Jay Hurtt of Little Bird: The Cavalry Never Comes
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Jay Hurtt of Little Bird: The Cavalry Never Comes
Published: October 8, 2024
Photo by Taylor Flynn (@taylorkflynn) In late 2023, Little Bird frontman Jay Hurtt moved from Charleston to Los Angeles with big plans for both his music career and his love life. Neither panned out, and Jay shared that his time in Los Angeles became a low point. After a few months, he actually felt humiliated.
Now, one year later, Jay has left Los Angeles and moved to an undisclosed tropical location, with a refreshed perspective and new Little Bird music on the way. There is a story in between, and lessons learned along the way, and that’s what we discussed for this article.
“I wanted to move to LA because I wanted to start the first major record label on the East Coast. And I wanted to become a subsidiary of UMG,” Jay explains. “I wanted Mega Hot Records to be affiliated with Universal. And so I decided to just go get my boots on the ground, grab a spear in hand and march my way to LA and straight up knock on the door of Capitol Records.”
As Jay quickly discovered, it wouldn’t be that easy. Especially because most record labels have gone remote in the days since COVID. Perhaps he also was not the first person to knock on the door of Capitol Records looking for a record deal. He found that the labels were not open, but he would soon meet the people he was looking for, under different circumstances.
Awkward Encounters with A&R Reps
The opportunities Jay sought came in unexpected and awkward moments at parties, leading to some interesting interactions with key industry players.
“I’d meet people at a party and they’d be like, ‘So what are you doing in LA?’,” Jay recalls. “And I’d be like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m in a band. I’m trying to start a record label on the East Coast and I’m looking to become partners with UMG.’ And then they would be like, ‘Oh, I work at UMG as an A&R.’ And I just had no clue who I was talking to at the time.”
By summertime, Jay was feeling less confident about his plan to secure funding for Mega Hot Records.
“Over the summer I got extremely discouraged,” Jay says. “After a couple of weeks, the relationship didn’t pan out the way I thought it would. And then it was really weird because the people that as a kid, I wanted to meet, I magically met them, but it was through a relationship. So I was like, fuck, you know, what can I do?”
Jim Rubush and Jay Hurtt of Little Bird, with Oleg Terentiev on drums. The Cavalry Never Comes
Leaving Los Angeles was just the beginning. Jay also realized that the notion of “making it” as an artist—something he had dreamed of since childhood—was far from what he expected.
“I also learned from them that most of the time, it wasn’t as awesome as I thought it sounded,” he says. “This is all over the world. A lot of kids have this idea where the cavalry will come and things will just happen for you.”
The reality is that if and when you do get a major record deal, the label reps will tell you to make more TikToks, and go more viral.
“I was really encouraged to figure it out on my own and double down on what I was doing,” Jay says. “Over Memorial Day Weekend, I had every intention of coming back to Charleston and it seemed my crew had this idea where I like abandoned them, or I left them, or I wanted to find something that was better. But the whole notion of better… the cavalry never comes.”
Behind Jay in Little Bird are some of Charleston’s best musicians, who hold down the “scene” in Charleston on a weekly basis: Noah Jones, Jim Rubush, Ben Mossman, and Oleg Terentiev (who now lives in New York). They perform with several other bands including notable projects The Psycodelics and Stop Light Observations, and many collaborative sessions all over town.
Noah Jones on keys. Photo by Taylor Flynn. Industry Vs. Scene
These realizations about self-reliance and the myth of the cavalry also helped Jay reflect on the stark difference between the local music scenes and the larger industry at play.
“What I learned is that there’s a scene and there’s industry,” Jay says. “The scene is the same place everywhere. The scene is the same place that plays at Royal American. That scene exists in New York. It exists in LA. It exists in Chicago, it exists in Dallas. Any town you go to, there’s a scene.”
The greater music industry is what Jay brushed up against in Los Angeles.
