Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaylen Ward.
Hi Jaylen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Being born and raised in Kansas City, jazz and gospel play a huge role in my musical development. Coming from a musical family and multiple generations of artistic prowess, many influences outside of jazz and gos[el make their way into my form of expression. I’ve picked up many interests that are in proximity to those who have influenced me as a person. I picked up drums at the age of 2 from being around my uncles. I picked up drawing when I was 7 from being around my cousins. And I picked up music production in middle school when my brother and I were obsessing over EDM. Each craft has its moment of influence in my life, but finding the cohesive theme among these crafts and obsessing over finding my voice has led me to many opportunities more than obsessing over the crafts themselves.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There was a weird grey area of understanding my relationship with art when I started to produce music. I felt like my ear was beyond my knowledge and level of craft in my drumming. It felt like there was a glass ceiling staring back at me. Through composing music, I was able to see the potential of my sense of composition behind the kit. Marrying the two worlds of composition and performance in my mind was difficult, but through many mentors, I found ways of self-expression through the instrument, manipulating the mood, terraforming dynamics, and conjuring emotions through sound.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’d like to consider myself a music visionary. Combining influences ranging from Rock and Jazz to EDM and HipHop gives the music more elements to evolve from and take on different forms. I have been privileged to be a part of some of Kansas City’s most musically ambiguous projects within the flourishing music community from acts such as Eddie Moore, Loren Broaddus, Isaiah Petrie, Henry Scamurra, Adam Schlozman, Logan Richardson, James Ward, Marcus Lewis, Alberto Racanati, Houston Smith, Josiah Assefa, Erin Keller, Henry Fears and many more.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorite childhood memories is one of the first memories I can remember. When I was four years old, I was very serious about playing drums. I could vividly remember people outside of my family not taking my passion seriously. One Sunday morning in church, I was stuck in daycare, really wanting to play drums. I remember sneaking out of daycare one day with one of my friends to the back of the bandstand. The organist saw how serious we were and decided to sneak us onto the drums. As I was playing on drums, one of the daycare workers came in trying to find us and saw me playing. Seeing how serious I was about drumming, they let me stay in the bandstand from that day on,
Pricing:
- Individually contracted musician – starting $200, depending on the affiliation and contracted specifications
- Full band (3 musicians and up) – starting at $150/ musician, depending on the affiliation and contracted specifications
- Individually contracted Audio engineer (mixing and mastering) starting at $250, depending on the affiliation and contracted specifications
- Individually contracted Producer and composer starting at $700 plus contracted residuals, depending on the affiliation and contracted specifications
- Individually contracted Audio engineer (live sound) starting at $1000, depending on the affiliation and contracted specifications
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/JaylenWard
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay_ward_music
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaylen.ward.146/
- Twitter: https://x.com/Jayward0
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM2F_FCXuEUe5MmJGx3yg8Q
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/pout1ne
- Other: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-jaylen-ward/
