Jay Denton launched ENDURE Studios, in 2018. Seeking to pull together his very different passions, Denton’s studio takes a rather unique approach to music. While working as a
songwriter/producer locally in LA, ENDURE Studios is looking to take trips every year to a different conflict zone or destabilized region of the world, to write and record with artists in those
regions who have been affected by war, crisis, or persecution.
As the first pilot project, Jay flew to Beirut, Lebanon, multiple times in 2019 to record an album with refugee singers from Syria and Iraq. After writing and recording on the ground there, Denton returned to Los Angeles and paired the songs with US artists as well as himself, to create a global album, blending styles, voices, stories, and languages from both parts of the world. Denton released the global album, For Home, under the moniker, ENDURE, and has a documentary by Peaceful Sea Productions that also released in 2020, about the process of making the album, and the backstories of the refugee artists. Back at it, now, in Los Angeles, he continues to write and produce music at ENDURE Studios locally, and is planning the next global album trip in 2022.
Tell us about ENDURE Studios and its unique approach to music.
Endure Studios has a few unique aspects to it that make us different from many of the other music production companies out there. First off, here at the studio we’re all about the song itself and write all the songs with our artists before the production starts. As a songwriter myself for years before I started producing, my focus is very much on having something to say and making sure that everything we record aims straight towards the goal of what we’re saying in the song. We push our artists and co-writers to be honest and real, and then think about ways to produce around that reality.
A second thing that makes us different is the global focus that we have at the studio. One of the DNA elements of ENDURE Studios is our vision to give a voice to people all over the world who have endured conflict, persecution, or displacement, and may not have the means to tell their story in a way the rest of the world will hear. In 2019 and 2020 I traveled to Lebanon to record an album with Syrian refugees (and one Iraqi refugee as well), and in the future have albums planned in many parts of the world with people who have been destabilized.
Another interesting aspect of ENDURE Studios is that we really try to partner with our artists instead of simply being hired by them. While record labels will sign artists, and production houses will charge artists to produce their work, our approach is somewhere in between, where we work with an artist, develop their project together, and co-invest in the records we make.
Rather than just writing and recording songs, we’re building a community of artists, producers, writers, and creatives, and connecting each of them to the pieces of the puzzle that they may not currently have – with the goal of creating something we are all proud of, and that will stand the test of time.
In 2020, the global album, “For Home” was released. What was the inspiration?
I had taken a trip to Lebanon a couple of years earlier and remember meeting so many people in the refugee community who had lost everything in the conflict in their home country and were rebuilding their lives often from scratch in a new country. Every conversation was filled with a story to tell, but most of the refugees felt like either no one wanted to hear it, or that they didn’t have a way to tell it.
That’s when I started thinking about coming back one day to write songs and record some of their stories through my medium of music. I’m still blown away by how much talent I found in my time there, and how powerful the experience was of writing an album with multiple languages, styles, and artists. We took the songs and recordings from Lebanon and came back to Los Angeles to pair them up with LA based artists who would feature alongside the refugees in many of the songs. The bridge that was created between the artists in Beirut, and the artists in LA is one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of in my career.
Jake Green, Founder of Peaceful Sea Productions, traveled with me and made a feature-length documentary, ENDURE: Lebanon, which shows both the process of planning and making the album, and shows the backstories of many of the artists – and I highly recommend it!
You are working with many talented artists. What do you look for in an artist?
The biggest thing I look for in an artist is authenticity. Of course, there must be talent, and of course, there must be some kind of synergy between us musically, but what I look for most is an artist who knows who they are, knows what they want to say, and is bold in the way they say it. These may seem like small things, but in the writing room, they are everything.
Another thing I look for is work ethic and self-motivation. The music industry is a massive roller coaster with every bit as many downs as ups, and it takes a strong work ethic, along with a strong ability to take criticism, disappointment, and hurdles in the road in order to keep going. Success may look like it’s overnight to the outside world, but in the music industry, we all know it takes years and years of hard work to really build something.
Tell us about your documentary by Peaceful Sea Productions.
The documentary, ENDURE: Lebanon, starts at the very genesis of the planning process for the album, For Home. Jake Green, the director, and producer of the film, interviewed artists here in Los Angeles that I work with, captured the vision of the project, the pre-planning stage, and then the travel to Beirut where we started on the album.
Once we were on the ground, the documentary focused on two elements. The first was the technical creation of the album – with everything from meeting the artists, to writing, to recording. The second, which is my favorite part, is the backstory of the refugee artists that we worked with. Jake held i- depth interviews with many of them, and had an animator depict the stories they would tell in their interviews. It is incredibly moving to see those moments come to life in the words of the refugees alongside the visual animations and hear first-hand the experiences behind the songs we wrote.
You started your career in Nashville. How are you looking to build involvement in Nashville today?
Nashville is actually a very exciting topic for us right now, as we’re looking to start an ENDURE Studios location in Nashville over the next few months. Having spent my first few years as a songwriter there, I’ve always wanted to set up a more permanent spot in the town that got me started on this journey.
Nashville is such a special place, and the level of story-based songwriting is unmatched anywhere else I’ve seen. I’ve taken trips back and forth for years, but in September I’ll be traveling back this time to start setting up a permanent studio space for us in town, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
What have you learned along your journey as a singer/songwriter?
In short, everything. I’ve been writing songs since I was in junior high, so my whole adult life has been processed through and experienced alongside songwriting. I was writing far before I could sing a note, but at the time I didn’t understand that you could build a career as a songwriter at all. I thought the only path was to be a singer or be in a band. So, for me, songwriting originally was less of a career choice, and more a natural part of the way I’ve always processed my thoughts and experiences.
But to be more specific, I think in this journey I could boil it down to the things I’ve learned about music, what I’ve learned about the human experience and the realities of my own soul.
When we fall in love with music – whatever kind we like, there is a mystery to it. We feel things or gain inspiration, but can’t always put a finger on what or how it all worked. Over time you start to see the wizard behind the curtain a bit more, and as a creator, start to be the one who crafts the music that will affect someone else’s life.
As to the human experience, there are always facts about any situation, but there are also experiential realities that give color and context to those facts. Songwriting lives in that world, and the deeper I’ve gone into it, the more I’ve understood the drives, hopes, fears, sorrows, and joys that affect us all in one way or another. They say you never really know something until you teach it, and for me, I’d say I never really know something until I write about it. I like to think a career songwriter and a career psychologist would have a fascinating conversation towards the end of their careers where they compare notes about humanity from their different vantage points.
Finally, as to myself, songwriting has been that thing in my life that constantly makes me look under the hood and see what’s going on in my soul. It makes me more acutely aware of the nuances behind the “headlines” in my life and calls me out on my BS when I’m not being honest with myself. So, it’s certainly a scary thing.
Share your vision for 2022.
In 2022, I want to really focus on building out ENDURE Studios as a bi-city studio. That will mean working on partnerships in Nashville, as well as solidifying what we do here in LA. I’m also very much looking forward to the next ENDURE collaborative album, which will be focused on veterans and their experiences – both overseas and at home.
Personally, I’m also excited about recording and releasing my own next album in 2022. I’ve spent so much time over the years writing and producing for all sorts of artists, and still plan to keep doing that, but alongside tracking a full album of my own that has been a long time coming.