“Combining this whole rock and roll and fatherhood thing is not for the faint of heart.  It’s like a well greased high wire act.  I highly recommend it, but it’s definitely not for sissies,” says new father and musician Jay Nash.

“I used to go on tour and come back shredded from only getting five or six hours of sleep a night.  The idea of getting six hours of continuous sleep these days sounds amazing.  I practically come back from tour feeling refreshed.”

Growing up in Syracuse, New York Jay Nash dreamed not only of becoming a musician but of living in California with visions of surfing the Pacific and skateboarding in empty swimming pools. In 2001 he made that dream a reality and moved to Los Angeles to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter.  (He also did a lot of surfing.)  But in April of this year he and his wife Rebecca packed their bags and relocated to Vermont.

“We spent so much time traveling to New York to see my parents or Connecticut to see her parents it seemed to make sense to move back east since we were starting a family.  Vermont is about equidistant between our two families and it’s just spectacularly beautiful.  In our town there are no fast food restaurants and no strip malls.  It’s like a step back in time.  I tour a lot so it’s a great place to come home and retreat to between tours and lay low.”

I met with Jay when he recently returned to Los Angeles for a week to play a few shows and mix his album that will be released in February of 2011.  When asked about his songwriting process he said, “All my favorite songs were written in a very short period of time.  It almost seems like they’re written even before they come out.  Occasionally there are times when you get a piece of something and you go back and refine it over time, but more often than not the best stuff just flows out of you.  There are more verses and more melodies than you even know what to do with because it’s been sitting there and it’s the truth and it just flows right out.  The best songs just sort of write themselves.”

Nash is about to embark on a six-week tour that will be done in two three-week stretches.  “The longest I’ve been away from my daughter is three days and I was miserable.  Now I’m going to be gone twice for three weeks and I’m scared.  There’s so much of a change in a 24-hour period.  I’m going to be gone for three weeks and when I come back she’ll be a completely different person.

“But I’m really so grateful to be doing what I love for a living.  This is the life that I asked for and you know what they say, ‘Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.’“

Well Jay Nash has certainly got it – a beautiful wife and daughter, a new home, a twenty-one city tour, and a new album due February 2011 – Jay Nash has got it indeed.

*Originally posted to skirt.com on October 11, 2010

To listen to some of Jay’s music click here and to see his tour schedule click here.  If he’s coming to a town near you do your best to check him out.  You won’t be sorry.