BETWEEN LINES & LYRICS

'Acting, Music & The Art Of Becoming'
Exclusive Interview with Ajay Friese
Featured in 'Innerviews'
Hosted by Allié McGuire

​Ajay Friese (aka Bluejay Friese) is not choosing between the screen and the stage. He is building a life where both can exist, inform each other, and reveal different truths. With his role in American Classic and the release of his debut album Postcards, Ajay steps into a defining chapter where character, craft, and his own voice begin to beautifully overlap.

ALLIÉ: Ajay, you’re stepping into this really interesting moment where acting and music aren’t competing for space in your life, it seems. Rather, they’re starting to speak to each other. So, first question for you, when you look at American Classic and your debut album, Postcards, arriving so close together, does it feel like a career milestone, or does it feel more personal than that?

AJAY: Such a good question. Obviously, it’s intentional to take full advantage of the musical exposure that’s provided through American Classic, as well as the exposure to me as an artist to bring more attention to American Classic, and vice versa. But I think it is more personal because both of these projects represent my best work, at least in my own opinion.

​I think they’re both artistic projects that have allowed me to present myself as the most adult version of myself that people have seen in terms of things I’ve been in or released musically. So, it does feel like a personal milestone in that sense because I think I’m putting a more mature, more developed, more grounded, more found sense of myself out there.

​ALLIÉ: I love that, “more found.” Let’s start with American Classic. You play Randall Potts, a singer-songwriter whose voice and guitar are a big part of the character. What changed for you when the performance wasn’t just about becoming something else or stepping into this other character, but also bringing such an intimate part of yourself into the role?

AJAY: Yeah, I think it just got incredibly natural. It’s funny because I always say music is the easiest thing I do, and acting is probably the hardest thing I do. I never really articulated why until I realized that, kind of like what you just said, with music, I’m being myself. With acting, I’m being someone else.

It’s a lot easier just to let the music flow because all the prep has been done over the course of my life. It’s just me bringing who I am in this moment and my experiences. With acting, the first time I get an audition and I read it through, my performance is not good. I can’t just sight-read an acting scene and have it sound good because I don’t have any of the context. I don’t have anything to draw upon. So acting is a lot of preparation in that sense.

But when I’m able to bring the heart of a singer-songwriter and the heart of a folk storyteller, which I already have so developed within me, into a role, it’s really fun because I can just let it flow and forget about everything else. So it felt incredibly natural.

ALLIÉ: Awesome. Let’s talk more about your debut album, Postcards, which feels beautifully nostalgic, almost like small pieces of a life sent from different emotional places. By the way, “Speed Limit” is my favorite track from the album.

AJAY: Thank you. It’s the last track. Thank you so much.

ALLIÉ: What were you trying to preserve, release, or say out loud with this album?

AJAY: Something that really draws me to folk and acoustic music is the authenticity and emotional realness of it. Especially as we’re getting to a point where music became more and more produced. Then the pandemic happened, and suddenly these videos on TikTok of someone filming from a terrible angle, just sitting on their bed talking to the camera, started holding so much value for people because you feel like you’re hanging out with someone. You feel like you’re getting a real version of someone.

​AJAY: It’s gotten to the point where even major corporations are doing their advertisements in a way where they don’t want it to look high-production. I see that trend in music as well. I think people are realizing how important human connection is and how much can be lost in polishing.

You hear artists like Zach Bryan, who are releasing what basically sounds like rough demos as their songs, with hundreds of millions of streams. You feel it. You feel the emotional connection. You listen to that song over and over again because it gives you something, and it sounds like someone in their living room singing to you.

So, I wanted to lean into that approach a lot. Four songs on the album are one-takes where I’m playing guitar and singing at the same time. Honestly, those are some of my favorite songs on the album. I think for my next album, I’m going to do that with even more songs, or possibly the whole album.

I just wanted to tell a story authentically and not in a super polished or rehearsed way, but from a place of emotional groundedness. Because that is the most valuable thing, for me at least.

ALLIÉ: Well, you did a wonderful job with that.

You’ve been part of big on-screen worlds, but music, as I think you were just speaking to, asks for a different kind of honesty. When you’re standing behind a character, there’s a script. When you’re standing behind a song, there’s nowhere to hide. With that said, which version of performing makes you feel most comfortable?

AJAY: Music, because it’s so natural to me, but also because I get to choose which songs I sing and which songs I don’t. Once I’ve performed a song live a few times, it’s a lot more comfortable if it’s something I’m nervous about off the bat. All my songs are incredibly personal, but sometimes there can be a lot of anxiety or nerves around showing that song to anyone, or to certain people.

But I get to choose what I perform. If I decide I’m going to sing a song, usually it’s pretty comfortable. Sometimes I still get kind of nervous before I’m about to say certain lines that I’ve written or things like that. But it’s such a rush, and there’s such a huge payoff for just putting yourself out there.

ALLIÉ: Yeah, and just showing up. I think there’s something powerful about building two careers at once, especially in industries that both ask so much of your identity, your time, and your heart. As you step into this next chapter, as both Ajay Friese and Blue Jay Friese, what part of yourself are you most excited for people to finally meet?

​AJAY: I think I just want to continue to get freer and more raw with it all.

I perform live a lot, and pretty much every time I’m performing live, it’s just me and the guitar. I find that’s probably when I emotionally connect to an audience most. People cry on a fairly consistent basis at performances where I’m performing my originals.

It’s like live theater. It’s so immediate. The coolest thing about it all is you’re going through the emotional experience in real time with the audience, and no one in the room knows what the next second is going to hold.

So, I think I really want to focus on capturing that in recordings in really honest ways. I think that comes with the intentionality to do that and the confidence that that’s the approach, leaning into the beauty and the imperfections. Like I said before, the most important thing is being emotionally grounded and present.

ALLIÉ: I love how you just mentioned that, live, it’s a direct exchange of energy. You to your crowd, your crowd to you. There’s not a disconnect. It’s analog and not digital. To your point, it’s real time. We need, I think, more real-time connection and more authentic connection.

AJAY: Yeah. Sometimes, if I might add, for example, for my song “The Road” on the album, I brought a friend into the space I was recording in, actually a couple of friends, and that’s also a one-take. I performed that for them, and they had never heard the song before. So, having that actual live audience completely changes the way you play a song.

There are all these different strategies you can employ in the recording process. It’s not just playing the song beautifully or perfectly or cleanly. It’s a whole different approach. It’s trying to capture emotion. What we’re doing is capturing energy. That’s the whole reason anybody listens to any music they listen to ever, to get the completely unique energy signature from that music.

We’re capturing energy. So it’s about the energy, really. ∎

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Listen to Postcards on Spotify:
https://go.awarenowmedia.com/music/postcards

Visit the Bluejay Friese website:
https://bluejayfriese.com