This week DeBraun talks with local music impresario JK-47.
Jaysyn Wyche is a producer and Lexington native who performs under the name JK-47. As a child Wyche loved hearing different sounds and gravitated towards electronic music. The age of sampling is what he says, sparked his curiosity even more.
“I remember it like it was yesterday, looking at the TV just like ‘what, like so you’re telling me now I can take anything that I want to and hear in my head, and play it in my own melodic way’ and it was just like, the keyboard was the first instrument that made me just be like, ‘I got to know what this thing does, or what is it,’ my mom bought me my first keyboard when I was 4 years old and everything that was on TV, I would sit in front of the TV and play it back and that’s when they were like ‘hold on, he’s about to do something because he’s able to play it by ear’ and it just became a thing from then to now, kinda crazy.”
By the time he was 17, Wyche was becoming known around Lexington as a creative producer. In high school he was in marching band and he says the skills he learned from classical music are in almost every beat he makes.
“A lot of people started recognizing, like, after they heard my drums they were like, ‘did you sample that hi-hat part,’ I’m like ‘no, I was actually playing it and I just had the microphone to the side and had that real grungy, kinda staticy sound,’ so it was kinda like we’re taking that world from classical music and then putting in hip-hop and beats I was makin, I was always into the loose play, so instead of just bein like a [beatbox], you know, straight, it was like [beatbox], it was like I always wanted to feel the laziness of the auxiliary instruments.”
As a producer, he has collaborated with many different artists. Wyche is working on a solo album called Scratch & Sniff Odyssey that is set to drop in 2016. Wyche says this project is going to be his most unique because he is doing it his way.
“It’s basically like I’m just takin everything from my experiences on life, even TV, or video games, or something off a movie, something to where, I’ve always wanted to do it this way and I’m gonna put it on this album and it’s like everything I ever thought of, and it’s taken a lot of time, but it just seems like that patience is well worth it because the more I keep doing something to it, the more I’m like, wow.”
Jaysyn Wyche performs as JK-47. JK-47 will be playing at Al’s Bar on May 27th. More information about Wyche and his projects can be found at jk-47.bandcamp.com.
