This time, we get to know Perfect Lies, AKA Jay Schires, a multi-instrumentalist based in Minnesota. An alternative rock band that blurs the genres with influences such as Alter Bridge, Kiss, and Breaking Benjamin to name a few.
The track "Inside Of Me" is featured in the New Artist Spotlight Family of Playlists.
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1. Tell us a little about where you are from and what you are currently doing.
Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I currently manage an auto body shop during the day and write/record during the evenings. I grew up in a little town just a few miles from where I currently live and after years of living in multiple states, settled back where I started.
2. What inspired you to start playing and making music?
From a very young age, I’ve always enjoyed all types of music. My mom use to walk around the house singing all the time, and my oldest brother was a drum in a band that practiced in our garage, which was under the house, so the beats were always heard throughout the house. I first learned drums after begging my older brother to let me play them, and I played drums in bands for years, and background vocals, until they started to bore me and I switched to guitar, which seemed natural.
𝟯. Who are your biggest influences?
I could spend hours on this one…from my older brother Kiss was always playing and Aldo Nova. I had 3 sisters so I heard a lot of the Beegee’s, Michael Jackson, prince, so on. A little in teen years it was really Dokken, Van Halen, Lilian Axe, and bands like that pique my interest in really playing. In the last 5-10 years it’s been Alter Bridge, Tremonti, Seven Dust, Breaking Benjamin, bands with a heavier style but very melodic.
4. What are your goals in the music industry?
I’ve been writing lyrics and melodies for years and piling them up on paper, on my phone, and computer. Just to get those out and hopefully connect with a few people musically.
"Keep it all."
5. Tell us about your creative process when you make new music.
It’s usually like a quick flash. Something pops in my head whether it’s a melody or a guitar rhythm and I usually grab my phone if I’m not at home and hum or sing it. Lyrics come also but usually in a single verse or a single chorus. Later I’ll pull them up and maybe finish the lyric on the spot or grab pieces of something I’ve written down before and piece it together. Usually, they are set off lyrically from a conversation with someone or a phone call with my wife.
6. What is your all-time favorite song?
That’s a hard one. Probably Black Bird by Alter Bridge. It has so much emotion, the melody is killer, the way the guitars bounce in and out, and the solos…masterpieces to me.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
That would be what I was given. I took some guitar lessons from one of my biggest guitar heroes and got into a little bit about how he writes. It was an eye-opener. Never force a finish. Write down every piece of lyric that comes into your head and it might be great for this song or maybe just a piece works… go back to all the little pieces and maybe you’ll find something that fits or it will bring something more into your head to complete the line or chorus. Keep it all.
8. Proudest accomplishment?
Releasing my first single “Inside Of Me”. It was written about 10 years ago when I was going through a very rough time. I had written many after that, but to me it had to be my first release, to get that out there.
9. Just for fun! What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?
Playing a song on stage, a really simple 3-chord progression and after starting the opening rhythm I went completely blank on the words, but it reminded me of a skid row song “I remember you” so away I went! The band was a little lost but went with me.
𝟭0. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
The lowest was probably learning pro tools…what a lot to take in and study! The highest was probably reaching 100,000 streams of my first single. It’s not a lot by any means but it was huge to me!
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Powerful lyric, good jam, fantastic look. He’ll go far. I’m listening to it now. Thanks for the hat tip.