Writer, director, composer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer and sound designer for many films featuring Brad Pitt, James Lay was to say the least consumed for the past four years in his man cave studio meticulously obsessing over the largest and smallest details of the 14 song soundtrack album for his supernatural science fiction film The Other Side of Infinity. "I'd rather take the time to get it right and do it myself plus it's all upside for my soul's personal satisfaction", Lay discussing the fact that he chose to play all the instruments, write all the music, engineer and produce the complete soundtrack album not to mention writing producing and directing the film as well.
Lay's previous career was as a long time top sound designer in the film industry on 65 plus films with multiple number one films featuring Brad Pitt and director producer Francis Ford Coppola. Lay moved into the writer director's chair in 2006 with his quantum physics time travel film 'Dreamland" featuring Jeepers creepers star Jonathan Breck picked up by retired president of Universal Studios Sid Sheinberg, also famously known for giving Steven Spielberg his first shot to direct a little known film called Jaws. Lay followed up Dreamland with his dark absurdist hybrid live-action/comic book film featuring Sid Haig from the Rob zombie films "House of 1000 corpses" and "Devils rejects". Lay also won best producer of the year at the Los Angeles music awards competing against both Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin's producers for his work with the late ex-Beatles producer Phil Spector's wife Rachelle Spector.
This summer we will see the release of "The Other Side of Infinity" a hybrid sci-fi moralistic cautionary tale about the last day of the Sun featuring stand out performances from actresses Kat Kaevich and an amazing transformative performance from Belle Lundon as she ages from early 20's to 70's in a moving nuanced performance. Additionally, Lay, a one man army of talent also wrote, performed all instruments, engineered and produced the accompanying soundtrack album with his band Pleasure Planet, much like Wolfgang Van Halen.The wide audience commercial progressive pop rock album features a smorgasbord of dreamy 1966 Rickenbacker and Gibson custom shop double neck 12-string electric guitars with complex ethereal vocal harmonies in the spirit of Brian Wilson's Beach Boys meets Queen with tantalizing tidbits of furious 16th note guitar licks ala Eddie Van Halen and Steve Morse(Deep Purple/Dixie Dreggs). The album's production is huge, like a tsunami on the North shore of Hawaii and acutely detailed at the same time... The full force onslaught of complex open voiced lush multitrack layered 12-string electric guitars(reminiscent of guitarist Alex Lifeson of Rush) wash over you and just as quickly recede back to reveal an ocean floor of furious unison guitar and bass runs up and down the neck, momentarily pelleting you like a blast of John Derringer's Tommy gun. It's not all circus tricks and dancing elephants however, most of the songs are extremely radio friendly and have catchy melody hooks to follow anthem-like layered vocals with easy to latch onto upbeat lyrics like "LIGHT OF DAY" or the more observationally intuitive "Horses" with it's insightful lines like: "something that never lies is the reflection you see when you look into horses eyes" a song written with guest singer Braxton Lee.
Recently married to retired top model Chris Garner "she has the patience of a saint and the understanding of what it takes to satisfy your creative side from spending years in Paris with her modeling career. Afternoon hikes in Red Rock Canyon my luminescent wife and our pup Scarlett (their sweet blonde golden retriever puppy) take the edge off the cabin fever of my studio work".
Along with the 13 original songs that feature Lay on all instruments as well as lead and background vocals on the first two singles "Horses" and "Light of Day", the album also features a pretty ambitious undertaking with the Beatles "All You need is Love" featuring John Phelps on lead vocals. Phelps is featured on eight of the tracks while world renown blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa's alumni vocalist Sarah Rogo is featured on three tracks and newcomer Braxton Lee is featured on three tracks.
Lay is a protegé and student of world-renown grammy-winning producer Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Maroon 5, Smashmouth Keith Urban, Third Eye Blind and his wife Grace Potter). Lays says: "I met Eric when he was 15 years old, he rode up to me on his bicycle and took me into his singers parents garage in suburbia Palo Alto California where he proceeded to blow me away with amazing exact production replicas of Scritti Politti's Perfect Way and Led Zeppelin's Four Sticks, all performed musically, engineered and produced by this 15-year-old genius. The trick in life is to understand when you are in the presence of someone who is operating at a transcendent level beyond everyone else, I saw that in Eric immediately that day. I spent several years working with Eric producing my band Behaviour soaking in and doing my best to understand his meticulous approach to engineering, producing and capturing the essence of a song with a contrarian mixture of raw waves of huge sound approached with the most delicate attention to sonic detail uniqueness, always avoiding harsh unruly mid high frequencies like the ever dreaded 4K frequency spike!"
Keep your eyes out for THE OTHER SIDE OF INFINITY and the singles "Horses", "Light of Day" and "Love is the Way" from the soundtrack album from the self titled PLEASURE PLANET band album later this summer.
Follow James Lay, the film and the band at:
@officialjames_p_lay (instagram)
@the.other.side.of.infinity (instagram)
@pleasureplanetband (instagram)