Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Denton.
Hi Jay, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I grew up in a little neighborhood by Abrams and Skillman Road, just down the street from LL Hotchkiss Elementary School. One of the best things about it, other than the obvious greatness of being close to Jake’s Burgers, was the bike path that ran down White Rock Creek a few blocks away from us. Exploring those areas as a kid, often on my own, helped feed my imagination and my independent thinking quite a bit.
As for school, I started at the then little upstart school, Providence then homeschooled, and then went back for junior high and high school at another upstart school, Logos Academy, that split off and became the Cambridge School of Dallas my freshman year. My parents were both big into education and were a part of the development of those schools. I’m grateful because I always had great teachers, coaches, and role models around – who all left some powerful imprints on my life.
I was a bit of a serial athlete growing up – I loved too many sports to pick one to focus on, so that looked like soccer, baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, track, and even tennis when I had a couple free seasons in high school. At one point I was on a little league baseball team, The Dodgers, coached by Dary Stone, and we were a pretty stacked team – with both Matthew Stafford (current LA Rams quarterback) and Clayton Kershaw, who graduated from striking out little leaguers to striking out the pros with the MLB Dodgers. To me, personally, though, I liked the competition, the challenge, and the process of training and playing hard as a team more than any one sport in particular. There are nothing like the lessons of triumph, defeat, and leadership that develop on the field…
Outside of the rhythm of practice and games, I joined Boy Scout Troop 125 that met at Northwest Bible Church and followed that up to Eagle Scout. We had a group of family friends that loved camping and the outdoors – so camping, backpacking, snowboarding, rock climbing, and canoeing were a part of my DNA, and I’ve never lost that love of high adventure or exploring the untamed parts of the world. In fact, in many ways, it was skiing and snowboarding that turned me on to music in the first place. One winter in Colorado, my family and a couple others were staying in a house that had an old 8-track player with the album, “An Evening With John Denver”. I’d never really cared about music before, but I wore out that record on that ski trip and then started listening to everything I could afterwards, picked up the guitar, and started writing songs.
When I graduated high school, I decided to turn over a new leaf, not pursue athletics in college, and came out to the University of Southern California for an international relations degree. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have practice and games taking up all of my free time, so I really started digging into writing songs, recorded my first album underneath a fraternity house loft bed, and also found surfing and Krav Maga/mixed martial arts training.
My junior year I took a semester abroad in Dunedin, New Zealand, and that place is about as good a fuel for the imagination as you can get. That’s also when I got in touch with the US Marine Corps about their PLC combined officer training program at OCS in Quantico, Virginia. When I got back to LA, I walked into the USMC recruiting office with a headband and blonde hair down to my shoulders…they took care of that quickly, and I graduated OCS the summer before my senior year. After going back and forth about whether to join the military or start my own organization, I opted for the latter and went to India, Kenya, and Uganda to start finding a way to bring my three passions of music/film, fighting, and outreach in conflict zones together. That’s the journey I’m still on now…
Long story short, after time working in Africa, East Asia, The Middle East, Europe, Nashville, and Los Angeles as a fight trainer, songwriter, and a few other things, I’ve started my company, ENDURE Studios, in LA and now Nashville as well. I’m still in the process of bringing my pretty diverse interests together under the same roof, and that journey has let me meet some pretty incredible people from all types of backgrounds all over the world. Other than the normal work of writing and producing songs in the studio, in 2019 I was in Lebanon working on a cross-cultural album with Syrian and Iraqi refugees alongside US artists in LA. We put that out in 2020, and now I’m in the process of starting my next collaborative album of that kind – this time with veterans here in the US.
I’m excited about what we’re building, and what the next chapter holds…
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it has not been a smooth road at all. Life was a lot simpler growing up when if you did what your teachers, coaches, or drill seargents said (more or less), worked hard, and followed through, things would work out alright. Sure, there were challenges, tragedy sometimes, and a hell of a lot of work involved, but when there’s a track, you can put your head down and just keep moving forward without getting derailed.
