Having Jay and Jenae Thomason from Hot Sauce Universe over for this interview was a blast. We talked about way more that I can ever fit into this one interview post, and had a lot of fun doing it. I love the way, once I’ve invited someone over, and we’ve sat at my bar, and talked about life, and music and they’ve played something… I always feel like I’ve made new friends. I hope readers get that same feeling from this too… that you know the artists a little better when it’s all done and you feel like they’re your friends too.

Obviously I want to talk about your most recent album, but I also want someone to pull up this interview two years from now and have it still be relevant. So let’s start with learning a little more about you. I know you live in Bloomington now. Where did you guys grow up?

Jay: I grew up in Farmington, New Mexico. Wonderful town. Outside city limits, kinda out in the country.
Jenae: I grew up mostly in Southern Illinois mostly, but I moved around A LOT... Michigan, Arkansas, Kansas. But we all make our way back to Illinois.

How did you two meet? (See Video)

Obviously you were both already doing music when you met. So, how did you get started, individually?
Jenae: My mom was a professional Christian singer when I was a kid. So I grew up watching her singing in church. I started opening for her when I was like, 4, which is ridiculous, but I had the whole “gospel thing” going at 4. And I just continued, doing everything I could. Choirs and musicals in school, anything I could if I didn’t let stage fright get the best of me.
Jay: My father was super into music when I was growing up. He followed the Grateful Dead around. It was always around when I was a kid. He would say, if you ever want to try something out, pick up an instrument, don’t hesitate. My mom had bought a new car, a Ford Probe. It was 1992 or so. It had a tape player, which was a big deal. So my dad went to the store and he bought Alice Coopers Greatest Hits, Jimmy Hendricks Smash Hits, and the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers. I remember he put that one in and when the tape turned over, the guitar riff from Can’t You Hear Me Knocking came on. I was in the back seat and I was like, “That’s it!” I straight up told him when the song was over, “That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.” and he got me a guitar.

So, you met in Denver, and you both already played. How did you start playing together?
Jenae: We kinda couldn’t avoid it anymore.
Jay: Yeah, we kept it separate for awhile. We wanted to keep the relationship and the music separate.
Jenae: We had both combined those things previously and it did not work out in other situations. But you know, he’d have the guitar out and while we weren’t technically living together, I never left, so when he did I couldn’t help but sing along. So it just kinda went from there.
Jay: Yeah, there was a bar there that we would walk to, literally two blocks away. Denver is beautiful all the time, so we’d go down there and just sit out on the patio and I’d get my guitar out and she’d start singing. People would ask us what we were called, and they’d try to give us money. They say “What is this?” and we’re just like, “Well, we might as well do this.”
Jenae: We found this adorable little house that was up for contract for deed and we decided we were going to get it. We were completely set on it. And of course it fell through because we did not have our ducks in a row. So then we were in a position where we had to decide what to do really fast. So we both quit our jobs and bought an RV and hit the road for the summer.
Jay: We did. We literally went from town to town and busked.
Jenae: Anywhere they would let us.
Jay: We went into this tiny town of Brush, Colorado. It had two bars. One on each end.
Jenae: We went into one and did a shot of tequila, and it was divey and dark. So we went to check out the other one. We go down there and do a shot of tequila and that one was like bright and open. It was nice, but it didn’t have the vibe of the other one. So we went back there and I had just bought my kajon that day and I asked if they minded if we played. There were just a couple guys there, it was after work… happy hour. We ended up staying there most of the night. Everyone was buying drinks. The bar said, “They wouldn’t have stayed here without you.” Before that, I played a hatbox for awhile, with a beaded bracelet wrapped around my fingers…. but that first day really feels like the start. Like, before the cajon what were we even doing?
Jay: We did that until the RV couldn’t go anymore and then we settled back around here.

So, when did you come up with the name? (See Video)

Tell me about your kids.