Jay with Will Blackburn of Stop Light Observations. Photo by Taylor Flynn. “There’s industry, which is singular,” he says. “That’s one. They have concentrated places. There’s resources in those places. There’s money in those places. Big money. Those are concentrated in major cities like London, New York, LA.”
In the modern era, there is not a lot of crossover between a local music scene and the music industry.
“You can make it in the scene, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to industry,” Jay explains. “Just like you can make it in social media, it doesn’t really equate to success. And your friends are just as cool as those similar related artists on the biggest artists’ you can think of website.”
Bottom to top: Jay, Oleg, Ben, and Jim. What’s Next for Little Bird?
With Little Bird being spread out nowadays, there is a lot of remote collaboration happening, but they are also sitting on a lot of material that was recorded before Jay moved to Los Angeles.
“We have a lot to put out that I saved to bring to LA,” Jay says. “I had this idea in my mind, like, well, if I do meet the people and I do get the opportunity, I want to have bullets in the chamber that I can load up real quick and give them like — here you go.“
Little Bird plans to release about a single per month, as part of the documentary and album, Sweet Happy Life, coming in early 2025.
“HAVE YOU GOT IT YET”
Little Bird released their latest offering, “HAVE YOU GOT IT YET” on September 13th. Though technically one song, it’s split into four parts on Spotify, allowing listeners to experience the track in multiple ways. The track also features Will Blackburn & more of Stop Light Observations, and was inspired by Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, whose last contribution to the band was the unreleased “Have You Got It Yet?”.
“It was a concept that he had for a song. They never recorded it and put it out together because every time he would play it for them, he would change it,” Jay explains. He wanted to cut the song up further, into more pieces, but Spotify’s protections against stream farming prevented him from uploading too many short snippets of the track.
“Sick Day”
The next Little Bird song is called “Sick Day” featuring Kanika Moore of Doom Flamingo. There are seven different versions of this song, and Jay plans to release each version of “Sick Day” as a separate track on the upcoming Sick Week EP.
Little Bird Solo Projects
Jay Hurtt Vi will release a single on October 21st called “Rolling like Dice”, as part of an EP that is coming soon, followed by a full-length solo record, Mercury, on December 23rd.
Noah Jones is also working on a solo record called Hi All By Myself, and both Jim, Oleg, and Ben have their own respective solo endeavors.
“Rollin Like Dice” cover art. Closing Thoughts
“So, although I didn’t have the success of getting a million dollars from UMG to start Charleston’s first major record label,” Jay says, “I still have awesome things happening with our own scene. And nobody needs me to figure it out for them.”
Maybe in the end, “making it” is more about creating a sustainable life where happiness can thrive, outside wild dreams of fame, riches, and rescue by the nonexistent music industry cavalry.
“Just because there’s no money in music, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it,” Jay concludes. “It just means you got to love it. You really got to love it.”
Damn – this was a good one. i’d like to hear more about the interactions with the “industry folks,” what feedback was given other than “go viral” (I mean, i fully recognize that could be it), more of Jay’s impressions of how that “industry” tiks (and toks). I guess it could be as simple as – I had their numbers, we talked a few times, they never went anywhere with it. Kinda like how life works with someone who sorta seems like they want to date, but then not really. Nothing like a dramatic hollywood ending – just a slow fizz out, left with disappointment? What do “big” record labels even do today? With streaming – is there any oxygen for a label to become “major”? Seems just like copyright trolling mostly is what the big labels do now. I guess this is why TS just releases many different presses of a similar vinyl. What the “music scene” is makes sense intrinsically: bars, clubs, IG follows to see your favs when they come into town. Music is the answer but damn it’s tough for someone like Jay who is totally gifted, writes ear worms, but doesn’t fit into some pre-determined pop mold. Just such a shame how hard it is to make a living on the arts even for someone like Jay. Wow. Other than the tropes of “go to shows, buy t-shirts” what else can the average music fan do to support their favorite artists?
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