Jet Black Alley Cat | Featured Group for June and July 2020

You may recognize Jet Black Alley Cat from a few different reviews that we have done for them in the past. Previously, we have done reviews for their single “Rewind,” and recently, their new release [The Black Era], which was released last week. We are excited to feature them for the Featured Artist/Group of the month. We had the opportunity to do an interview with Joe, the lead vocalist for the group.

Nashville Music Reviews – Thanks for doing this interview today. As you can tell by the reviews, I am a big fan of y’all’s music. So, lets get started. Tell me about the band. How did y’all get started?

Jet Black Alley Cat – The 4 of us met in college and played in a couple acoustic and small bands. Then in 2014, we met Bryant through a mutual friend and really hit it off and had our first single “Poison” at the time. That really gave us energy moving forward

That is awesome. Such a great song. So, what are some of the moments that y’all are most proud of, musically?
Great question. I’d hate to speak for everyone as I’m sure we each have different songs or answers that mean more to one another. But for me, it goes back to that first record Part One. We had committed to doing one song at a time so that we could really learn and grow into what we believed a band should be. It had taken 3 years of time before we actually released the songs as a record. The quintessential moment being the final song on the record “She’s Alright”. We weren’t even going to record it. We had prepped all week to record “High Class Women.” I’m talking spent lots of time working through structure, changes and part movement on that song. After we got into the studio & laid down the drums and roughs to “High Class Women,” our producer said we were just gonna swing and go for it and record “Shes Alright.” We changed maybe one small edit to the structure, but other than that the song just was what it was. And here we are today with that song being the one that I find touches the most lives. So that’s what I’m most proud of.

That is amazing at how one decision can have such an influence on a career. Considering that “She’s Alright,” has over 1.5 Million Streams on Spotify alone, I would say that was a great choice. So, Every artist has someone they look up to musically. Who are some of y’all’s musical influences?
That’s a wide range. Amy Winehouse, Johnny Cash, Coldplay, the Killers, P.O.D, Duran Duran, Bad Suns, The 1975, soundtracks from favorite movies, The Flashbulb/Benn Jordan – these are definitely the shorter list of influences, but they represent all of us. But I could go on for days and none of us want that.

A lot of the best moments happen whenever you are on tour. What are some of your favorite tour moments?
Some that come to mind are our Hometown Mercy Lounge show coming off our summer tour of the Motel EP release. I’ve never felt a room with more energy. From our most recent Summer Tour West, some moments that stand out are in San Francisco where our previous show there had a total of 26 people attend. This time around there were over 130. Felt so good. From that same tour our final stop in Houston which felt like all of Texas was there. During one our songs I made eye contact with a girl where the emotion of the song had brought tears to her eyes. I’ll never forget that moment. Finally my favorite show of all time: our private motel show in Tampa which sold out. Never been more at one with a crowd that didn’t give a care at how long we played. Felt like we all just understood and knew each other. Outside of shows, life on road and it’s interactions with the most unique humans, will live on in our favorite bank of memories forever. Like the beach in St Augustine that we parked and slept at, that we’ve basically claimed as ours through several tours. The boys know what I’m talking about.

What is your favorite song to perform live?
“High Class Women,” no question. Game changer live. I’ve never crowd surfed but I will to that song whenever shows actually make their way back, count on it.

That is an awesome song. I know its pretty tough planning for the future, especially during a pandemic, but what kind plans do y’all have in the near future?
We’re finishing up a new record that looks to release later this year. We just put out a time period piece of work called [ The Black Era ]. We look to tour these songs this fall with Cherry Pools, if shows are lucky enough to come back. That’s what our sights are aimed at.

Just want to give a big thanks to Jet Black Alley Cat for this interview. Check out their latest release [The Black Era] below.

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