Who?
Who?
Firstly, this isn't a biography because that would imply that I'm actually important enough for someone else to write about. Lets not pretend, this is an autobiography. In other words, no one fucking knows who I am. And Hell, maybe that's a blessing in disguise.
jaSon and The Sonic Frontier is my realistic manifestation, through music and visual art, of a fantasy that I am somebody. This is why Art is freedom. While everyone else says 'No! I don't get it! Too Loud! Too complicated! Too self indulgent!' Art, when you come to it simply says..."Yes, whatever you like. The canvas is yours to soil with colour and the stage is yours' to undress yourself and show." And this, I suppose, is why I love Art. I feel like it loves me, enfolds me, lavishes me, and understands me. Welcomes me. So, I imagine this Art journey and quest is a Sonic Frontier of possibility rife with plot twists, romance, hate, love, anger, redemptions, and of course danger. Sometimes I'm the narrator, sometimes I'm the main character, and sometimes I don't know who or what I am, but I can feel myself in the sound, somewhere in the music my spirit has been amplified. This is jaSon and the Sonic Frontier.
How?
I am a solo singer/composer/arranger. I use a diverse and talented array of hired guns to back myself up for live show performances simply because I prefer creative control, and therefore I spend money in exchange for saving time and heartache trying to recruit a permanent band which for 99.9 percent of Artists ends in miserable and hateful failure. I'm not even sure bands really exist anymore. At least in LA, everyone here thinks so much of themselves they don't have time to join a band because they're all going to be famous all on their own... Yeah, how's that been going for ya?
Although I'm mainly a solo artist, it would be completely untrue to say I don't collaborate on music, because I do. I work with a producer, Jerry Andrews of Zonasound, Long Beach, who has powerful compositions I have sometimes arrange and write lyrics to and have recently collaborated Jerry on a concept Pandemic Soundtrack album called, Unknown. Jerry is a musical soul brother. We understand one another and therefore the collabs we do are very organic, but even so, I notoriously have to have creative control over everything to curate and guide our projects to a satisfactory conclusion. Creative control need not be equitable, but merely honest. Most producers would consider this bombastic and savage, or intolerably above my lothly station as an independent artist, but Jerry is one of the most genuine and self removed artists I know. For him, its not about the ego, or who does what, its about... the Art, and the journey. He allows me to tweak and push and pull things in the direction I want to go. Without Jerry's own freedom to express his artistry and creative thinking, I could not have released any of the music under my Sonic Frontier record label with the same level of sonic quality, integrity, and creative contribution that he lends to my work and our colabs. Think David Bowie and Tony Visconti, and you'll understand.
What?
The music is carefully recorded and digitally edited on Pro Tools with great care from concept to production, and mastering. Its acceptable for a piece of work to be not 'perfect', but it must be "perfectly imperfect," by creative and intentional decision making. The sacrifice in this approach is time... I take a looong time to make my work, but I'd rather have three gut punching albums that shock, surprise, and titillate the senses than ten pieces of shit with a pretty cover everyone will forget before the songs even end. I put out Art, and you may not like it, but the quality and intention is Un-De-Ni-a-Ble.
The music from Sonic Frontier takes on different manifestations and I am NOT a one genre maestro. I do whatever I want and I make it up as I go! I create music to capture a feeling that stirs my own soul first, then, put it out there for others to consider, and ultimately let it go and move on to something new. Naturally, like all things known, my goal is to continue to grow and evolve as an artist. As the world continues to change so shall my sound.
Where?
I resides in Los Angeles, California, and sometimes I create under the moniker Mr. Corazon, which was a character in a musical I wrote and performed in Los Angeles entitled, The Misfortune of Others. But these days jaSon or jsonic, is just fine.
The pandemic has not stopped my music production but only FUELED my artistic fever to ignite an inferno that would burn most other artists to a cinder like the breath of the Dragon were they to look at it whole and complete in a single glance. Two new full albums shall be released in the Spring of 2021 along with an award winning music video I shot and edited myself called Dying Light.
Why..............?
Being an artist is a way of life. Its a calling and a responsibility. Its a religion in which you are God. It is up to you to create the universe in which you want to exist. Its a terrible responsibility, seduction of control, understanding of the worlds around you, a sojourn into isolation, and the ultimate confrontation of your greatest fear.