashley: Going off of that, John Mayer is one musician who has inspired you, who are some other musicians that inspire you? And Have you found any inspirations through touring/traveling?

Jay: Ed Sheeran, definitely, because I loved the writing style and how he has grown as a writer. Most of what I do now is that I’m a song writer for other people. And then Ben Rector because he’s just this goofy normal dude and that’s how I view myself. I’m not like that super star who you want to follow on Instagram because you want to see him shirtless, no I’m just a goofy dude that writes good songs that that’s just kind of what my brand is, just a goofy song writer.

Through the years, I’ve done hired tours where I’ve been the guitarist for other people and they’ve done some stuff for me. I feel like the more of the world I see, the more I can expand writing just because I feel like I’m learning, not just by my experiences but by the experiences and stories from others that I encounter. That has really helped shape who I am and shape how I write songs, because if I don’t have a perspective for a song but I have a friend or somebody who has gone through that song, it gives me the ability to write from that one because I know anecdotally how it goes.

Ashley: What’s the process for your songwriting? How did you find your sound?

Jay: It’s so weird… its relative, and it depends. It’s kind of like the mood of the day. When I try to go to the room and I write a song, I try to write a song conversationally. I’m not very specific when it comes to song writing, where it’s like these radio tracks that seem larger than life. The way I like to write, and the way I write songs with other people, is that I try to keep it as conversationally as possible, meaning that as I write the song it sounds like me and you having a conversation lyrically, that’s the way I want to go because I feel like the more you just get into that one connection from song to person, it just helps connect better and it makes it more personal. Because I know that I listen to songs that are like “I went to the club and bought bottle service” like any other pop song that is huge, it just doesn’t sound like anything that I am into or anything that’s relative to me and I feel like most people that’s pretty relative because when people go out they’re not really spending $100 on bottle service, or a couple drinks.

Ashley: Who inspires you/pushes you the most?

Jay: This is going to sound so cheesy and lame, but my wife really does. When it comes to overall perseverance and fortitude, I have watched her do some pretty incredible things just because she says she’s going to do it. And her reliance is awe-inspiring. She inspires me when it comes to my art and as a person really because she pushes me to be better on the guitar and out at the studio just being a good husband and all that. She is the one who inspired me, her and my mom.

Ashley: What was your first gig like?

Jay: Oh my god. My first show was terrible, as everyone’s probably is. I played at a little coffee shop in my home town and I had written some really bad songs. It was trying to be metal while trying to be singer/songwriter-ie. I had a drummer on an electronic drum kit and then me. During the show, I wanted to do a cover of a song that I hadn’t learned, so I put the headphones in my MP3 Player and tried to play and sing along to it at the same time. If that doesn’t just sum up how bad it was.

Ashley: We know that “Trouble” is coming out at the end of the month, would you like to speak on that at all?

Jay: I’m really excited about that coming out November 30th, pre-orders are up now. I wrote it with some friends here in Nashville and finished it up with Kevin Gates in Springfield, MO.

Again, as cheesy as it sounds, trouble is about my wife and I. We met when we were freshmen in high school and we had a rocky relationship. I think all of it, you always go through heart aches and trouble and all of that leads up to where you need to go and it kind of chronicles where we went from the beginning of our relationship till now, after all the years together. We recently got married about 6 or 7 months ago. Trouble is our story from the starting point to where we are now. And it’s far from over, it’s just started again in a way now that we are married. The song embodies that anything worth having, you’ll go through the troubles to have it. It’s work, and real love is real hard and it’s worth it at the end.

Ashley: How has music helped you in your life?

Jay: Music was both an outlet and a safe space for me. The reason that my mom wanted me out of my room is because the since I was beat and bullied and at 11 years old I didn’t want to live anymore and that’s what my mom was afraid of and that’s why she got me the guitar. I really thank music for that because it gave me that outlet. Instead of bottling up those negative emotions and let it eat me from the inside, it let me get it out in a healthy way. Music has always been that thing that I can always rely on and really just pull from when I needed it.

Ashley: What are you currently listening to right now?

Jay: Louis Capaldi, I’ve been listening to a lot of him. He is amazing, I just randomly found him on Spotify. The dude has an unreal voice. I’ve also been listening to a lot of my friend’s music, like Johnny Zywiciel and Pagentri, she’s a rock star. My friends make really dope music and I love listening to it.

Ashley: If you could perform with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and where would it be?

Jay: If I could perform with any… Freddie Mercury, 1983, Live AID concert. Like, Queen/Freddie Mercury, he might be the be all to end all. My music entrails a lot of inspiration from him directly because form an artist’s standpoint I can’t replicate what he does, but talking about someone I revere the highest amount is Freddie Mercury. I have been a huge fan since I could listen to music. If I could go back even just for ‘Radio Ga Ga’ or ‘When the Hammer Falls’, I would just love it.

Ashley: Any shows or touring coming up soon or through the year?

Jay: So we are playing at a lot of coffee shops. I am releasing a coffee that goes along with ‘Trouble’ and we’re going to be doing a lot of coffee shop tours and we have a three week tour set up in the UK where we’ll be traveling to a bunch of different coffee shops in August and I’m going to be hitting it a lot harder this year than I did last year. I took a bit of a break this year to get married and enjoy life, but we’re hitting it hard next year.

Ashley: Any last remarks?

Jay: Go Cowboys!

Jay Putty’s single, “Trouble” comes out this Friday, November 30th. Be sure to come back here for our review on it and check it out for yourself.