Where did he come from?
Jay was hatched in Richmond Va on August 14, 1975. In 1987, his family moved to Mechanicsville, and Jay graduated from Lee-Davis High School in 1993. In December 1997, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University and now holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Psychology. He is doing imaging work with the Digital Library Program at the Library of Virginia. What a dork! Now that he has his own pad, Jay terrorizes his neighbors with guitar riffs blaring out of his windows at all hours.
Musical history:
Jay showed a musical inclination throughout his childhood with toy guitars, drums, Casio keyboards, and any part of his body that could make sounds. He got his first electric guitar for Christmas in 1988 at the age of 13. He took lessons for about a year to get the basics and went on his own from there. Jay's first "band" was nothing more than drums, guitar, and an occasional bass player. They played a few glam covers and one original. In 1991 Jay was asked to play with a band in the high school battle of the bands. They practiced 4 days, mastered 4 cover songs, and did surprisingly well at the battle of the bands. But problems arose, and within 6 months, the band was history.
Jay floated around between bands for a few months before forming his own band in the Spring of 1992. The lineup was thrown together and they played the high school battle of the bands also. Less than a year later this band changed it's name to Legion. Over the following years, Legion underwent numerous lineup changes (Among these was a new bass player, Bill Carter) and didn't play a "real" gig until 1995. Many other gigs followed along with many more member changes . In September 1997, after 5 1/2 years, Legion decided to call it quits. The members went their separate ways but Bill and Jay ended up playing in another band for a brief time. After a few months it became evident that the "musical chemistry" wasn't there.
Jay contacted an old high school buddy and guitar player, Mike Goetz, who along with Yancy Lambert, was trying to start a band. Jay and Bill jammed with Mike and Yancy and found the "musical chemistry" that had been lacking. ...And soon From Within was born.
Influences:
Angus Young - AC/DC (inspired Jay to pick up a guitar)
Kirk Hammett - Metallica (influenced Jay to learn leads)
Alex Skolnick - Testament (where Jay got much of his style)
John Petrucci - Dream Theater (makes Jay drool)
Jay's proudest accomplishments:
Recorded four "demo" tapes on a 4track all by himself.
Has every single episode of The Simpsons on tape - Over 80 hours of back-to-back, commercial-free Simpsons ...and growing.
The Simpsons is now the longest running sitcom on TV. It has won 15 Emmys. Last year, Time, in its ranking of the greatest artworks of the twentieth century, declared The Simpsons to be nothing less than the best TV show in history. Fans range from grade-schoolers to world-class brains like physicist Stephen Hawking and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (both have guest-starred as themselves) and artists like Jasper Johns and poet laureate Robert Pinsky. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has added Homer's "D'oh!" to its pages, alongside "To be or not to be" and "Let there be light."
- "Homer's Odyssey" by Russell Shorto, US Weekly
To contact Jay, Email CrapDragon@prodigy.net