Once I decided to forge my own path and become an entrepreneur and songwriter, it felt like I had a train with no tracks to put it on. Rejection, disappointment, financial stress, and long hours for little pay became the norm. I’d see my friends with normal jobs start buying houses, cars, and starting families, while I’d be running all over town (or the world) training clients in Krav Maga, getting my body pretty beat up, and then writing songs and learning to produce in all of my remaining time.
I faced prolonged times of existential crisis – wondering if the vision I was pursuing was untethered from reality, or that I was too blind, dumb, and untalented to achieve it, or to even see how fruitless my efforts were. Once in Nashville, I was living at a place where my room was the corner of an upstairs, attic-type space with wood pallets and stapled cardboard for walls, and a slanted ceiling so low I couldn’t stand all the way up in it. I lay face down one the floor one night, saying out loud, “I need a way out of this”. A week later I got a call from The Band Perry and went to work on tour training them in Krav Maga for 7 months.
Then back in Los Angeles, at one point I was on the edge of calling it quits. I thought about going back to the military because making my own path was too damn hard. But I knew I had to do it, so I decided to go all-in on ENDURE Studios and treat it the way I’d approach something like SEAL training – without questioning it or looking right or left for the same duration as it takes to go from enlistment to the teams. It was a little over a year into that when things started to move with my studio.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Musically, I specialize as a songwriter/producer, and specifically on building a song up from scratch – either for myself or another artists – and taking it from its inception all the way through the final production/mix. I’ve gotten proficient enough in multiple instruments and music production that I usually play all the instruments and create every note and beat on most of my productions. It’s awesome when I get to bring in other musicians for a track, but I’ve gotten to the point I can do it alone. However, as a producer I still put my primary focus on the song itself, and what we have to say. That’s probably what sets me apart – I’m way to stubborn to just do what “works” in the industry, and obsessively want to dig into the intention of the song and the artist. It may be a longer path to success, but to me, it’s worth it.
Before music kept the lights on, I primarily made my living as a Krav Maga instructor. I have my 2nd-degree instructor black belt – which probably means very little to anyone unless they’ve spent a decade training in mixed martial arts or Krav Maga – but I’m proud of that journey, and all of the broken bones, torn muscles, and head trauma it took to get there. I still love training people, both individually or in a class, seminar, or unit. There is an incredible transformation I see in people when they realize that they are capable of defending themselves, that they are truly worth defending, and that their limits are far beyond what they’ve ever imagined for themself. No matter where my career takes me, I always want to keep my connection with the Krav Maga and mixed martial arts community.
My favorite album I’ve worked on was called “For Home” under the artist name, ENDURE. For that album, I traveled to Lebanon and worked with Syrian refugees who were living primarily in Beirut. We’d write songs there – partially in English, partially in Arabic, and partially in Kurdish, and then I’d bring the recordings back to LA to feature US artists alongside the Syrian or Iraqi artists. I’ve never worked on a more complicated project between the language, cultural, and music differences – but that’s why it was so impactful to me. Projects like this where I see music bridge cultures, styles, and stories are that place where I get to bring many of my passions together and experience some of the highest sense of purpose in my life.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
In my case, pain tolerance. I’m wired for having a vision for something and going for it – but without pain tolerance, I would have given up long before anything started working. To achieve anything long-term, you have to have a paramount view of the value of what you’re going for. You have to believe in it so much, that you’re willing to endure every cost that it takes to get there. There are a lot of people with a whole lot more talent than me – I’ve just been the one who’s too stubborn to quit.
There’s a passage from the scriptures referring to Jesus that says, “For the joy set before him, (he) endured the cross, scorning its shame”. Regardless of what someone’s religious beliefs are, that principle is a powerful one – saying that the joy of living out his calling was worth enduring incredible pain and suffering. Many would say I’ve embraced this principle a little too much…and they may be right, but I believe so deeply in the vision of ENDURE Studios and what we’re building here, that it’s worth all of the hurdles, setbacks, and pain along the way.
Contact Info:
- Email: jay@endurestudios.com
- Website: www.endurestudios.com, www.jaydentonmusic.com
- Instagram: @jaydenton @endure_studios
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JayDentonMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ENDUREStudios
Image Credits
Sophie Rybalov
Brandin Shaeffer
Devon Feldmeth
