There’s a rumble in the underground, and it isn’t The Wombles! This particular rumbling is from JAYLER, a four-piece, nineteen years of age, Midlands band, who are creating quite a stir on the emerging rock scene. Not quite an overnight success, but probably as close as you’re going to get. Juliet Hurwitt finds out more...
James, Ed and Ricky met at Lichfield college on a two-year course studying music. Tyler met James at an open mic’ night, when Tyler’s Dad saw James acoustic performances online and encouraged Tyler to go and meet him. The two immediately hit it off and started jamming some covers. Encouraged by people telling them that they worked well together, they carried on going to local open mic nights; Tamworth, Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, etc., anywhere that would have them. James persuaded Tyler to drop-out of sixth form and join him at college.
Initially, the duo was strictly a covers band with only one original song Acid Rain, but as they were getting offered more and more gigs from venues who put on full bands, they set out to find a bass player and drummer. “We played some gigs without any drums”, laughs Tyler. James adds, “One time there was just an out of time tambourine from someone in the audience”. It became a natural progression for the covers sets to get shorter to JAYLER’s sets getting longer with original material.
The name JAYLER started as a joke between their parents (obviously merging James and Tyler), They thought about changing it, but people were already wearing JAYLER t-shirts, and the band didn’t want those to suddenly mean nothing.
JAYLER have been together for two and a half years. Ed joined a few months later (March 2022), and Ricky around a year after (April 2023) and was only meant to be a step-in when the original bass player left. As Ricky said, “I was too good” (to let go) so he stayed. He’s teased that the condition of him joining was that he grew out his hair to look the part, although I point out that his is still the shortest. They then told the story of when bored one night on tour in the hotel after a gig, they blow dried his curly hair straight and it was ‘decently long,’ pointing to Ricky’s shoulder.
Talking of touring, how did the Kira Mac support slot come about? They’d been looking around for gigs following the release of their six track EP in December 2023. The video for No Woman reached 100,000 views on YouTube that generated a lot of publicity. Tyler received a message from Kira Mac’s management, which he thought was a joke at first, asking if they could do a tour. “I got talking with this guy who turned out to be Mark Owen (Kira Mac’s manager) who sent over some details, and then said oh by the way it’s with Kira Mac.” James continued, ‘”I was with Tyler when he was on the phone to Mark. It was a crazy as it was only a couple of months ago that we saw them (Kira Mac) at Steelhouse. It was an incredible moment.” Much jumping, cheering and hugging ensued. Luckily, they’ve got jobs that allow them to work around the band as they don’t want to take away any time from JAYLER. The money goes into funding the best equipment, because they’ve found out the hard way that it doesn’t pay to buy cheap.
Touring turned out to be harder than expected, from needing to clear the stage of their ‘classic rock big amps’ in fifteen minutes, to not being old enough to hire a van (over 25), but they learnt and developed a system, and brought a parent or two along.
(c) Nick Ashton Photography
Their very different musical tastes and backgrounds has influenced their songwriting: James is country-folk-bluesy-rock, Tyler is into ’80s hair metal, Ricky is into reggae, funk, disco, ‘bit of everything’, and Ed likes big bands and jazz, resulting in songs that gives JAYLER their unique sound. They’re often compared to Led Zepplin or The Doors, for example, ‘it’s because those bands had the same influences as us.’
In September 2024 there was an unexpected appearance at the NWOCR weekend. ‘It was very exciting when that message came through. It was a shame about Oli Brown being unwell, but were the Oli Brown fans going to say, ‘oh no, who the hell are this JAYLER’ but the response was nothing of the sort, and the comments were that people were delighted to see us.’ If the long queue at their merch’ stand afterwards was a barometer, then people were very delighted indeed.
Have they been surprised by their success? A unanimous ‘yes.’ Even at the NWOCR gig they could see people singing the lyrics of No Woman and the next single Lovemaker which hasn’t even been released yet! “That was awesome, and I was starstruck then”’ said James.
How do their parents feel about JAYLER? Ricky’s response is probably typical of most, “My parents didn’t want me to go to college to do music, saying ‘What are you going to get out of that, it’s a waste of time.’ Now they couldn’t be prouder.” James’s background was very different, “My parents were happy for me and my brother (who now performs on cruise ships) to study music. My Nan was into music, so my dad understood the passion and was happy for me to study music.”
They left college a year ago but have returned to give lectures on touring, turning the tables from when bands came to talk to them, never thinking that in two years time it would be them touring. “It was scarier talking to a bunch of youngsters (relatively speaking) than going out on stage to play our songs to over a thousand people”,said James. The college has nothing but praise for JAYLER and most of the students there now are apparently because of them. JAYLER were humbled and honoured to have been asked back, although they now admit their final projects weren’t up to standard as they were usually at band practice, “but hey we passed”.
They are planning to release some new singles soon, and if people like those there will hopefully be an album. I have no doubt an album will be available in the near future.
With a handful of shows remaining in 2024, and booked to play at many festivals next year, my advice is when you see they’re playing make sure you go watch, listen and be in awe of these four amazing young men. Confident without being conceited, the name JAYLER is going to appear higher and higher with each festival T-shirt you buy. It won’t be long before they’re headlining their own tour.
Keep an eye on their socials for exciting announcements, otherwise you’ll miss out on seeing them early on. Everyone wants to be able to say, ‘I was there when JAYLER [insert your moment here].’ I’ve had the pleasure and honour of being the first person to interview them for an (online) magazine, and where ERB lead many others are sure to follow as people want to get to know and follow JAYLER. You’re welcome!
Band Members
James Bartholomew – Vocals and Guitar
Tyler Arrowsmith – Guitar
Ricky Hodgkiss – Bass
Ed Evans– Drums
