We were lucky to catch up with Simon Jay recently and have shared our conversation below.

Simon, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I started music when I was 4 years old. When you lean music at such a young age, you see music as another form of communication. In some ways, I can communicate better with music than words. The most important skill in most creative fields I’d say would be to simplify to the most basic form you can, and build from there. There’s so much beauty in simplicity.

Simon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been in the industry since around 2012. I’ve been a songwriter/music producer for many artists, and also a composer for film/TV for various shows. As far as brands or projects go, I’ve worked on shows such as Only Murders In The Building, This Is Us, and The Emmy Awards. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many artists in every stage of their career, from developed artists such as Madonna and Richard Carpenter, to newer artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Tayler Holder, Faime, Gabbie Hanna, and Rachel Levin.

I’m proud to have contributed to their music and their stories. We always dive deep in our sessions, so the music is always about sharing a very personal story, I challenge you to listen to their records again with that in mind!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

This is such an interesting question, because I feel as though we are all creatives. We all create words, sentences and stories every day. I think the main difference is that if you’re doing it through art, the medium might be different. But I really do feel strongly that we are all creative, and that the way our creativity is expressed through different outlets.

The important thing is that our creative outlets formulate interests and those interests should be nurtured and followed, because that’s where our fulfillment as a human being will come from.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn is that art had to be complicated. Like I said earlier, I think there is so much beauty in simplicity and following your emotions and your interests until you get to the bedrock of what they are is super crucial to our emotional fulfillment. For me, some of the most important pieces of art that I love are important to me because their meaning was so simple, but so effective.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chaptersmusic.com
• Instagram: @simon_chapters

Image Credits
Shades Of Bren, Caden Watterson, John Galbraith