By Henry Netherland
Henry: I’m Henry Netherland for 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins and I’m here with Jay Cruz of DREAM-LIKE at a Chick-fil-A in Aurora, Colorado. So why did you choose this restaurant for tonight?
Jay: It’s just a place I usually go to. I mean I don’t really eat out much so. But I do tend to eat out at Chick-fil-A once a week.
Henry: How would you describe your music to a stranger?
Jay: I’ve always had a, sorry. I’ve always had a hard time really describing it. Like whenever someone asks me like what kind of music I make, I say it’s very dreamy, very ‘60s inspired, ‘50s, ‘60s inspired and ‘80s inspired. Yeah, dreamy for the most part.
Henry: How long have you been performing?
Jay: I just started performing live this year. I’ve done a couple of shows and like one on a radio show. But as far as making music it’s been like five, four years. I started in 2015.
Henry: So did you practice at all in high school?
Jay: Yeah that’s where I picked up producing skills and that kinda stuff. I started singing and doing guitar and bass and keys like all the instruments and stuff. Last summer is when I started.
Henry: And what college do you currently go to?
Jay: I go to MSU Denver.
Henry: What’s does that stand for?
Jay: Metropolitan State University.
Henry: What instruments exactly do you play?
Jay: I play electric guitar, acoustic guitar. I mean I play bass. I of course work the microphone. I do keys. And I don’t record it but I also do harmonica.
Henry: Would you say you’ve changed stylistically over time even in this very brief period?
Jay: Definitely. Definitely. That’s the yeah. I initially made rap music. And I made a rap album at the very end of 2017, but it released early 2018 under a different name. But I’m not proud of it so.
Henry: Where’s that floating around on the internet right now?[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”25″ gal_title=”DREAM-LIKE”]
Jay: It’s under the pseudonym, J Shuriken.
Henry: SoundCloud?
Jay: It’s in, well I don’t think it’s on SoundCloud. It’s on Spotify. I just had one album.
Henry: Has this entirely been a solo effort or have you collaborated along the way?
Jay: It’s pretty much all solo. I do all the instruments and singing by myself. I’ve tried to collab with like some friends, but it never really works out too well. But yeah so it’s mostly solo.
Henry: Do you do a lot of the mixing too?
Jay: I do all the mixing. I do literally yeah everything alone.
Henry: Who are your influences?
Jay: I have so many right now. My biggest one I would say is The Beatles. And The Beach Boys Like I like things from a lot of different decades such as you know from the ‘60s like you know Beatles, Beach Boys. Just a lot of a lot of like psychedelic classic rock. And I like a lot a lot of stuff from the ‘80s. Like ‘80s pop such as like Prince and that kinda stuff. And then more modern stuff like Tame Impala, Mac Demarco, Bane’s World, Xavley, Temporex yeah. Those kinda guys.
Henry: How has aurora influenced your sound?
Jay: It’s honestly, it’s influenced my sound cause I think it’s there’s not a lot that goes on around here and in my life so I try to make music to that takes me somewhere else and is more interesting than my life overall.
Henry: What future projects do you have in the works?
Jay: Oh I have an album that I’m working on, but I hope to release this year or release this summer.
Henry: Any more specific ETA (details) on that?
Jay: Yeah it’s a concept album that I’m planning on. Around nine tracks. Very inspired by the ‘60s and it’s a little bit different than my last project, but it’ll I still have like my same style overall.
Henry: Alright, is there anything else you’d like to tell me or the listeners at home?
Jay: That okay one thing I would say is, you can, if you have your mind set out to do something you can definitely do it. You just have to stay dedicated and keep working at it. Cause initially like I had no talent at music I or anything like that. And I decided one day that I wanted to make music so I stuck with it and it’s taken me a lot further in life than not doing music. Yeah.
Henry: Alright well that was Jay Cruz of DREAM-LIKE. You can find him on Apple Music? Or just Spotify right now?
Jay: It’s on all platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud like almost anywhere pretty much.
Henry: Alright great well I want to thank him for joining me tonight. This is Henry Netherland for 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins have a good night.