Chris Jay

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Chris Jay is a musician, songwriter, producer, screenwriter, journalist and actor best known as the frontman and founder of the rock band, Army of Freshmen.

Background/Army of Freshmen

Chris Jay was born Chris Jurewicz in Cape May, New Jersey. He attended high school at Lower Cape May Regional where his parents were both music teachers. They also owned and operated a small music store, Mr. J’s Music Shop in North Cape May, New Jersey which was connected to Jay's childhood home. He formed his first band, Yclept, while still in high school and performed throughout South Jersey including opening for one of his heroes, Arlo Guthrie, a show which the 16-year-old Jay booked and promoted himself. Upon graduation, he moved, by himself, to Ventura, California where he formed the band, Army of Freshmen in 1997. Army of Freshmen are still active and have played over 1,500 shows in 43 states and 11 countries and released 5 full-length albums. Jay himself has been involved in the writing, producing and recording of over 1,500 songs, with several of those appearing in films and on television.

Journalism

Jay has written for the weekly newspaper, The VC Reporter since 1999. He’s interviewed hundreds of artists and his recent work can be found archived at the paper’s website.^[1] He was sued by Mike Love of the Beach Boys for 10 million dollars over an article Jay wrote about Love’s continued use of the band’s name despite being the only original member. Many Army of Freshmen fans and Beach Boy fans have no idea the lawsuit existed as it was settled out of court prior to any trial or press coverage.

Screenwriting

Chris Jay and fellow Army of Freshmen member, Aaron Goldberg created the animated, adult cartoon show, The Spank Finatra Show, which is currently in development.

Chris Jay and Aaron Goldberg wrote a screenplay for a full-length comedy film entitled, Betting on Baker.

Chris Jay along with musician, Jeff Hershey created a comedy reality show, Operation Man Up, which is currently in development.

Chris Jay has written the treatments for all of Army of Freshmen’s videos as well as for Bowling For Soup’s High School Never Ends video in which Jay makes a cameo with the rest of Army of Freshmen.

Acting

In 2009 Jay was a featured extra in the horror film, The Telling. Jay along with other AOF members, Aaron Goldberg and Kai Dodson can be seen multiple times in the movie’s opening sequence which was filmed at the Playboy Mansion and stars, Hugh Hefner’s then-girlfriends Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt of The Girls Next Door.^[2]

Jay’s work on The Telling led to his being cast in the comedy Beer Pong Saved My Life playing the role of “Frat Boy.” In addition to the acting role, he co wrote the movie’s theme song.^[3]

Jay appears as an extra in the Las Vegas crowd sequence of the final fight in sixth Rocky film, Rocky Balboa. Jay, an avid boxing fan, has a large collection of memorabilia related to the Rocky.

Other

Jay’s lyrics to the Army of Freshmen song, “Road Less Traveled” are quoted in the book, High School Confidential by Jeremy Iversen.

Jay contributed guest vocals to the Chicago band Plunket’s song “Baby Steps” which was the first single and video off their debut record, All We’ve Got Is This.

Jay contributed guest vocals to the English band, Ten Four And Out’s song, “One of the Crowd.”

Jay co wrote several songs on the debut album by throwback soul group, Jeff Hershey and the Heartbeats.

Jay (as Chris Jurewicz) is thanked in the liner notes to 2 Live Crew’s infamous 1989 release As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Jay was a rap music fan in elementary school and had written a fan letter to the group prior to their success.

Jay was awarded the "Emerging Artist" award at the 2010 City of Ventura Art's Ceremony for his various contributions to the local music community of Ventura, California and for his representation of the Ventura music scene internationally.

References