This album all started by teaming up with Urban Dubs producer Jeremy Sylvester and recording new vocals for a Stranglers remix/cover Jeremy was working on for his Electronica project for XL Reverb in January 2003!

Jeremy took the track - Strangled Peaches remix, to the Miami music conference where it was snapped up and signed by Multiply, a branch of the Telstar group. An advance followed swiftly but it took almost a year to get clearance for the sample from the Stranglers. By the end of the year the pair had begun work on more tracks for a possible album whilst they awaited the release of the Peaches single.
It was a brief meeting with XL Reverb in London and the advice he took from it that lead Jay to invest literally everything he had. He sold his sound system & business, gave up his role at Strawberry Fair Festival and made camp on his brothers bedroom floor in order to save money to make the album with Jeremy in Birmingham.

Whilst all this was happening Jay met Keri Kel. An aspiring singer and fine artist. The two jumped trains together to Jeremy's rented studio and recorded the makings of what would have been the album that followed the single.
Alas disaster struck, Telstar went bust and the magic carpet was whipped from underneath their feet!

The chips may have been down but with the help and encouragement of his Mum, Jay picked him self back up, dusted himself off and moved down to London to start a new Job teaching challenging kids excluded from mainstream education. The move also presented an opportunity to partner up with old college pal and talented audio geek Gareth Butler. In a tiny den like studio they made in the flat in Chalk Farm, the pair busted out a more Break-beat electro sound which fused Jays political lyrics, gnarly vocal style and guitar.

In 2007 long time friend Seb Taylor known for Kaya Project, Shakta and Digitalis to name but a few contacted Jay about a trip hop project he was working on with his wife Natasha. A weekend was all a prolific trio needed to record tracks for the aptly named Subterfuge trip-hop project. Unfortunately the indie label pulled the plug after the owner had car crash in California.....);

2008 Spain beckoned in the form of road trip where Jay found himself busking in he Basque! Out of necessity more than anything Jay became a street performer in the feista's of San Sebastian and Bilbao in the basque region. It was here where Jay saw the potential of this music and how more encouraging the audience was compared to the UK. Jay relocated to Catalunya in the fall of 2008 with all his life in the boot of Honda Civic. In spring 2009 the Zeitgeist Movie propelled him into collating the album himself with an idea of the title 'Breaking The Silence' inspired by the book 'the ghosts of Spain' and purchasing Ableton Live.
Disaster struck again whilst working at Croc's disco in Salou, Jay's laptop was stolen from a table in a nearby restaurant where he was painting a mural. Everything was lost, all the tracks, no back up of the music, Jay left Spain in the fall of 2009 as the financial crash was really starting to hit.

Fast forward to 2012, Jays Dad passed away suddenly, but with these life challenges a new perspective was gained from the tragedy and once more Jay channeled through music, but this time he recorded an album of slinging guitars and vocals with his band the Rebel Icons. That done, momentum propelled him right into the studio with Pete Brazier to record a vintage remix album. Superheroes!

Over the many years Jay remained torn about his lost project and the message of his lyrics. But the universe has a funny way of working these things out. In July 2017 whilst he was clearing out and de-cluttering his home in some rare festival down time, Jay discovered a box of old CDR's? One in particular jumped out, it had 'Hit me Like you Mean it' written on it. He went through the rest of the box and there it all was on various CDs including the cover/remix Strangled/Peaches ...... YES!
A Friday night DJ slot at the last ever Secret Garden Party festival loomed. The festivals theme 'Stop Making Stupid People Famous!' totaly struck a chord. The whole story surrounding Multiply Records and Telstar was a lucky escape from major label tom fuckery with the only other unit shifters on the label was the 'Cheeky Girls' This was so in keeping with this theme of the festival, Jay re-mastered the tracks, added some vocal samples then uploaded it to bandcamp – released just ahead of the festival. Get in!

There is a book that could be written about this 13 year journey, no doubt one day I will and it's Jay's belligerence with the main stream and the elite that is even more relevant now than ever! It is becoming a timeless message it seems. It is the time to Break the Silence!

Love, Peace, Truth and Justice.