Jory Stultz: Groovebox Studios, "Out A Window", and Beyond!

I should probably preface this by saying that I've written about Jory Stultz and his music in the past. As a matter of fact, if you scroll down, it was only a few entries ago. The last time I did a brief write up about him to encourage readers to give his music a listen. This entry is about that also but it's also about a couple of other things that are going on with him as a musician that are important.

First off, for the duration of this blog, I'm going to refer to him just as "Jory" since he is a good friend. Every journalism class I've ever taken tells me that after you've referred to a subject by their full name once you're supposed to refer to them by their surname for the rest of the article. I just can't bring myself to do that without feeling sill and since this is a blog and it's not written neutrally, I'd say that it's fine. None of this paragraph is important to this piece at all but I felt like I should include it all the same.

Jory is a musician that defies labels. That expression gets thrown around a lot in crappy music journalism and I HATE writing with cliches but that is the only way I can start to describe his music. There are a ton of elements from across the board in his music. David Bowie is an obvious influence on Jory's ideas of broad concepts and story telling as well as the atmospheric and extremely full sound pervasive in his music. His voice is like nothing I've ever heard, combining soul, pop, rock, and indie into one ball of colossal heart and soul. His songs tell stories and everything about them plead with you to feel every word he sings.

Right now Jory is working on a Kickstarter to raise money to cover a live performance with Groovebox Studios. Backing the project can get you a bunch of different perks and rewards. On the lower end you can get a copy of the performance EP and it goes up from there. There are a lot of Kickstarter campaigns out there that aren't worth your time or money and I promise you that this isn't one of them. Here's the link.

Jory's Kickstarter

Every amount of money you contribute to the campaign get's you a reward that is well worth it, even if you just want a copy of the live EP. It's not panhandling, it's a creative way of putting faith in an artist you believe in to fund art that otherwise wouldn't happen. You get to experience that piece when it's finished, usually more coming with it that you would ever get by waiting until the project gets made. I'll agree that there are groups who use Kickstarter inappropriately but for the most part it's a good thing and, on the whole, I think that for independent artists of any medium it can only be good.

On top of this Jory is going to be releasing his debut self released EP "Out A Window" at Gone Wired Cafe/The Avenue Cafe on Michigan Ave. in Lansing. I will be opening this party of a gig and everyone should come out and help this EP explode.

The mid-Michigan scene is vibrant and lively but has too many distinct lines in it and way too much uncalled for negativity. I think the goals that some groups and a lot of artists are workings towards, like Groovebox Studios highlighting talent in the way that they are, The Great Lakes Collective doing whatever they can to help release and promote music in Michigan, Fusion Shows, The Flint Local 432 in my hometown, etc. are all amazing but there needs to be more love and less competition.

The bottom line is to support good things. Jory Stultz is a good thing.