It's rare to see a 20-year-old musician rock sold-out shows, but Dallasite Jay Fresh is different. The professional skateboarder-turned-rapper took the spotlight at a young age with kickflips and ollies and has chosen to stay there, albeit with a different skill.
As a musician, Jay Fresh's resume is limited, yet impressive. He teamed up with Pretty Lights' SuperVision (also a Dallas native) to release a remix of Jay-Z's "Otis" and just released a new EP called The Delta Project on Tuesday. He's even tried branding his own genre called "sonic hip hop," a mix of electronic and hip hop sprinkled with dubstep traits. We caught up with Jay Fresh to talk music and see what he's been jamming lately.
Currently jamming: Kaskade
"I just like the flow of his songs. It's really mellow and it's got a good vibe to it."
Looking forward to: Integrating his backup drummer and DJ into more live sets.
"I've been playing with KG, my drummer, and Jus-Stone the Great who produced a track called 'Diamonds.' We've been doing that for a couple months now. It started out just me and a microphone; now we've bandaged everyone in the band, which is really cool."
Where the two roads meet: A new EP called The Delta Project
"This latest EP is just a couple of tracks of Pretty Lights samples. Over a whole two-month span I was listening to Pretty Lights' music and I was trying to figure out which tracks were going to make a good compilation. With a lot of the tracks I spent time writing, trying to come up with concepts, and finding a good story I could tell over those beats. 'Finally Moving,' the EP's lead track, was the first PL song I ever heard, and after I heard that I kind of just fell. I wanted more and eventually it became a project."