Today we’d like to introduce you to Jarred Roberts.
Jarred, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up in a family of gospel singers. My mom plays guitar and taught me how to play when I was about 12. When I was about 18, I was able to coerce a bunch of my best friends at the time to play in a band with me and we called our music WOOD & STONE (a quote from Plato’s Allegory Of A Cave). We recorded a 12 song album with a friend and drummer of Alien Ant Farm, Mike Cosgrove and started playing gigs in LA. Around this time, I started to become more and more passionate about my studies in gamma-ray astrophysics. I made the decision that I was going to put my music on hold, as I pursued my Ph.D. in particle astrophysics at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. There, I worked on an ultra-high-energy neutrino observatory called ANITA. At the tail end of my dissertation work, I started to put together my first soul album that is currently being mixed/edited. Now, I’m working on my first postdoc here at UCSD and UC Berkeley and apart from picking back up on my gigging, also auditioned for the next season of The Voice. Fingers crossed!
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
While in graduate school, I became obsessed with soul and pop music. In the lab, I was listening to Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Al Green and current artists like Ray Lamontagne, Bruno Mars, Allen Stone and Charles Bradley. My musical style was significantly influenced by the music I was listening to and the album I’m currently working on highly reflects that. My music is intended to be uplifting, up-tempo and reflects all of the oddness, isolation and excitement of a graduate physics student’s life! One of the songs, “Wasted and Weary,” was written while I was stationed at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for example. Another song, “Midnight Lovin'” was written as I was writing my dissertation, staying up all night for months on end and feeling a lot like a vampire in need of, ehem, sustenance. When I perform live, as a solo musician I compose my music using a looper and play a lot of my originals. I also play in full bands and have been the headlining performer for The Lights Fest.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Most artists struggle financially and that’s also a big challenge for me as well. I’ve funded this upcoming album myself and it’s proven to be a very challenging project. I also struggle with balancing my physics work with my music. If my advisor/group were to discover that I’m playing so much music, I may lose my position due to my ‘lack of commitment.’ This is why I have continued to go by the stage name: WOOD&STONE throughout my career; as a means to maintain my anonymity. This became essential as my music started to really thrive in Hawaii and I was playing at larger and larger venues. This will have to change if I make it to the blind auditions this upcoming season, though.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Following my musical journey on Instagram, Facebook, etc. are some of the best ways to support me. My single, “Take My Hand.” is available on all streaming platforms and downloading this song is a big help to my music. I wrote this song for her precessional at our wedding, my final year in Hawaii. It was influenced by the song “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s favorite song. My album is scheduled to be released this summer and it is an 8 song full length, full band album and we’re all really excited about it! Stay tuned and be there for it!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1607 Cable Street, San Diego, CA 92107
- Website: woodandstonemusic.com
- Phone: (951) 850-3396
- Email: woodandstonemusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodandstonemusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodandstonemusic/
Image Credit:
June Cochran, Jessica Griffin, Kristi Masuhara
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