Jenae: We have two kids. Our oldest is 12 1/2, and his name is Jasper. He goes to a private school in Normal and we love it. He just started there in November. He’s an artist.
Jay: He actually designed the lamp on our merch there.
Jenae: People constantly comment on the lamp. It’s like a third band member.
Jay: If we go to a show and don’t bring it, people start asking. Where’s the lamp?
Jenae: Then our youngest is Ty and he’s three. He’s just, three.
Both: He’s VERY three.
Jenae: He’s got this big blonde hair that everyone comments on, but he won’t let me touch it. It’s very wily. But he loves music and he’s got rhythm like crazy. I was very pregnant with him with we did our EP back in 2016 and he was right up there by the cajon.
Jay: He was there for that whole recording.
Jenae: And it definitely stuck.

Musicians often get the message that the definition of success is playing on a stage in front of tens of thousands of people. I don’t believe that’s true, but everyone has a little bit of a different idea of what it is. What is your definition of success as an artist?
Jenae: I was just thinking about that this morning. It definitly varies from person to person, but we play full time. If someone asks me what I do for a living, I get to say that I play music for a living. That feels really good. It feels like I’m on the right path. For me there is no end point where I can say, “I did it.” It’s always going to be a process. We’re always going to be looking for the next step. Not necessarily up. Right now we are. We’re working on leveling up and broadening our reach across the country and stuff, but there are so many avenues we could take our artistry. Really, I just feel successful because I get to claim this as my job and continue down this career path. I feel blessed and I feel successful with that.
Jay: For me there are two sides to it. On a societal monetary side, we do it full time and keep the kids alive and pay the bills, that’s all we could really ask for. It’s incredible and we’re so grateful for that. But on an interpersonal side, I truly believe this is what I’m supposed to do with my life and I’m able to do it. I’m grateful and I feel so successful that my life and the universe have allowed me to be in a place to do that.
Jenae: We’ve never been so derailed that we’ve had to take other jobs that pull us away from the music. We’ve tried really hard to stay away from that. We’ve had odd jobs here and there to kind of help, but nothing comes before the music as far as making ends meet.
Jay: One other side to this too, is that your kids see what you do. Especially our oldest is 12, and he’s an artist. He sees the struggles we go through pursuing this and we’re leading by example. You can do this. You can be an entrepreneur. You can go after your art. It’s not all rainbows and flowers.
Jenae: And also seeing that’s not like to movies where you’re discovered and suddenly you’re a big star. That’s not how things work, not in the real world and not for many at all. He gets to see us working our tails off in all the different aspects of the business. We talk all the time about all the different hats we have to wear since we are independent musicians. I’m a graphic designer and a marketing manager and doing all of these things… instead of believing that if he’s good enough someone will discover him.

So earlier you talking about how much you love Peoria and the energy when you play here. What do you love about the Peoria music scene?
Jenae: I love the appreciation of the venue owners and the people in the crowd. We play in a lot of different towns and every place has its thing. But we’ve found that people appreciate the artistry. It’s not just about song selection. Of course it helps if you’re playing something people are already familiar with, it seems like we get a lot of
Jay: In Peoria it feels like people want to go out to see a show more than they want to go out to a bar.
Jenae: It’s like they are there for the music. As opposed to being there for the drinks and the music just happens to be there.
Jay: Even when we first started playing here and nobody knew who we were it was that way. It’s a beautiful thing.

