Jason took some time to talk with me and answer questions about his music and what he’s been working on.
Q: First of all, what got you started in music?
A: I grew up taking piano lessons and all that good stuff when I was in kindergarten all through high school and all that stuff, so I just kind of grew up having lessons and all that junk. When I got into high school, so I was about sixteen I picked up the guitar and started you know, falling in love with rock music and certain bands and stuff. Got the itch to start my own band and just kind of progressed from there.
Q: What is a song that means something really special to you?
A: Oh gosh, I don’t know. I’ve been in a bunch of different bands. Lately I’ve been going through my whole catalog listening to all my old songs like 12, 13 years ago and some were pretty dang embarrassing when you think about them. Some of them were like; oh I remember that one that was cool. One in particular, I don’t know my last set of songs I did for my Now Is the Winter EP, I’m pretty proud of those because I haven’t been doing much solo stuff real long. It’s only been just about a year, year and a half or so, so I don’t have a lot of those songs. A lot of sentimental attachment to them I guess, is my old, old stuff, but none of my new songs. There’s a song called Looking for You, I like that one a lot and a song called Mountains also that’s on my new EP, that one’s connected to a lot I think lyrically. Those are probably my two that I still connect really well with.
Q: If you could write with any artist, who would it be?
A: My favorite band of all time is Smashing Pumpkins so I would love to write with Billy Corgan. That’s how I originally learned how to write songs, by listening to his music, basically wanted to have my own version of the Smashing Pumpkins. So I would love to write with him, Billy Corgan.
Q: You had a song on a TV show called Private Practice so other than that, is there any TV shows that you’d love to hear one of your songs on?
A: Oh I don’t know. I mean probably Practice again would be cool or Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy would be pretty cool. First of all, a lot of artists get a lot of exposure from that show, so that would be a pretty cool thing.
Q: Social networking wise, how do you communicate with fans? What social networks do you have?
A: I use mainly Facebook and Twitter. I still have a MySpace, but there’s not much activity there anymore. Usually Facebook and Twitter, and even my own website is my gateway to all of my other, you know, Facebook and Twitter and all those different social networks areas.
Q: Last year you released an EP so what have you been working on now?
A: I’ve been doing mixing for other artists like mixing other people’s albums and stuff. So I’ve been doing that some and I’m getting ready to start writing for another EP that I’ll have sometime this summer, probably another four or five songs. So that’s kind of the goal to do that next, so hopefully we have that out. I’m not real sure when but this summer hopefully in the next few months.
Q: Are there any charities that you support currently?
A: Yeah there’s a bunch. We have one in town that I help a lot; it’s called Music for the City. It’s a group of musicians and artists that kind of like band together. We volunteer at a children’s shelter together once a month and we’ll have concerts together to raise money for lots of different causes in town. One that is kind of national one is a Convoy of Hope; it’s a real good one. Especially cause I’m from Springfield, Missouri originally, and like John Lennon is like forty-five minutes from there just seeing the devastation from recent tornadoes. It’s been effective quite a bit giving money to Convoy of Hope caused they’re based out of Springfield, Missouri and they’re one of the main ones trying to rebuild the city and help provide help to all the people who lost their homes and family members and stuff. So that’s a good one also.