Jay was born in Plymouth, England, the son of two folk musicians,[2] his mother Hilary from Newcastle upon Tyne and his father Tony from Wolverhampton.
[3] Jay played bass in his parents folk band with his brother Eddy, and began song writing his own material at the age of 15.
Watson had been in several bands in the past including Pookah Makes Three and Twelfth Night, and was currently half of the ambient electronic duo International Peoples Gang (IPG) with Ric Peet as well as working as an A&R agent.
He later recruited former Six by Seven guitarist Sam Hempton, who features on album track Remember This Feeling,[11] and keyboardist Olli Cunningham for live work.
Press soon drew comparisons between Jay and such musicians as Nick Drake, Elliott Smith,[12] Jeff Buckley and David Gray.
Suggesting there were problems with the label earlier, a couple of months after the release of Draw Jay warned on stage prior to playing his then-upcoming single Please Don't Send Me Away that "you've got to make this go Top 75 at least, or else I'll get dropped".
During this time he worked with a number of established songwriters on songs which remain unreleased, including Guy Chambers on the song Waiting For The Weekend,[20] Tim Hawes and Pete Kirtley on She's At It Again and Naked[21] and Busted songwriting team Steve Robson, John McLaughlin, Charlie Simpson and James Bourne on She Knows.
Commenting on the split from EMI, Jay's by then-former manager Watson stated that "I think that it's a real shame how things have turned out ... we were onto a winner but somehow the project lost its way.
[23] Jay's album and single releases were the last to be issued via Food, before the label was wound down and subsumed into Parlophone after EMI took full control.
Shortly after parting ways with EMI, Jay returned to his parents home in Abergavenny having seemingly decided to abandon the music industry.
Jay then moved to London to study for a master's degree in Audio Production at the University of Westminster,[24][23] and continued working on material for his second album.
In the early hours of 25 September 2003, Jay fell from a flat on St Pauls Avenue in Willesden, North London.
In 2005, his parents issued an appeal for Mahmoud Rahman, an acquaintance of Jay's who visited the flat on the night, believed to be the last person to speak to him to contact them or the police.
However, they were later contacted by KPM, which was at the time a division of EMI which provided soundtracks worldwide for film, TV and advertising who wanted to complete Jay's unfinished work.
Vasco commented that "having done my best to arrange the songs in the manner suggested by what had been left behind, I stood poised with the rest of the band, guitar in hand ready to record as the count-in came over the headphones.
[23] The works met similar critical acclaim to Jay's earlier releases, securing airplay on key radio stations, and a high ranking in respected music publications, including Q, who made "She Didn't Understand" their track of the Day.