Katie Jay

Born in Berkeley, California and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Katie Jay is a California girl at heart. Though raised in a very musical family, Katie found her art by default. She had had dreams of following in her father’s footsteps and starting her own law firm but could never make her stubborn heart abide. She drew outside of the box and it has been said that the normalcy of life ate away at her until she found music. Jay struggled to finish high school and began to sing.

Katie began sneaking into bars to sing at open mics at age 17 but was uninterested in the party life that her peers were enjoying. She just wanted to sing. Katie would wait by the side of the stage and spit out a list of covers to any guitarist who would accompany her and then jump on stage to perform only seconds later. I have heard that she “stopped people in their tracks the very first time she opened her mouth,” and I wouldn’t doubt it. Such a tremendous and soulful voice does not often emerge from such a small and lovely creature. But Jay is anything but fragile and the truth and strength that reside in her are eminent in her songs and in her delivery.

Katie told me, in an interview, that she felt she carried the energy of song in her chest and when she didn’t sing it would begin to fester in her, like a heartbreak rotten in her body.

Former guitarist of the band Third Eye Blind, Kevin Cadogen, discovered Katie at a local open mic when she was 18 by walking by and joining the folks outside that had stopped to listen. Katie sang with Kevin on his debut CD with Cousin Kevin, a band that he started after his split from Third Eye Blind.

Compared to artists like Jeff Buckley and Fiona Apple, Katie seeps with raw emotion making fans and bystanders wonder where she gets the pain, the love, the beauty and the passion that she sings with. The covers that she had been singing inspired her own lyrics which poured onto paper and into the lap of up and coming producer Ben Yonas, founder of Yonasty Productions out of New York and San Francisco. He swept her up and together along with guitarist Gawain Mathews, now touring with Ben Lee, they began writing the material for Blue Jay, Katie’s debut CD that was released in November of ’03. Ben introduced Katie to some of the Bay Area’s best musicians such as Smashmouth’s Michael Urbano, as well as London’s Rob Mularchy, of Zero 7, both of whom played on her album. Katie and her newly formed band began touring around San Francisco and building a fan base.

Another man sought out Katie to work with by the name of Joe Wilson, founder of Artists Against Aids. Joe asked her to join his roster of AAA artists and she immediately jumped aboard. Katie is currently working on a single, written by Joe Wilson, that will appear on her new EP, which is set for release this January. In November Katie will join two other artists from AAA in Melbourne, Australia to perform for World Aids’ Day.

When she returns from Australia, Jay will begin filming her first music video, which she won in a Battle of the Bands concert sponsored by Live 105 earlier in the year.

Katie is a wild spirit and her depth is only increasing as she writes and records her new music, which has a slightly darker and more passionate flavor than her first album. Katie is not afraid of her voice, and not afraid of her own imperfections. She once told me that she loved when artists were imperfect because it made them real to her. Then she told me that she often closes her own eyes when she’s singing and breathes her music in and out. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what she meant by this but I am certain of something. You had better keep your eyes open for this rising star. Katie Jay is going to touch the world.
Katherine Byers, artist management