Meet Jack Perry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Perry.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Sure! I was born and raised in southern California. My parents separated when I was young so my time was divvied between my grandparents, my mom, and my dad; all of whom heavily respected music even though not all played an instrument. My great grandparents, grandparents, and my mom and I all lived in this one apartment complex in Whittier, so our apartment was often the meetup spot for family get-togethers. Every party would have at least one instance of my great-grandpa Jack (whom I’m named after) playing the piano while I sat on the bench next to him. “Papa Jack,” as I called him, was a drummer, piano player, and composer during the swing era and had a love for jazz that he passed to me. Even during the days where he was really sick, I’d come by his bed and show him a new rudiment I learned or anything and he would light up. My dad was an actor and stuntman in the 80s and 90s. Having lived his dream of working in movies, he encouraged me to pursue my dreams without concealing the obvious uphill battle it takes to pursue a career in art. He and my four uncles also played guitar. Every family event would inevitably turn into a jam and sequential gear circlejerk before/after we ate, and all of them were intense Beatles fans. I started playing drums when I was about nine. My dad was able to get me private lessons and I was able to join various school bands. That was about the time the Perry brothers found out they could use me for gigs and they immediately capitalized on it, which turned out to be good practice for me. My uncle hired me for my first gig when I was 11 at an Alcoholics Anonymous convention for a Beatles cover band called ‘Cirrhosis of Liverpool’ (my uncle was proud of that name), which solidified a positive association with music and music performance. After that, I pretty much knew what I wanted to do for a living. Both sides of my family were very encouraging to me in my musical endeavors.

Please tell us about your music.
At a fundamental level, I just want to make stuff that I think is really good. I want to make art for art’s sake, and I think there are people out there who would appreciate that. Especially being in LA, where there’s no shortage of incredible musicians, but the types of situations you get hired for don’t necessarily make for good art. And if you want to make something good, don’t expect to be paid for it. So, there’s a side of me that plays weddings, cover gigs, church gigs, etc. because I have to eat and pay rent. But when it comes to my more creative projects, I really make an effort not to compromise the art form for anything. If I wanted to make money, I’d be playing or making different music. I’m much more interested in pushing the boundaries on my instrument and making music that I (and maybe other people) like. One problem with LA is that there’s a huge disconnect in motivation between the clubs that hire bands and the bands that play the clubs. Most musicians that I’ve come into contact with care very deeply about their audience’s experience and they’re skills as a musician/performer. Clubs are motivated to make money and don’t necessarily care if you sound good. Many places will hire a band under the strict presumption that you will bring a certain amount of customers for them. For that reason, many people don’t trust the clubs to have good music anymore. If I could somehow bridge that gap with creative music, I’d be happy with that.

What do you think about the conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
Certainly, there are issues with how artists receive royalties in the new streaming era of music. I’m not really in that world personally. What is cool about this new era is we have more opportunity to self produce. We can have control over every facet of how are music is presented and we can put it out there for anyone to see. I like that aspect of YouTube and Instagram personally. And it allows for non-mainstream artists to find their niche community. The issues plaguing the musical community are mostly financial I’d say. Most clubs or bars in LA want all of these things for their venue that they are unwilling to pay for. There’s a strange dynamic where clubs think they’re doing you a favor by letting you play at their establishment when in reality they’re hiring you for a service and, most of the time, inadequately paying for it. Many times what you have to focus on is how many people you can get in the door, which used to be the club’s responsibility but somehow we’ve taken that on. By the time you’ve finished dealing with all the logistics that have nothing to do with music, you find that the music has suffered because it was never a priority for the club in the first place. That tends to be the gig culture in LA and it’s a real shame considering the level of talent and musicianship found throughout the city. You have great musicians being underpaid for their work. Part of this is the clubs fault undeniably, but also the musician’s fault for letting these places take that kind of power. I think to a certain extent we became too desperate to play our music at a club. We’re reminiscing about the 80s and remembering a time you were paid an adequate wage for providing entertainment at a bar. If you have the choice between playing your original music at a house party or a club that’s going to underpay you, definitely pick the house party. You’ll get more out of it musically and the people there will have a stronger engagement with your music. That’s a much better way to build a following in my opinion.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I post most of the stuff I’m doing on Instagram. It seems to be the best medium for showing off new music or informing people where I’m playing next. I play some gigs consistently every weekend so I’m easy to see play in that context. My two main creative projects get gigs every so often when the venue’s “vibe” is right and I promote the hell out of it when it happens. I have a YouTube channel for my duo project ‘LEAF LEAF’ with keyboardist Danny Andress, and we put music up as soon as it’s ready. Sometimes, it takes us a while to get to that point, but you better believe once we sit on it for that long the music that comes out is something we believe in. So, you can subscribe to that if you want to see what we’re doing. We’ll be releasing at least one song by the end of the year. I also have a jazz power-trio called ‘WWPG’ with RJ Reyes and Jake Silverman (Buttonmasher), and we should be recording our first album next year. All of that info and media could be found on my Instagram or website.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jackperry.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_jack_perry/

Image Credit:
Bill Perry

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