“Keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Bio
Now a singer-songwriter calling a cheap room for rent in Boulder home, as a child growing up in the rural countryside north of Baltimore, Jason may not have seemed like one pegged to become an aspiring musician. Complaining at the sight of seeing his older brother and sister happily immersed in the musical sounds coming from their headphones, he stood dourly perplexed as to what the big deal was all about. That was until the music bug bit—and bit deep—at the still ripe age of 13 and he saw the error of his carping ways, at least as far as obsessing about music was concerned.
Taking a guitar class in 8th grade to try and weasel his way out of playing the trumpet (Sorry Mr. Martin, I love you!), he fell in love with the subtle voice of the guitar. Not long after, he was generously gifted his first electric guitar by his parents for Christmas, and he was all in from there. It was like being given a gift to be himself and explore his inner world.
By a fortunate stroke of cosmic coincidence, Jason entered adolescence while grunge music still dominated airwaves, and he insatiably soaked in the awe-inducing sounds of bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. His Uncle Matt introduced him to the otherworldly genius of Jimi Hendrix, old blues guitarists, and bands like Led-Zeppelin, leaving him eager to learn what little he could from the pantheon of guitar gods. His parents filled the house and car rides with great music such as from The Beatles and John Denver, planting vigorous seeds of adoration and wonder for impossibly beautiful songs. His exploration of music of the past was further fueled upon discovering Jeff Buckley in high school, opening his ears to new worlds of harmonic and expressive possibilities, and giving rise to an interest in jazz, folk, soul, and classical traditions.
Musicians like Jeff Buckley, Peter Gabriel, Sarah Mclachlan, and Chris Cornell also inspired Jason to delve into songwriting, and explore his singing voice when nobody else was around. Recording onto cassettes with his analog 4-track, he first tasted the joys of creating recorded musical textures, with his adolescent mind generating songs he now prays are forever lost to the world—or at least to the five people who listen to his music. But under the influence of such powerful songwriters, he came to relate with the guitar as being primarily a vehicle for songwriting and accompanying the voice, while writing occasional solo guitar/instrumental pieces.
Many years later and Jason remains under the orbital, compelling influence of a diverse array of musical artists. He continually tries setting his best efforts to make some sense of the highs and lows of existence to a persistent wanderlust for new harmonic territories and guitar riffs. Jason wrote this bio in the third person, and thanks you deeply for sharing in the love of music.
I am Jason, and I say: Thank you so much!!!