Not Without Harley Jay

As I waited for Harley Jay to arrive at Tangier in LA to interview him before his set, I wondered what it would be like to see him outside his Rent element. After all, he did play Mark Cohen on the 2006 - 2007 National Tour and made his Broadway Debut in Rent in fall 2007 to early 2008. Once he arrived, guitar in hand, I noticed his ripped jeans, grey tee over a black long sleeve shirt, with a necklace, rings, and watch. It was hard not to see him as a possible Roger in Rent. Once I separated him from Rent in my mind and calmed down, we sat down to start the interview.

Melody: With your new album, “Without Wax” are all of the songs from personal experience, specifically “Lipstick Letter“ and “Stuff Packed Up?” Those are some interesting lyrics.
Harley: (Laughs) Yes, I wrote or co-wrote every song on the album and every song has been from personal experience. With "Lipstick Letter" (laughs) I dated a girl who was my first true love. She ended up breaking up with me on our 2 year anniversary. It was one of those things where I had never gotten over it. Two years after she broke up with me I wrote that song and immediately I felt so much better. Granted it’s a little outdrawn - she didn’t write me a letter on the mirror, she did have a red dress, I did fool around with her boyfriend’s old girlfriend. "Stuff Packed Up" was the same girl but I was taking control of the situation, so I played role reversal with that one. "Stuff Packed Up" is an intense one. Most of the album is about a relationship that I have been in or wanted to be in.

Melody: So were all of the songs written specifically to release this album or did you have songs you previously wrote that made it on the album?
Harley: I went on tour with Rent and when I came home I decided that I was going to put out an album. In between touring and going to New York I had written "And She Said," "Lipstick Letter," "Stuck Sleeping In," "Without You Tonight," and "Stuff Packed Up." I was just going to come out with an EP of those 5 songs but after I started thinking about it I told myself “No, no, I can come up with 5,6,7 more.” I ended up writing about 10 more and kept the five I liked the best. The song, “We Danced” I like a lot but I don’t know how to finish it but I put it on the album because it was undone and something different. It took a year to write all of the songs that are on there.

Melody: Now switching to Rent…how did it feel knowing that you would be making your Broadway debut in Rent after playing Mark in the show's 2006 - 2007 national tour?
Harley: I got to NY with my mom and my sister who where going to help me find a place to live. If I am being completely honest, I think I had a little bit of an ego and I thought it would be cake. I thought, “I have done this for ten months so I know what I’m doing.” That wasn’t at all how it was - at all! There was just enough new blocking and choreography to really mess with my head and make me think “Oh no, what am I supposed to do?”

Melody: Tell me some of your favorite Rent memories all the way from your first day in October to your last day in March?
Harley: Was I on there from October to March? Wow, I hope those people didn’t get sick of me. I think probably 6 shows out of the 8 a week I would forget to say “Ooo that show’s so sleazy.” After you do this so many times you kind of stop paying attention and Nicolette (Hart) has a habit of poking me and whispering things in my ear. So I probably missed that line a lot because I was in my own world.

Melody: Now what would you say is the difference between being on Broadway and on tour?
Harley: On tour we would play 4,000/5,000 seats and sell them out and it came to the point where we had to have stuff in our ears so we could hear because the audience was so crazy. The stage doors on tour are way more crazy than they are in New York. On tour we were given a lot more lenience, we were able to come up with our own ideas and do stuff.

Melody: What is this I have read about on the forums online about a list?
Harley: (Laughs) There was a little group of lovely fans that saw us numerous times on tour and would come out to see it in NY on occasion. When I got to NY, Michael, the director made me change a lot of stuff that I did on tour to fit more of a grown up vibe. On tour I moon walked, painted my nails, I did a lot of stuff with Declan, I played around with the scarf, I was a lot dirtier on tour and you are not allowed to do all of that on Broadway. So when my last night on Broadway came, the list was stuff I needed to get back to doing that I originally did on tour and had to change.

Melody: You released a Broadway album "Between 41st and 53rd" (Through Colony Records in 2007) but what was the inspiration for song choice including songs from Aida, Les Misérables, West Side Story, etc…
Harley: I am a total Broadway geek. I wanted to do an album where pretty much anyone who knows anything about theatre can basically sing along to every single song. I also put my own twist along with the songs. I didn’t want to take myself too seriously like, “I am a Broadway guy” because nobody wants to hear that but I picked songs people from 10 - 60 years old can still enjoy.

Melody: Let’s put the word out of what Broadway role you would love to have.
Harley: I’d like to play Fiyero in Wicked.

Melody: Yeah, you could that.
Harley: (Laughs) Thank you. I’d like to be in Spring Awakening but I’m too old. I’m picky when it comes to that because when I was done with Rent I had done the show over 700 times. I do not think there are many shows that you can do over 700 times and think “Yea, this show is still the bomb.” Hopefully they will keep coming up with new stuff too, like Shrek and Spider Man and other new shows.

Melody: Going to the beginning, when you first started to sing, did you know that you wanted to sing Broadway or the kind of music that is on “Without Wax?”
Harley: Originally I started to sing because my parents had me sing in church. Then some lovely lady said that I needed to be in the Phoenix Boys Choir so my mom signed me up. I wanted to be a stand up comic to begin with and realized that I probably wasn’t that funny. I wasn’t into musical theatre at all but when I was 16 my sister had seen Rent and she brought back the album and played “One Song Glory.” I listened to it and ended up singing it at the fair. It was odd because everyone was singing country songs and here I was trying to be Roger in Rent. I wasn’t into musical theatre until after I heard Rent. What really got to me was when they started swearing and it was great because it was more my own.

Melody: Now your fans know that Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts are pretty big influences of yours, so what is it about these artists that sets them apart from the rest and makes you aspire to be as good as them?
Harley: Keith Urban is a songwriter and a guitar player and he understands what turns people on music wise. He can almost play better than he can do anything which sucks because he is underrated as a guitar player. He is separated from the rest because he is a songwriter that can sing. Rascal Flatts understands what it takes to have a hit. They can listen to a song and know what is and is not a hit. You can be 5 or be 60 years old and still go to their shows.

Melody: Lastly, many people may not even know what I am talking about when I ask this but do you still get stopped by fan girls from your N*sync Joey Fatone days?
Harley: Oh My Gosh, how do people find out about this stuff? (Laughs). Thankfully I do not think that people know that was even me. When it first came out it was kind of weird because if I went someplace people would say “You were the Joey Fatone guy!” I was kind of freaked out because I was thinking, “Am I going to be the Joey Fatone guy forever?” Thankfully they do not air those today and I have never searched for it on YouTube so I pray that it is not on there. They treated me like a rock star for 3 days and I met cool people that I was never going to see again. It was cool experience. People have stopped knowing about that which is good. I am not discrediting anything N*sync did, just what I did.

After the interview, Harley started sound check with another musician, Phill Daniel and they began the set. Harley and Phill took turns singing their songs in the dim lit fairly small lounge. They also sang songs from the 80s, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Material Girl" but changing it to Material Boy. I never thought that I would hear 2 guys sing Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” with guitars, but it was an awesome version - well the first verse and chorus that they knew anyway. Harley made sure to sing his song, “And She Said” which has had some recent radio play. The set lasted just a few minutes under an hour.

"Without Wax" is available on iTunes NOW.