Meet Clarence Jey | Record Producer & Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clarence Jey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clarence, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
The decision to take each day as a new beginning in navigating my career in the industry that I am in – Music.
If one was to break this down, it can be anything from practicing the craft to learning new skills, having a fresh, positive approach toward clients, colleagues and collaborators and more importantly, leaving adversities behind by not carrying any negativity forward. I continue to experience positive growth based on this attitude and always look forward to tomorrow, while maximizing today – every day is a restart.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Like many others in Nashville, I am in the Music Industry and I am a Record Producer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist and Composer. I have my own Recording Studio in Brentwood – “TennTones”.
As a creator who has navigated via the independent lane, I’ve been lucky to have had my songs and music on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts, a Grammy-winning record with Jimmy Fallon, and various award winning TV shows.

My Story & Career:

I was born in the small island nation of Sri Lanka to a Tamil family. My father was a Veterinarian and my Mother, a Teacher. I was lucky to learn Classical Piano from my mother at a very young age. However, when the Civil War broke out, our family practically lost everything including our home, our pets, our belongings and my instruments – especially my Accordion. We relocated to Australia a few years later and had to restart life in a whole new environment and culture. Around the age of 16, I (accidentally) wrote a song with my friends. Our first step was to have it professionally recorded in some capacity and we did just that. However, I realized that I had arranged and produced it, without knowing the role of a record producer. I wanted to repeat this a few months later. So I worked part-time, saved money and hit the studio again. During this time, I was studying to be a Civi Engineer at College, while playing in bands outside of it. Even though I graduated as an Engineer, I committed to doing Music full-time and have not looked back ever since.

I was lucky to grow up in Australia performing with local bands and composing and producing music at my home studio in Melbourne where I blended my love of music and television to write and produce the theme song and additional music for the 2007 US Emmy-nominated Discovery Kids animation television show, “Growing Up Creepie”. This led to my relocation to Los Angeles. My music has since been featured on television shows including ‘Common Law’, ‘America’s Got Talent’, ‘Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew’, and ‘The Newsroom’. My original songs have been used on various commercials, including the US retailer, Kohls, Dunkin Donuts, Chrysler and Vodafone.

In 2011, I was co-instrumental in one of the largest internet viral song sensations in history, “Friday“, which in total has received over 500 million YouTube hits and went Gold in the US. I co-wrote and produced/engineered this song, which reached the US Billboard Hot 100 and iTunes Top 20 in March 2011, and was referred to as “Genius” by the music executive, Simon Cowell. “Friday” was covered by the cast of ‘Glee’, which resulted in their version of “Friday” entering the US Hot 100 Charts as well as the iTunes Top 10. In 2013, the US Late Night host Jimmy Fallon‘s Warner release Grammy-winning second album, “Blow Your Pants Off”, included “Friday”, as performed by Fallon and Stephen Colbert. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhxsg1
‘Friday’ was also performed by other popular artists such as Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, 3OH!3, Dorian Electra, Big Freedia, Todd Rundgren and Miranda Sings.

I was lucky to produce and compose original songs and was music supervisor for the martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme film, “Full Love” (which premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival) and worked with the US reality show, Famous in 12 produced by Harvey Levin of TMZ on The CW network, where I was invited to assist the up-and-coming artist to find her dream. I was honored to produce and compose music for American Grammy-winning R’nB group, All-4-One’s 20th Anniversary album. In 2016/7, I composed music and wrote lyrics for the musical theater show “Jambalaya The Musical”, along with my creative partner, Jeff Barry. I also wrote and produced the opening number titled “What A Christmas This Is” for Hallmark Channel movie, “My Christmas Love”, as well as Australian TV comedy series ‘Please Like Me’.

In 2018, I was lucky to achieve additional U.S. Billboard Chart success with a song titled “Wasted” on New Zealand Roots Reggae Band Katchafire‘s Album ‘Legacy’, which debuted at Number 3. In July 2018, Roger McGuinn, the lead singer of one the most influential bands in American history, The Byrds, recorded and released his cover of ‘Friday’ on his first studio album in 14 years, ‘Sweet Memories’, which also featured some of The Byrds’ greatest hits, Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! – this was a hugely memorable moment and meant a lot for me! In 2019 I wrote and produced original songs for two seasons of ‘Lego City Adventures‘ TV show.

In 2021, my family and I re-located to Nashville from Los Angeles and it was the best decision we made, especially for our daughter. Nashville is a wonderful, dynamic city on an upward trajectory. It also has amazing people. It was somewhat of a restart in terms of my career, but sometimes that’s a good thing! I have a fantastic space to record and produce right here in Brentwood and it’s been a joy working on various projects and a broad range of creative folks in various genres.

