Jay Coop Music

Jay Coop

Also from Tulsa, now a LA transplant he really is a gifted guitarist. His album is “Blue Dreams” and the first single is of the same name. You can also tell he has amazing production skills on his music, allowing the instruments to fully shine through will still creating a smooth flow of music. I would say that he is more Hendrix-y, people have said that about him, but I’m a horrible person that doesn’t listen to much Jimi, it was before my time. However I appreciate skilled musicians especially guitarists.

Here’s Blue Dream Live - Slight Suggestions

This week’s Friday Finds brings you Jay Coop. This Cali based and Oklahoma raised blues-rock guitarist has strong Jimi Hendrix and Isley Brothers influences. So much so that Jay says, “I want to make the guitar talk like Jimi Hendrix did, but in my own original way.” His latest album is titled, “Blue Dream” of which Jay says, ““You are hearing the music I have been dreaming of for years, that’s why I called the album ‘Blue Dream,’ but this is only the beginning of what is to come, my music is me telling you stories through sounds.” Listen for yourself: - Lauren Ignited

Jay Coop was born in Los Angeles, but raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was star state athlete and got an athletic scholarship to TCU where he attended to get his Bachelor’s Degree. Following an injury, where he was forced to take a break from running, he picked up the guitar and never put it down. First song he ever learned? “The Other Side” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Coop was mostly self-taught. I say mostly because he did get guidance. But what he found was that it frustrated him and instructor because he didn’t want to stick with some normal “EADGBE” configuration of three bar fret boards. He wanted more. The instructor would teach him one thing. He would go home and return with another song HE wanted to learn, not only frustrating, but also shocking the teacher at his ability to learn so quickly. Coop jokingly said, “I would take a lesson that they would show me and I would come back the next week playing what I wanted to. They told me to do something. And, they would be shocked because I would just find a song. At first, the guy would be upset, but then he wouldn’t because he wouldn’t know I learned how to play that song.”

I guess that’s what happens when you have talent. Sticking to rigid lesson plans never really becomes your cup of tea.

Last year, Coop played 20 to 30 shows ranging from the BOK Music Festival, the Center of World Festival, and venues like the Phoenix. There were some weeks he played as many as three shows, somehow juggling his night job in the hospitality industry, practices, and sleep. In fact, I don’t think he really slept at all. When asked how he found the time to balance the many demands of his life, he said “No Sleep. Last year, I was almost working 40 hours a week working nights. Working playing shows, and recording new song every week, going to work and playing shows…Literally, slept when I could…My mindset was like, I gotta get this done.” And done he did get. Last year, Jay Coop was writing almost a song a week, sometimes more. For a musician like him, that’s a great deal when most of your songs average over 7 minutes.

What’s interesting to note about Coop is that he is an improviser at heart. Most of his shows aren’t simply copies of the recordings you can hear on Spotify. Each time he plays his song, it’s a different song with very similar characteristics. And since he considers his music “ideas” there might be a different “idea” that night that he is trying to articulate.

Jay Coop’s very demeanor is positivity. It’s not surprising to note that his greatest influences are Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix. He considers Jimmy Hendrix the “bread and butter” of his style. He claims that once he discovered Jimmy Hendrix not as a song but as a musician, he would “watch how he played and learned a lot from watching him.” He would watch the placement of his fingers, mimicking such finger placements as Jimmy Hendrix signature thumb placement.

However complicated and intricate Coop’s musical style may be, his ideas on learning are very simple. He believes the only way to continue learning is to “never stop playing.” This is very insightful and intuitive advice from a mere 20 something year old. He uses his music has vessel of positivity marked with flashes of autobiographic sounds and notions. He wants people to take something positive from their music. He promotes positivity. His motto is “be positive so you can lift those around you higher. Have that stamped on my heart.”

The music of Jay Coop can be found on Spotify. Look for his latest updates and music on his website, JayCoopMusic.com. Friend him on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/JayCoopMusic?fref=ts - Ollie Wills

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