JEREMY CAYS
COMPOSER - PERFORMER - PRODUCER
At the ripe old age of 22 years, Jeremy Cays has released his fourth album, an album of Christmas music he's been working toward for the past year and a half. Following is a reprint of an article about his work from the Sequim Gazette by Betty Oppenheimer:
Jeremy Cays' music has been called a "musical massage," acoustic, relaxing, and original. His latest compact disc, "Reflections of Christmas," (was) released November, 2003, just in time for hiliday listening.
"I think the CD has a good balance of upbeat and quiet tunes, ranging from solo piano to a full band," said Cays. "The idea came from growing up with beautiful Christmas music and loving it. As I've grown as a musician, I've found it fun to take a familiar melody and make it sound like something people haven't heard before.
While the songs are traditional, Cays is working around a musical idea, not around just the melody.
"In some of the songs, the melody doesn't even start until a full minute into the song, and then you might find yourself saying, "What song is this? - Oh, cool!" as you realize that you know the song, but have never heard it arranged like this before." he explained.
The advent of the digital studio made possible Jeremy Cays' latest project which he recorded in his home studio. "It allows me to record music directly onto my computer hard drive. The software has all of the effects, all of the cool stuff, so I don't have to have a lot of extra hardware in my studio." he explained.
The idea for a home studio began to gel when Cays was a music student at Edmonds Community College. "Keith Evans, the digital music instructor at Edmonds, told me that my talent was rare, which surprised me." said Cays, whose original New Age sound is familiar to many. "But I realized from working with him that I could have a relatively compact, simple studio set-up and record my own music."
In 1999, Cays took out a loan to record and release his first CD, "A New Journey," in Seattle. He graduated from high school that year and, after two years in college, in 2001, Cays returned to Sequim. He got a job and began saving money and researching what was available in digital equipment.
"I spent a lot of time trying to find what I should buy, to get a good deal, with low expenses but equipment that won't be outdated in the next six months." he said. By fall 2002 he had paid off his debt and accumulated the digital equipment he needed to start. It was a bit too ambitious an idea to think that he could complete his Christmas CD in two months, so last year he released a mini-CD called "A Christmas Project."
14 months later he released his professional-quality, full-length compact disc, a dream fulfilled. "It's been a learning process for me" he said, admitting that he hopes the music will get some air play on local and regional radio stations.
"Reflections of Christmas" features Cays on many instruments (keyboards, percussion, pennywhistle, and more), plus Grammy winning oboist, Nancy Rumble, Lee Haldorsen on saxophone, violinist Tom Dziekonski, guitarist Randy George, and Brenda Williamson on flute. Recorded entireley in his home studio, Cays had the recording professionally engineered and mastered in Seattle.
Here is more information about this amazing accomplishment.
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Watercolor painting of Jeremy painted and copyright by Sally Cays
