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Before unleashing his talent on the
new grounds of Sydney
in THE REAL THING U2 SHOW and THE ROBBIE WILLIAMS SHOW-BORN TO ENTERTAIN,
Jason had a widely skilled past.
He started out in his first band after
only weeks of playing his first electric guitar. The influence of an
eclectic assortment of rock, metal, punk and pop artists helped to hohn his skills.
DIFFERENT BREED, a gathering of 8 school friends who were all part
of an outcast society, being musicians in a "football" school,
practiced regularly at home, school and rehearsal spaces.
Towards the end of schooling Jason whittled his cohorts to Ben Stenzel on drums and Kevin Bernicke
on bass. They played first gigs with help of newly discovered vocalist Matt
Newnham.
S.A.D.F. drew rave reviews for its diverse performances including
Queen’s I Want To Break Free and Alice In Chains’ Man In The Box. However,
the band became short lived.
Kevin left and Matt joined Jason's
friend and sometime DIFFERENT BREED vocalist, drummer Barry Mason,
in the dynamic rock quartet VAGABONDS.
BEHOLDER saw Jason and Ben tackle new songs
with a new second guitarist Kris Singleton and bass player Nathan
Dwyer.
Attracted by the group’s performance of Alice In Chains material was
media student vocalist Tom Taylor who wanted to "give it a
go".
Nathan was later to be replaced by former DIFFERENT BREED 2nd
drummer Eddie Grant and Tom by a high performance and
experienced singer, Ben Stace.
WRITHE was a doppelganger for the music of Ozzy
Osbourne, Guns 'N' Roses and Skid Row.
With a couple of explosive gigs behind them, the volatile band was finding
itself branching out and new people and music influences separated the core
of what had existed for some 6 years.
Jason's right hand man Ben Stenzel was to branch
into heavier aspects of the metal scene along with Kris and newly found
friend, vocalist John Atley.
DUSKORTURE saw Jason joining the three in a
death metal sideshow. The others had recorded a song included on a compilation
album and a CD launch show was played at the Roxy
in Brisbane.
With his help, some more songs were written and DUSKORTURE were featured in
the local newspaper and played at a new music club in town.
Jason kept in contact and jammed with
Ben Stace, who had joined the shortly lived band Cudd, and Eddie Grant but the energy of the early days
could not be captured without Ben Stenzel.
1995 saw Jason working in a local music shop providing recorded music,
instruments and music tuition until the stores eventual close early the
next year.
During this time he managed to purchase a handy new tool, a Yamaha 4 track
recorder, from friend Andrew Hoffman who was a former contender for
Beholder bass player.
Jason had always recorded his music from day one, now he could create Den
Of Iniquity Studios. Many new demos were recorded over the next months.
REPOMAN was an electric mayhem too ahead of its time to be accepted
by the inebriated conservatives. Jason, Kris and John molested the innards
of a Roland drum machine and Boss effects board and mixed metal with dance
music. The sound that is so prominent and copied now did not know how to be
received by an audience, not to mention the 6 foot pink rabbit.
The band invested in recording studio time to deliver a demo of a couple of
songs to misguided youth radio station "Triple J" for its
Unearthed competition.
Jason also invested in a Alesis
Drum Sample machine and Roland Workstation keyboard during his time with
the band and taught himself how to play and program.
SOUTH PARKE began the collaboration of Jason and
Barry Mason. