IndiePulse Music Interviews Jay Katana About Latest Release – Bleeding Boyfriend Mixtape

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Joseph Timmons in EXCLUSIVE, Exclusive Interview, featured, Featured Artists / Bands, Featured Content, Featured Labels, Featured Record Stores, Interviews, news // 0 Comments

The music of Jay Katana is striking on an emotional scale, it works its way into you, and powers the synapses, a completely different experience for every listener.

If you have followed the Indie Music Scene and track the Instrumental Guitarist genre, then the name Jay Katana is not unknown to you. As a highly-skilled guitarist and performer, Jay injects his signature brand of individuality into any song.

With his tonal range and flawless technique, the Atlanta, GA-based musician works his signature style into virtually any musical genre. Katana’s sound is very recognizable, his leads are intense and versatile. His composing skills, performance and onstage action always give the audience a memorable experience and elevate the listener’s emotions.

A short time ago, we covered his work on a project titled “Bleeding Boyfriend”, which, in Jay’s own words was “an electronic dance metal, multi-media concept consisting of comic book music videos, all with a goal of making music that will serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives, to inspire them and to connect them to their memories and dreams.”. the work was exciting, fresh an bold, a riveting experience.

Now, Jay has released a new EP BLEEDING BOYFRIEND MIXTAPE (THE END 2012-2019), this 6 track EP has Jay’s exuberant signature style in every note, following the concept of what I would call “Digital Infusion” where sounds merge and create emotion, the tracks range in length from literally a minute to a normal song length of 3 to 5 min, I would personally say that to me, they are not just “songs” but thoughts, as some tracks change melodies and tempos, often drastically, but still keep in structure of imaginative audio prose.

IndiePulse Got a chance to speak with Jay about the music and his point of view.

IPM: What makes Jay Katana stand out from all of the other guitarists currently playing music?

Signature melody feel and sonic guitar production. The whole thing of me writing instrumental music started because I didn’t see anything new in what instrumental guitarists were doing. Listening to somebody shred for 35 minutes of an album can be pretty boring for a listener who is not related to guitar or music as a performer. So nothing was changing since 90’s. Different guitarists – same music. At the same time I couldn’t listen to Electronic Dance Music for long – it seemed too soft and less driven for me.

I felt that electric guitar can find its place not only in rock-related genres but also in modern production. The whole experiment turned out to become Bleeding Boyfriend.

IPM: Bleeding Boyfriend has always been a conceptual-type of music project. Take us through it’s very beginnings to the current new album, Bleeding Boyfriend Mixtape?

New inspiration came from new music I was listening recently. I switched my tastes into dubstep and hip hop and it was interesting for me to integrate electric guitar into that. At first it seemed like I lost the interest to play music. Then suddenly the inspirational window opened and tracks appeared really quick. Like it was something else composing them through me. All I had to do – is just to play and record everything very quick before that window closed as suddenly as it opened.

IPM: Compare and contrast playing with your band (Pool Of Thorns) to playing solo?

Bleeding Boyfriend is my personal musical journey. Where I explore my new grounds. The music itself is more like a soundtracks to action videos.

While POOL OF THORNS you have four solid musical personalities and hundreds of supporters blending it into powerful dark movement. Playing here is all about the song, the lyrics and the band’s journey. Aslo the guitar leads in POOL OF THORNS are more complicated and stage performance is more intense what makes you stay in best of your shape for long time.

IPM: What was it like for you first discovering American rock music in your homeland of Moldova?

I always looked up to American bands and felt like back home we were composing music with 5-7 years delay from what is going on here. I was excited to compare myself with American musicians and see if I can make it here. At first I was simply watching and learning how the bands operate from the inside. What is the writing process and so on. On the other hand my bandmates could get a lot of out-of-box ideas from me, because I was working in the music industry in another part of the world with different rules.

And the fact that I’m not from here helps me to stand out a bit while performing and thinking musically.

IPM: Map out how you would like for your musical future to look, five years from now?

I see my music getting to more people worldwide and me being able to perform in different countries. When I was a kid I was really inspired by the guitarists I saw on stage. It made me go buy guitar and start playing. It made all my life the way it is. This is how I come here. My biggest dream is to see a guy on a big stage who tells me that he picked up the guitar and started playing because I inspired him.