The Fjordhammer Project: An Intertwined Passion For Music & Writing - Jay Taylor-Brown

Bio

Jay is the assistant editor and a contributor for the independent music magazine, RAMzine. He is a passionate writer and has a love for a plethora of different musical genres. This love for music combined with writing has been a signifiant part of Jay's creative output. 

An Intertwined Passion For Music & Writing

Like most people, I grew up listening to whatever music was being played around the family home, for me, my early years were shaped with Motown, soft rock and your typical 80’s hits. There was also a sizeable chunk of 90’s pop that came a little later courtesy of an older sister, before I began to find and define my own tastes in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when I was pointed in the direction of heavier guitar based music via a mix tape (an actual cassette just to really show my age). 

As this was the early 2000’s I have no shame in admitting I was very much a Nu-Metal kid (and still am to a degree). Back then as a impressionable fourteen going on fifteen year old kid, Nu-Metal felt like a movement, made all the much more alluring considering how most people would turn their noses up at it or “not get it”, it felt exclusive and it was these years that cemented my love of music which has since grown into a full blown passion, bordering on the obsessive decades later. I often refer to Nu-Metal as my gateway drug into heavy music.

As a typical angsty teenager, heavy music provided a community I could feel at home in and more importantly it offered an outlet. I don’t want to get into the clichéd “This band gets me” territory but the lyrical content of bands such as Korn, Slipknot, Static-X and Linkin Park, back then served as a sounding board, being able to vent frustrations at the top of your lungs, screaming along to lyrics that summed up just how you were feeling was (and still can be) an incredibly cathartic experience. 

It was also in these teenage years that I found a love for writing, I was a fairly artistic child with ideas of being a cartoonist at one point, but I discovered I had the very basics needed for creative writing and began writing fiction for myself as a hobby and creative outlet around the age of fifteen, as my love, knowledge and appreciation for all kinds of music has grown in the years that have followed so have my skills at writing (I hope) to a point where I can competently put together paragraphs that make at least some sense to someone other than me. The point I’m labouring to get to is that both my love of music and writing have grown alongside each other until they inevitably met and intertwined.

All these years later, I now contribute to and help with the editing of an independent music magazine (shout out to RAMzine) as well as contribute to some other platforms from time to time. Prior to this I dabbled with various blogs of my own, contributed to a comic book magazine, written for a video game platform and still post the odd piece of fiction from time to time in dusty corners of the internet under various pseudonyms. 

Now onto the heavy stuff, I’ve never been very good at talking about any aspect of my feelings, in fact it wasn’t until the very recent past that I actually began to open up when things became difficult to handle internally. It’s still incredibly hard to speak openly even with those closest to me and it’s going to be a slow process to get to a really comfortable place, but slow progress is still progress and I would encourage anyone struggling with anything to start a dialogue. It may be no surprise that I have often found it easier to write down internal feelings, finding a certain comfort in the written word in comparison to a spoken conversation but I digress. 

Learning to deal with anxiety, stress and the dark paths those demons can manifest ahead of you has led to me combine my comfort from writing with my love for music to create a zen like experience, a little corner I can carve out that’s engaging and stimulating. Having the opportunity to write, discuss and share a medium I adore with like minded folks is pure, wholesome food for the soul. Do I do it as much as I would like or maybe should? No, life tends to get in the way, but I know it’s there when I need it and setting personal goals to do more is healthy. On the note of life getting in the way, I’d be lying if I said the past couple of years, for me personally, have been difficult in places and while there were plenty of ups, there were also many downs but the one thing that is constant is music. 

If I feel like a grumpy teenager I can revert and go back to those very same songs that pulled me out of a slump back in the day and they can do the same now. I can throw on some deathcore and lose my mind for ten minutes if it’s been a particularly challenging work day, or I can pour a fine whiskey and vibe to some big band music, if all else fails, crack a beer and listen to some good old fashioned hair metal. Music is the one thing that will always be there for me and I will never lose my love for it, be it brutally heavy or low and slow blues, music’s beauty is in it’s subjectivity and without it I know I would be in a very different place, I wouldn't have met some of the wonderful people in my life, I wouldn't have had some of the most memorable moments to look back on and I certainly wouldn't be writing as much and I wouldn't have grown emotionally and spiritually without it by my side all these years helping me navigate the twists, turns and unexpected roadblocks life throws our way. 

This may not be my day job but it’s a damn fine secondary “job” and I can’t think of a better way to spend a few hours than digging through some records, or hitting shuffle and getting lost in a bands back catalogue or discovering a new genre and forgetting about the world outside your headphones. To feel all the pressure melt away as you depart from your struggles or your own thoughts and anxieties for while is almost a religious experience in my definition.

All that’s left to say is thank you for reading, thank you to Tom for letting me share and partake in this worthwhile project.