Jay Matsueda

Bio:

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Matsueda is an emotive singer/songwriter who has performed extensively within his Los Angeles home base at venues such as The Mint, Tangier, Room 5, The Key Club, Genghis Cohen, Highland Grounds, cin[e]space, Molly Malone's, The Knitting Factory Hollywood, The Baked Potato, The Talking Stick and Kulak's Woodshed. He has also played at Le Confessional in Montreal, The Ruby Room in Tokyo, The Maple Tree in Connecticut, Hotel Utah in San Francisco, The Charleston in Chicago, San Diego's E Street Cafe and many more. Matsueda's voice has been described as something like that of Tim Buckley or a male Tracy Chapman or like Peter Sarstedt. There is a haunting vibrato that riddles throughout much of the style. He is said to be even better live than on his studio recordings, yet his debut 2009 EAT YOUR SAD cd met with very favorable reviews. His sophomore CD entitled TREAT LOVE KIND was made available in extremely limited advance quantities for a birthday party in May, 2010, with wider distribution intended for Q4 2010 or Q1 2011.

"Matsueda makes an effective personal statement with his album TREAT LOVE KIND. The interesting instrumentation and melodies make it unique and worthy." - Billy Dee Williams, Chairman, The Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz

The vast majority of the players on the CDs are friends, acquaintances and colleagues in Los Angeles who have performed and/or recorded for incredibly famous "household name" artists like Sting, Chick Corea, Prince, Natalie Cole, Barbara Streisand, John Williams, Pink, Andy Summers, Avril Lavigne, the late Jeff Buckley, Sheila E., Frank Gambale and many more. In other words, the execution of the tunes is top notch. Both CDs were mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Rich Breen and mastered by David Collins, former head of mastering at A&M Records.

Jay has shot original photos of most of the session musicians on his CDs for their own projects, another of his skills. The black and white photos in the TOP FRIENDS AREA below are intended as a mini portfolio of his shots; they are people who use his pix as their main myspace images. You can check out his photo portfolio pages if you search on facebook for "Jay Matsueda Music Photography - L.A." or if you CLICK HERE

"Jay Matsueda has shot a number of high profile live events for us across the past few years. We've always had great results, and he's pleasant and professional to work with. In fact, there's really no substitute for him. He definitely possesses the unique skill of capturing a very rare, wonderful moment with his camera." - Coko Johnson, Director of Marketing, Musicians Institute, Hollywood, CA

"For the last year and a half, Jay Matsueda has proven to be an asset to THE ROCKIT Newspaper in many capacities. Of greatest importance were his numerous CD & DVD reviews with informed musical commentary as well as articles about live music events, which often included interviews. Jay also added value beyond writing with great photography which helped set our paper apart from others." - Rory Rogers, Publisher, THE ROCKIT, Los Angeles, CA

"Matsueda pulled through for us as our in-house photographer during this year's (2007) New Music Awards. He not only captured the essence of the red carpet, but also surprised us with the live performance photography he took and the candids in the after-award party." - Paul Loggins, New Music Awards Executive Producer

Member Since:

December 19, 2005

Members:

EAT YOUR SAD is now available on ITUNES -- Click here -->



PERSONNEL on the CD:

voice: jay matsueda
backing vocals: quincy coleman, tamar kaprelian (mardirossian)

flute: katisse buckingham
saxophone: elliott levin, katisse buckingham
bassoon: ben wendel
trumpet: stewart cole, mike mcguffey
flugelhorn: mike mcguffey

acoustic guitar: jay matsueda
electric guitar: joel shearer, tony do rosario
sitar: paul livingstone
ukulele: stewart cole
violin: eric hosler
cello: john walz, peter jacobson

accordion: jean-paul monsche
harmonica: chris smith
organ: otmaro ruiz, michael bluestein
piano: otmaro ruiz
keyboard: katisse buckingham
marimba: billy hulting
marimba: nick mancini
vibraphone: nick mancini
orchestra bells: nick mancini
melodica: nick mancini

bass: larry steen, ric fierabracci, robertino pagliari, doug shreeve, rufus philpot, jerry watts, kirkwood coakley, joe karnes, dan lutz

drums: chris wabich, matt johnson, greg paxton, joel taylor
supplemental cymbals: greg paxton, tony shepperd
rain stick: greg paxton
can lid: greg paxton
castinets: dayna richards



Main Production Credits:

produced by: jay matsueda
mixed by: rich breen
mastered by: david collins
primary engineering by: greg paxton



And a little about me personally:

- European & Asian decent
- Taurus/Gemini cusp
- Politically liberal most of the time
- Environmentalist (help market CFL light bulbs)
- Photojournalist for musicians (portfolio on facebook)
- Singer/Songerwriter (eatyoursad.com)
- Favorite Movies: An Inconvenient Truth, A Crude Awakening (The Oil Crash)





Read about WHY these bulbs are an excellent choice by clicking here for an interview I did with SplashLife. And where are they sold, you ask?

Influences:

The "eat your sad" album is influenced by rock, jazz, world and folk music. The tunes use what are essentially rock arrangements, but the vast majority are executed with unconventional instrumentation across many layers that includes jazz improv. The result is a kind of hybrid rock and jazz sound that is eclectic and somewhat intellectual - but the rhythm sections are so solid that the songs still groove hard. For lack of a better genre description, I would call it "Alternative Adult Contemporary," although I have never seen that label above a store CD rack before...

The one cover song on the record is "Seven Days" by Sting, so he is obviously an influence, and I am a big fan. The "eat your sad" record is also necessarily influenced by all the people (see list above) who lent their particular flair to the recordings in the same way they have for major acts they have toured with or recorded for in the past - Acts like Damien Rice, Chick Corea, Jeff Buckley, Alanis Morrissette, Andy Summers, Sting, Yanni, John Cale, Beck, The Yellowjackets, Annie Lennox, Sir Paul McCartney, the L.A. Opera and many more.

Sounds Like:

Sounds like something new. But I have been told by various people of differing backgrounds and ages that the vocal sounds like Tim Buckley or a male Tracy Chapman or emotes the qualities of Cat Stevens.

Record Label:

wudwink studio label