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Article published Oct 19, 2007 Jay Clifford finds life after Jump, Little Children
By Steve Wildsmith Of The Daily Times Staff
You could say that some of the greatest songwriters in Nashville taught Jay Clifford a thing or two about summoning up the emotional subject matter for his solo debut, “Driving Blind.”
The former singer for indie pop-rock band Jump, Little Children remembers well his few encounters with guys like John Hiatt and Radney Foster. And while, like a lot of fans, he’s awestruck by their abilities to pen heartfelt, gut-wrenching songs, the way they’ve gone about it isn’t exactly Clifford’s style.
“It’s interesting — our tour manager was from Nashville, and we would go there to his house in Franklin, where he would have these guitar parties out in the country,” Clifford told The Daily Times during a recent interview. “He knew all of these big hitters — John Hiatt, Alan Jackson, Radney Foster — and I saw some of those guys going through a lot of unnecessary drama that seemed like, from my young perspective, something they were doing to spawn this creative process.
“They would write these songs based on something as dramatic as leaving their wives, all the way down to the smallest everyday, uncomfortable conversation — and to me, it seemed like unnatural, unnecessary drama that created art for the wrong reasons. I’m not a naturally dramatic person; I have my own internal questions and what-not like everybody does, and I want to find a way to express that through writing songs, but not necessarily by tearing my life apart.
“I want it to be a comfortable process,” he added. “Obviously, it’s not that way all the time, but I certainly don’t want to fight it.”
Clifford, an affable, laid-back and somewhat reserved guy, knows that drama has its place. His old band used it for entertainment purposes during their years on the road. The band cultivated a cult following in the 1990s, when Clifford (vocalist and guitarist) and members Ward Williams (cello), brothers Evan (drums) and Matt Bivins (on multiple instruments) founded the group and tapped Jonathan Gray to play upright bass. The band started out playing Irish music, naming themselves for a punkish blues song by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
After winding up in Boston by way of Ireland, the band floundered in Beantown before making its way back south to Charleston. The guys started busking on the streets of Charleston for money, and soon a buzz rose up around the guys. They were unafraid to pull out quirky party tricks to liven up a show — dressing up as cowboys or ‘50s greasers or characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” for example.
Eventually, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records snapped up the band and released its major label debut, “Magazine.” The album brought the band international acclaim, and the single “Cathedrals” did well, but ultimately, Atlantic ended up dropping the band. The band soldiered on, recording the follow-up “Vertigo,” but the process was a nightmare — clashes with the album’s original producer, being dropped from Atlantic shortly after it was completed, fighting with the label’s subsidiary to win “Vertigo” back, the disappearance of the band’s money manager with several thousand dollars and the death of the Bivins’ father.
Finally, “Vertigo” was released, and the band members decided to go their separate ways for a little while. In the summer of 2003, the guys reconvened and decided whether to push on. Eventually, they did, recording “Between the Dim and the Dark” before calling it quits two years ago. It was a mutual decision, one free of ill will or malice, and for Clifford, it was both liberating and terrifying.
“It was like jumping off the edge of the cliff, without knowing how it would go,” he said. “I got in a room with the right guys, and it went really, really well. I had played with these musicians on a few records before, and I knew what sort of players they were — just really cool guys. We’re in the process right now of taking it out on tour, so we’ll see how it goes.
“The lesson I learned in dealing with the complexity of relationships over a decade or more in the band is to just focus on and bringing out the best in people and trying to get that from the get-go. In the writing phase, I made a bunch of demos, and I just took it to the studio for the guys playing the songs. I didn’t want them to pre-judge the song by the demo with my guitar part or a Jump sample; I wanted them to get their first impression from it and having that attitude of trusting them to do what they do well
“When you give people that kind of room to be who they are, they really appreciate that,” he added. “We all just fed off of that as a fun recording session.”
“Driving Blind” isn’t exactly a striking departure from Clifford’s work with J, LC — albeit it is a more personal effort. Like the J, LC catalogue, “Driving Blind” is filled with shiny hooks, melodic flourishes and Clifford’s gentle vocals that careen back-and-forth between exuberance and melancholy with the ease of water through new copper.
“I set out to make it more personal, to a certain degree and as much as you can control that part of it,” he said. “I knew I was going to do a solo record, and I knew I wanted it to be more of a personal record. In Jump, there was more of an artistic bent on some of my songs that was more like the band wrote them.”
In performing “Driving Blind” live, Clifford’s goal is to reproduce the album as closely as possible to what emerged from the studio sessions. He’ll also play some Jump, Little Children songs — but out of respect to his old bandmates, he’ll perform them solo.
“People who have come to Jump shows over the years are used to seeing the songs played by these specific guys, so out of respect to them, it’ll be just me doing them,” he said. “I’ll do four or five songs mixed into the set that people are real familiar with.”
And while he’s enjoying the freedom afforded to a solo artist, his fondness for the time he spent in Jump, Little Children still burns bright. Will the band get back together? It’s hard to say, Clifford said — but all signs point to yes.
“I think we’ll definitely play again at some point, whether it’s a reunion tour that happens in three years or five years, or if something new happens within the band,” he said. “We didn’t want to say that was the end when we went on hiatus, and we worded it that way to leave ourselves that option.
“For the first five or six years, we played 200 to 250 shows a year some years, and the last few years, we were touring heavily every fall. It definitely won’t be like that again, but we want to leave it open to be able to play and do tours at some point.”