We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about:

I feel what sets me apart is my ability to work on various genres of music, especially global music. I was lucky to be raised in various parts of the world where I could absorb so much of the local and foreign music in those areas. So this opened up my music palette and it also keeps my journey extremely fun and exciting. I do sometimes feel that my very unique taste in recording equipment does set me apart, especially in the world of popular music. My studio, TennTones is equipped with a very rare, late 60s RCA Recording Console (formerly RCA Studio A, NYC). Many hits were cut on this, including “The Jean Genie” by Sir David Bowie, and “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies.

What I am still proud and excited about, and probably will be for a very long time, is my viral song “Friday”. Besides independently breaking into the global music industry, charting, and having certified Gold sales and viral success, it set a few trends in terms of independently created music making a splash on the global sphere via a social medial platform – the idea of “Viral” was practically non-existent prior to this phenomenon. I felt that I did my part in equalizing the playground a little, whereby some young kid in a not-so-privileged part of the world can create some fun content on their phone and potentially monetize. I felt “Friday” did play a small part in the democratization of music, which I am extremely proud of.

When legendary Roger McGuinn of The Byrds had covered “Friday” on his album “Sweet Memories”, as a gratitude, I had asked his lovely wife, Camilla McGuinn to donate all Publishing proceeds due, to a charity of their choice. A few months later, she emailed me with an update – “I will send a royalty check to Samaritans Purse to be used in Sri Lanka when we return. I checked to make sure they have a presence there.” It was a huge gesture on their part after learning about where I was born. Truly amazing people. The power of music to move needles directly and indirectly is still alive and well. If music can make a small difference to someone’s life or livelihood, I feel we have accomplished what we set out to do. I must add that this all happened when a parody video of The Byrds singing “Friday” was discovered by the McGuinns, who laughed so hard and had to check to make sure it wasn’t Bob Dylan who wrote it. Roger covered it a few months after.

How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

I continue to believe in the saying “the harder you work, the luckier you get” – there is no substitute for hard work and dedication to one’s craft. I am lucky to have identified my passion at a very young age. It was a matter of navigating the waters of creativity and recognizing that the music industry is still a ‘business’ and that one must learn to merge both worlds together, be a people’s person, understand the human psyche a little and be a loyal, team player, if career sustainability is one of the goals. Challenges come in various forms and will continue to do so. Life has it’s curve balls, but our lives will be boring if we don’t have challenges and one will never grow without being challenged.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?
Lessons for me are about respecting the Power of understanding the fundamentals of any situation. The other, are the various “P”s. These are not just limited to Patience, Persistence, Perseverance, Passion, and Purpose but also include Practice, Pauses, People and of course, Prayer. Being a little Courageous when it matters, but still preserving the Innocence of creativity is vital.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

I would be the happiest if some kid out there is/was inspired by my journey and does their absolute best to make a positive difference to humanity and the world around us. Life doesn’t need to be too complicated if we look at things from a bird’s eye view – simple things matter the most.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is an awesome question as I’ve been doing this a little more lately with many of our friends and family visiting from either out of state, or from overseas.

My favorites are the following: Broadway (Twelve 30 Club, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen, Kid Rock Honky Tonk etc), 12-South and downtown Franklin. I would do my best to make sure they check out RCA Studio B via the Country Music Hall of Fame Tour – breathing the same energy as Elvis did is just truly priceless. Johnny Cash Museum is another. A show at the Ryman Auditorium and/or the Grand Ole Opry are a must. I also recommend visiting places like Thompson’s Station, Columbia or Arrington Vineyards as well as Leiper’s Fork. If one enjoys US history like I do, I would also recommend Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage.

In my opinion, Nashville is truly on the move to becoming a dynamic major city in the US (and the world) in the next five to ten years and it’s just great to be a part of the growth, while doing our absolute best to preserve what’s made Nashville and the State of Tennessee very special in the first place.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Gratitude is one of the most powerful aspects of humanity and I try and do my best to practice this daily. In saying this, there are so many out there, whom I am thankful for, in terms of help, inspiration, mentorship, support, encouragement and love. Firstly, I feel I am lucky to have God watching over me at various critical junctures. My parents, brother and family – especially my Mom, who first taught me Classical Piano when I was 4 years of age – deserve a lot of credit. My wife and daughter deserve a lot of credit for their love and continuous support. Many of my collaborators along the way whom I’ve learned so much from. Legendary Hall of Fame Songwriter and long time collaborator, Jeff Barry (whose credits include Be My Baby, Sugar Sugar, River Deep Mountain High, Da Doo Ron Ron, Tell Laura I Love Her, I Honestly Love You) is someone I’m very close to. His wisdom, friendship, tenacity, love of music and creative touch have helped me accelerate my growth in various facets. As a member of The Recording Academy, I do my best to get involved in the District Advocacy, which is one way to help bring equity and equality for creators. Finally, a special thank you to some of my friends in Australia, who directly and indirectly helped me shape my musical journey during my teenage years.

Website: https://ClarenceJey.com

Instagram: @ClarenceJey and @TennTones

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5474603/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Jey
TennTones.com

Image Credits
Friday Jimmy Fallon Stephen Colbert : Copyright 2012 NBCUniversal Media, LLC