Nat Jay: Bright as the Lights Across the Sky

“It’s not as easy as it seems. Pick up the pieces of your dreams,” belts out a soulful Nat Jay on the first song of her latest album Lights Across the Sky. From her profound lyrics and soft voice to the melancholic mood of the music, one can really sense the emotional connection between Jay and her songs. “Each song represents a different part of me or my life experiences,” she explains. “I honestly don’t remember writing most of them, I just remember the feeling or circumstance I was going through at the time and what I was trying to convey through the song.”

What makes Nat Jay’s album stand out is her soothing voice. The emotion put into her singing can be heard on every single track. Jay is an artist who gives her audience nothing but the best in her repertoire. Her exceptional talent is at least partially due to her musically saturated environment as a child. Growing up with the privilege of having musically-inclined parents, Nat focused on the flute at the age of nine. “My brother played it before me, so we had one at home, and one day I just picked it up and that was that – it was a part of me.”

Jay later honed her skills studying music at UBC, where she vividly remembers the rigorous audition process: “[It] was quite nerve-wracking,” she says, “There was a lot to prepare. Unless you are lucky or a genius, you are likely to get ripped apart when you get there. I was, anyway!”

All that intensive training seems to be paying off though as Nat Jay performed at last year’s Vancouver Folk Fest and NXNE. She also made her first appearance at the Western Canadian Music Awards in Edmonton, Alberta this past October.

It may not be as easy as it seems, but it’s clear that Nat Jay won’t have to worry about picking up any broken pieces of her dreams; her career is twinkling bright like lights across the sky.