Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Cherry.
Hi Jason, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a music producer and musician located in Austin, Texas. I began my musical journey when I entered middle school in Houston, Tx – my birthplace. I played the alto saxophone for the marching and concert bands until I graduated to high school where I transferred from playing sax to bass guitar. I then attended Texas A&M for electronics engineering, but I joined the university’s Jazz band and played until my junior year. Aside from the university’s Jazz band, I got plenty of experience as a freelance bassist playing in rock, pop, blues, jazz and country cover bands in the College Station area. In 2016 after graduating, I moved to Austin and I began to establish myself in the music scene by accepting gigs as a bassist around the city. In parallel, I was working on my music production skills and producing/creating songs as much as I could. I became a multi-instrumentalist as I learned how to play keys, guitar and program midi instruments. Also, I invested in a lot of recording equipment and learned the “ins and outs” so that I could create and produce my own music from home and at some point at an actual commercial recording studio. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to collaborate with local artists on their projects as I was developing my skills as a producer. By early 2022, I had an abundance of songs that I recorded throughout the years, and I selected 14 songs to place on my debut album. My debut album “7 Blacc Faces” was released on April 14, 2022 and is available on all major streaming platforms (i.e. Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal etc.). Also, it is currently available for purchase on BandCamp (jcherrybeatz.bandcamp.com)
When I’m not doing music I enjoy hiking, art shows, cooking and discovering new passions and hobbies.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I will just say “you don’t know what you don’t know”. Putting together a professional high-quality body of work (album) was overwhelming. At first, I didn’t have a clue on where to begin, who I needed to speak to and the process of creating a song from start to finish. Specifically, some of my struggles were writer’s block, having to build relationships so that people took me seriously, lack of motivation and of course procrastination. However, I stayed optimistic and put in the work to do research on my own online, I read tons of books and things organically started to fall into place. Of course I failed at some points but the major factor for me was to never give up. It takes a lot to do something beyond the average person and to go places others wouldn’t dare to go. Unfortunately many folks will doubt your abilities along the way which can be very disheartening at times and this is due to them not seeing your vision. Honestly, I had to spend a lot of time away from people to stay focused and get the work completed and I feel very accomplished with where I’m at right now especially after achieving this milestone.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My album “7 Blacc Faces” is a body of work composed mostly of instrumentals. I played the bass, keys, guitar and midi instruments in order to capture that “human” touch/feel and create a vibe. My overall musical approach is to establish a rhythm that people can be moved by and feel and then layer it with sophisticated chords, pads and “ear candy” to set the mood, ambience and a vibe. Playing all the instruments live allowed me to create much richer, deeper and organic music. All of my work was created from a blank canvas – no samples or references from other songs. If I had to put my sound into words I would say “soulful”, “groovy” and “experimental”. You will hear elements of Jazz, Neo-soul and R&B in music just to name a few. If you would like to know more about the storyline to my vision/theme for my art visit my BandCamp page for the write up on it.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Releasing an album was a huge risk for me because I became extremely vulnerable to the world, in a sense. I have to deal with people that will like and dislike my music. Also, my self-image is at risk due to the content my album was created around. However, I believe that risk is absolutely necessary in life because you will never know what opportunities are at hand until you take that risk. One thing that is guaranteed is that my time is limited on this planet so I used this as motivation to take the risk of releasing an album which I felt I owed it to myself.
Pricing:
- My Album “7 Blacc Faces” is $12 on BandCamp
Contact Info:
- Email: jcherrymusic@gmail.com
- Website: linktr.ee/jcherrybeatz
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason_cherry_music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasoncherrymusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jcherryboy/featured
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jason-cherry-285439012
Image Credits
Photographer credit – Rashad White