It’s interesting that you say that. It’s one of the things that I’ve heard other artists complain about the most, that there isn’t enough of that in Peoria. Part of that has to be that you guys are so entertaining to watch. You obviously sound amazing, but because you are entertaining to watch too, if someone says that Hot Sauce Universe is playing somewhere, nobody is going to ask, “Well what else is going there too?” Do you go places where you aren’t getting that attention, where people are just talking over you?
Both: Wow. Thank you so much!
Jenae: We have definitely dealt with that. Generally any place that has a lot of TVs, we’re competing with that at least a little bit.
Jay: I think what the venue does goes a long way with that. We talked about the lights earlier. If we have the lights turned down before we start, it’s like a subconscious kind of trigger, you know. We also bring our own house music. X amount of time before our set, we have them turn off the jukebox and play our own house music which really helps set the mood. We work with the venue to do that. Ultimately we on a team here, creating an experience for whoever is there.
Jenae: If we walk into a venue that’s playing hair metal, nobody in that place is going to be prepared for what we’re doing. Versus going in and working with the venue to kind of set the tone and get them prepared for us. It’s a warm up. Whatever you play before the live set, changes how people receive the live set.
Jay: Exactly. It’s kind of like when you have a fancy meal you want to cleanse your palete.
Jenae: Or like pair it with the right wine.

I love that. I’ve had this discussion a lot lately and I think sometimes artists are quick to blame the audience for not being receptive, which can absolutely be a problem. But like any problem you tackle a different way, coming at it from an angle of what artists can do to help set the mood and the expectations for a show can be empowering.

What other advice do you have for those who want the audience to receive their music? (See Video)

We’ve talked about the lamp a little, what about the rug. Do you guys take that everywhere too?
Jenae: This might sound like a weird thing, but we travel with our rug because it is our safe space. It sets the tone for us. In fact, we got married on that rug. We had already been playing on it, so of course we were going to get married on the rug.
Jay: Just the other night it was snowing and it was a place we hadn’t been before, and it wasn’t really our scene, and Jenae wasn’t really…
Jenae: I had had a bad couple of mental health days and I was still on the tail end of my funk. The band kind of funk, not the good kind.
Jay: But we got in there and got on the rug and we just knew, this our place. We say that to each other. We can just put everything else down.
Jenae: Not only do we have to put everything else down because it’s time to work, but it’s a safe place for me to put all of that down and not worry about all the other crap, like the evil part of my brain that’s telling me “You suck” or “You’re not good enough.” I can say to my brain, “Time out for a minute. I have to go to work.”
Jay: It’s a good place to work it out.

