Jay Kalk

Jay Kalk, AKA Jay Ernest, AKA Jayder (born January 11, 1975) is an American and International touring and recording artist formerly based out of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Honolulu, who currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He has recorded and performed with many artists such as Go Jimmy Go, Warsaw Poland Brothers, and 3 Minute Hero.

His most recent endeavor, Church of Cash, is a Johnny Cash Tribute show.

Jay Kalk was born in New Ulm, Minnesota and raised on a farm with his mother, father and two younger brothers.

With the money he made from bailing hay and other farm work in the summer of 1988, he bought his first Guitar.

Throughout the years of 1989 - 1993 he and his friends formed a band called Silly Pudgy.

Kalk also performed with an a cappella group called One Way who performed at the Minnesota State Fair in 1992 and 1993.

In high school he focused on his voice by taking vocal lessons and being involved with the choir available.

He earned a spot on the Minnesota All-State Men's choir in the summer of 1992 under the direction of Carl Stam.

Kalk attended college at Morehead State University where he studied Music Performance with and emphasis on voice.

He studied voice with Charles Ruzicka and was very involved with the choir program.

In 1995, along with some friends who were fans of Ska music, assembled the band 3 Minute Hero for which he played guitar.

The band rapidly grew to local fame and recorded their first album at Raptor Studios in 1997.

Soon after the release of their first album "Bingo," Barking Dog Records of Fargo, North Dakota, signed the band and set them out to tour in support of their album.

The band won a bus at the Battle of the Bands at the Old Broadway bar later that year to use as their vehicle to tour.

In 1998 they released their second album called "Everyday Ninjas", which the band promoted vigorously touring around the upper Midwest garnering their first Minnesota Music Award.

3MH opened for such acts as Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Styx, Hootie & the Blowfish, Warsaw, Béla Fleck, Fishbone, and The Living End.

In 1999, the band left Barking Dog Records to record an album under their own direction and hired Alex Oana to produce and record their third album, "Operation Brown Star".

In the same year the band won their second Minnesota Music Award.

After 800 shows and 3 albums, the band broke up on October 11, 2000.

In September 2001, Kalk moved to Los Angeles and joined the band Warsaw Poland Brothers on the Bass guitar.

It was the beginning of his career with Warsaw that he received the nickname "Jayder" from Jesse "Monkeybone" Ribyat, jokingly combining "Jay" with his Midwest accented phrase, "Hey There".

The band toured 275 days a year from NYC to Waikiki and earned the underground reputation as the hardest working band in America.

They have opened for such bands while Kalk was aboard like: Aquabats, and Bay City Rollers.

In the Summer of 2003, Warsaw was the headlining act of the Tour de Fat, which had 13 dates in the Southwest States.Warsaw is sponsored by Jägermeister and played the Arizona date of the Jägermeister Music Tour opening for Alterbridge in 2004.

Kalk recorded only one complete album with WSP, called "First to Fight" and appeared on 3 other albums which are released under Invisible Mass Records.

Kalk quit the band in May 2005 after 1000 shows.

Needing some time off after touring with Warsaw, Kalk moved to Phoenix, Arizona.

Kalk took his expertise and years of experience in music and started a record label called Jayder Records.

Kalk started the record company seeking an opportunity for himself and his musician friends to have full creative control over their intellectual property.

He teamed up with Sara McAllister and played many shows in the Phoenix area.

They enlisted the help of Jesse "Monkeybone" Ribyat and Camron Tuttle, (former musicians from Warsaw Poland Brothers) and also Mike "Madman" Madson (formally of the Mad Caddies) to record Sara McAllisters first album called "Pheetown Girl".

The album was the produced and was released on Kalk's label, Jayder Records.

Kalk was also involved in an electro/rock group called Army of Robots who played locally around Arizona and did small tours.

AoR submitted a recording and won recording time at The Document room in Malibu, California where they recorded two songs.

In 2007 Kalk moved to Hawaii to join the legendary ska band, Go Jimmy Go.

After moving there, GJG recorded their 3rd album (first album with Kalk), called "Holiday Hell Yeah", which was commissioned by the Japanese record label, Ska in the World.

Kalk went on tour to Europe in support of the "Holiday" album with the help of Bucket from The Toasters.

GJG toured through Spain, Belgium, Germany and Denmark.

That year GJG was nominated for a Hoku Award for Best Holiday Album.