But practically speaking, she needed to plan her next steps.īeing a session musician was "a professional music job that I knew existed," Jay notes, of how she landed on her objective, post-secondary school. Jay went on to complete a full program at Berklee for jazz bass performance, writing her own music and even starting her own acid jazz band during her time there. If you play a cool bassline, you're a cool person."ģ:19 Maddie Jay performs "Excuses" on The Intro.
I liked Vampire Weekend I just really liked the role that it plays in music. "I still have a lot of love for it, but it didn't gel with what I wanted to do. "I haven't touched it since," Jay says, of the fiddle. And not only did Jay learn the instrument, but it unlocked a new passion.
EMILY WANTS TO PLAY RULES HOW TO
She didn't know how to play bass, and feared she was too old to pick up a new instrument at the age of 16 (she laughs at this now), but figured its similarities to a violin as a stringed instrument would be a relatively easy transition. music festivals every summer, that was my earliest musical memory," she explains.ĭuring a fateful five-week jazz program at Boston's Berklee College of Music in 2012, the bass player for Jay's ensemble didn't show up, leading Jay to assume the role. She says she grew up in "Canadian fiddle culture," playing in groups and alongside her family, which included her father on mandolin and mother on accordion. Before she came into her own musical identity, Jay spent years as a devoted student who followed other people's rules.