Let’s talk about your most recent album, “According to Lore”
Jay: Yeah, we are really excited about it and so proud of it.
Jenae: Last summer we entered a drawing to win a free Coffee House Session from Rock Solid Studios, and we happened to win. So that allowed us to put on a live performance in their studio, which is an old chapel so it’s already vibey. (Which is why we were following them.) So we were able to put on a live show and they recorded, mixed, and mastered it. And that’s the chunk that’s really difficult to get the cash together for, especially since we are raising a family. There are not large chunks to set aside.
Jay: It’s not easy to come up with $3000 we can just set aside to record an album.
Jenae: Exactly. And then on top of that we were able to sell tickets to the show to some of our best friends and biggest fans to pay for professional videography from Multimedia Services, which is based in Peoria here. And professional photography from Aaron B Photography out of Bloomington. And so we were able to finish up the songs we had been writing, perform the album we had written, live…
Jay: With people we trusted and knew were into it. Music is magic. As human beings it’s a true magic that we still have access to. It’s all about energy transfer. We’ll feed you some energy and you give us some back. The idea of going into a studio and playing with headphones on to a click track with her singing, that just kills all the magic for us. So we made a pact that everything we did wold be live. Long before we had ever heard of Rock Solid Studios, we knew once we found the right place and the right engineer, we’d book the venue, hire the engineer, and have some fans come in and just sit around and do the album live. That was our plan.
Jenae: And then we won this thing that is exactly that, without having to piece it together. It was perfect timing, just handed to us by the Universe. It was beautiful.
Jay: The night of show was one of the best nights of my life. We got to do what we were looking to do, and everybody was there. It was all these people we love and care about. It was beautiful. And Jimmy. Jimmy at Rock Solid is a magician. He did some amazing work.
When we got the first mix back, we listened to it on the way to a private party and we were just beaming. Hearing it back I was like, “What did we do!?!” It doesn’t sound live. It’s this beautiful studio quality record, but then we still have the applause and stuff on there.
Jay: We’re so grateful that it turned out so good.
Jenae: There is a lot of improvisation going on and I love that we were able to catch that on the album.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?
Jenae: That’s really hard to decide because we have such a wide range. There are a couple of instrumentals, one of his that is just guitar, we have one in French. It’s the last track on the album.
Jay: It’s got a jazzy Bossa Nova thing. And it was written originally as a joke that we just adlibbed on stage one time.
Jenae: It’s a phrase that I roughly translated when I was obsessed with French in high school. The phrase I thought was funny, so I did a rough translation and that was my thing. I would write it places. Then one day he was playing this great thing and I started singing these words over it, and people who heard it started requesting it at shows! I was like really? The French song?
Jay: It started as a joke, but now it’s on the album. As far as favorites go, it’s hard to choose. Ain’t Got The Right is cool because of the lyric. It’s for anyone who’s been oppressed in any way. It’s about empowerment. Interdimentional had a guitar section in there that I wrote that just really challenged me technically and musically on the instrument.
Jenae: It’s hard to clap to. It has a lot of different elements. We pushed ourselves and we like it a lot. Darkest Days is one that we wrote, that like, really gets us in the feels. It was written specifically about my struggles with mental health and suicidal depression and all of that, but the way that it comes in an affects our relationship. We were sitting there one night, I was recovering from having my wisdom teeth pulled. We were discussing what should go on the album. And he played the chord progression and talked about a basic idea of dark days, like dark mental health days. And then all of this just came pouring out. We wrote some things down and didn’t touch it until a month later, at the recording. We decided it would just be whatever ends up coming through on the album.

I love those kinds of songs, like Darkest Days, where you aren’t necessarily fixing anything. You’re just saying, “This is what is going on.” and the people listening can say, “I feel ya, I’ve been there, and I’m so glad that I’m normal.”
Jenae: That one is hard to play live. There’s a different feeling at a show and frankly, I’ve been doing really well lately. So it’s harder to get that emotion in there. It’s a tough one to recreate live.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing all of this with me. I really had a lot of fun with you guys! I’ve got 10 questions here for you before we wrap up. I’m just looking for answers off the top of your heads.

What’s your favorite food?
(At the same time) Jenae: Hot sauce Jay: Pizza
Jenae: Hot sauce on pizza?
Jay: There ya’ go. Yeah!

What food could I not pay you to eat?
Jenae: Liver
Jay: Yeah, something like that

What popular song you could live the rest of your life without hearing again?
Jenae: The terrible versions of the pop songs they put at the end of every Disney movie. A terrible version of what once was a good song. Autotuned. Blech.
Jay: I’ve really been hating on Bob Seger lately.

Favorite Peoria Landmark?
Jenae: The riverfront.
Jay: Definitely the riverfront. And the bridge too. Just coming into town.
Jenae: We like Peoria a lot. We get a good feeling just coming into town.

What is something you wish Peoria had more of?
Jenae: Hot Sauce Universe shows?
Jay: Yeah. I love it.

What is something you wish Peoria had less of?
Both: Crime.

Favorite swearword?
Jay: Fuck.
Jenae: Yeah.

If success was guaranteed, and you had to pick another profession, what would it be?
Jenae: Some kind of psychology.
Jay: A cook.

Name another local artist I should have in for an interview.
Jenae: First that comes to mind is Black Velvet
Jay: Chris Tarpley. Ridgeracer.
(Side note, they named others, but I’m just going with the first ones or everyone would name everyone, every time! Local musicians LOVE to give shout outs to each other!)

If you could choose a superpower what would it be?
Jenae: Teleportation
Jay: I’d probably read minds. It’s the scariest one because it comes with so much power.

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