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 MORGAN JOHNSON tracks down JASON HICKS, vocalist and songwriter for Central Coast acoustic popsters JAYWALKER, before heading off on their East Coast album launch tour for debut LP The Light & Shade.
It’s been a fruitful few months for Jaywalker: receiving a Contemporary Touring Grant, scoring Sanity’s Breaking New Artist and working with Stuart Stuart (The Veronicas) on their debut record Light & Shade. Now the quartet are primed for the road on a tour that sees them teamed with singer-songwriter (and Survivor: Panama winner) Aras Baskauskas.
MORGAN JOHNSON: How did Sanity’s Breaking New Artists offer come up?
JASON HICKS: A lot of good fortune has come from our live shows. One of the main organisers of the promotion saw us at a live show a while back and continued to support us since then. She put Jaywalker forward for the promotion and we were lucky enough to be chosen. I think if you can show you are willing to work hard and trying to do everything you can to get your music out there, this is something record labels, organisers, agencies etc really look for. We had also previously recorded a couple of tracks from the album that gave Sanity a bit of a feel for the direction The Light & Shade would be heading in.
MJ: What was is like working with Stuart Stuart? Has he discovered the answer to ‘Who rocks harder – Poison or Warrant?’ yet?
JH: So funny, we had a very similar conversation regarding Warrant and Poison whilst recording. Poison had the songs, Warrant had the hottest girl in a film clip. There is the answer! We had previously recorded album tracks Lost In London and Hard Times with Stuart and there really was no question who we wanted to work with for the album recording. When you record with Stuart, he has an ability to push you musically to a place where you may not normally go and does it with a lot of positivity and grace. For me personally, he pushed really hard on the lyric writing and there was a lot of re-writing of songs and changing of arrangements which we all completely loved trying. We are the least precious bunch of guys you could meet and if something is not working for the song, we try and find a part that will. So the whole process of being pushed in the studio is definitely what we enjoyed most.
MJ: Can you tell us a little about your relationship with support Aras Baskauskas?
JH: We were introduced through our manager and both took a liking to each other’s music immediately. We are really happy to have him on tour with us for most of the shows and hope to do some supports with him back in the States this year. We have not actually met face to face as yet, so the tour will be great to hang out and get to know each other’s music even more.
JAYWALKER play on Thursday Feb 18 at Bon Amici’s (w/ John Meyer and Aras, $10); Friday Feb 19 at X&Y Bar (w/ John Meyer, Claire Whiting and Aras, fee entry); Saturday Feb 20 at Miami Tavern’s Shark Bar (w/ Andrew Wellstead, Mark Boulle and Aras, $10) & Sunday Feb 21 at Byron’s Great Northern (w/ John Meyer and Aras, $10). www.myspace.com/jaywalkerband
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