The Jay Scott Project

Musician and singer-songwriter Jay Scott lived in Notting Hill for 10 years before moving to Maida Vale. The Notting Hill set was taking note of his band, The Jay Scott Project, playing at the recent Octopus Street Party. Lucy Land was among them

The Jay Scott Project only got together seven months ago and they’ve already won over George Michael’s manager, Andy Stevens and Take That, who they are supporting on their Beautiful World Tour.
However, lead singer and songwriter Jay Scott (pictured above right with guitarist Simon James) is excited about one thing in particular. When we’re on the phone arranging the interview he can’t help gushing, ‘I’ve just had a baby’.
The yummy mummies are just finishing their morning coffees when we meet at Kitchen and Pantry on Elgin Crescent and Jay is eyeing up the departing prams.
His enthusiasm is understandable: his first daughter Ava-Mae was born only a week before.‘Clairey [his girlfriend] was two weeks overdue so I said to her that she should have a couple of glasses of champagne to bring the baby out because she hadn’t had a drink for so long,’ he laughs. ‘I said that we couldn’t have the baby on the Sunday because we had a charity event and Tuesday I’m doing this TV show so she could have Saturday, Monday or Wednesday.’
The charity event he is referring to is the Octopus Street Party, in aid of Octopus Challenge. It was at the street party that The Jay Scott Project first caught the Grove team’s attention with their melodic and acoustic rock set which included the haunting track, Side by Side, dedicated to Greg’s son, Sam who died of cancer age 17 and in whose memory Octopus Challenge was established.
We also spotted Mark Owen and Simon Webbe among the audience and it was apparently the day that marked Andy Stevens’ decision to take the band under his wing.
However, Jay’s passion for charity work is genuine. This is the third year that he has been involved with the event. ‘This time I arranged everything to do with the music; dancing, sponsorship of the stage, the equipment and the engineers so I didn’t want to let anyone down,’ he says.
He aims to continue to support Octopus Challenge throughout his career and his greatest ambition has nothing to do with his musical aspirations: ‘Once I’ve pursued my career long enough I want to go into charity work full-time – hopefully, working with Greg and the Octopus Challenge.’
Indeed, he had passed his interviews for ChildLine when he found out his girlfriend was expecting and decided he had to put his own family ahead of his ambition to be a counsellor.
Jay’s work schedule is pretty packed. As well as his music, charity work and the new baby, he has a day job providing a search service for directors and MDs. ‘With client meetings I can just pop out for business meetings for the music,’ he says simply.
However, it doesn’t look like the day job will continue for much longer: he is currently negotiating a Carphone Warehouse campaign with advertising agency Radioville and the band is being watched closely by record companies.
Jay is prepared: he has written enough material for two-and-a-half albums and each member of his band is multi-talented. (‘They all play five or six instruments.’) Jay, himself, plays piano, guitar, drums, harmonica and bass. Inspired by both of his grandfathers – Alan, who played the piano and John, who played the accordion – Jay started learning the piano at the age of four even though he couldn’t read music.
To this day, he plays by ear. He learnt his lap steel-style of guitar playing during his childhood after having to spend a lot of time in hospital after breaking his nose during a Thai boxing spar.
What is unusual for a skilled musician is his limited music collection. He counts Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison among his influences but only owns a few albums.
‘We’re either recording, rehearsing, playing or writing,’ he says simply. ‘The rest of my time is spent with Clairey. We go to Bumpkin – the staff there are beautiful, and Trailer Happiness for a few drinks on a Friday.’ He also catches live music at Mau Mau on Portobello Road. Of course, now with Ava-Mae to look after, life’s even busier. He checks his watch. ‘I must get some bits for the baby,’ he breaks off. We say our farewells outside K&P and Jay heads towards Green Baby.

Listen to Side by Side online at www.myspace.com/jayscottproject