Jay and Vanessa had met at a recording studio in West Cumbria in 1995. Vanessa had already been doing session work for several years providing outstanding harmonised vocals for many artists who had recorded their works there in addition to providing jingles for TV and radio. Vanessa had been vocally trained since the age of 6 and she had won over 25 classical and folk singing competitions in the UK in the 80s and 90s. She also stared as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar in the UK, in addition to other theatrical productions such as Reverse View at the Rose Hill Theatre.
Jay was pursuing a solo career and he had been writing his own material for several years. He had worked on a self-published album in 1995 featuring Arthur Belcher who was the saxophonist when Gerry Raffertys performed his hit single Baker Street live on the Whistle Test.
The couple took a break from the music industry in 2006 when their daughter was born. Jay continued to write and produce music on a part time basis, in addition to pursuing other business interests.
In 2012 Jay was with Izzy Stradlin, the original rhythm guitarist of acclaimed rock band Guns n Roses and around this time he met Marco Mendoza, Scott Gorham and David Johnson from Thin Lizzy at the O2 in London. It was the meeting with Izzy Stradlin and the visit to the 02 which inspired jay to start the project and, soon after, Jericho Summer was born. Jay developed the genre for the Jericho Summer material and with some material already produced back in the 90s, he contacted his old producer in the studio where he had met Vanessa 20 years ago. They then decided to use this studio to record the Night Train album where they had originally met.
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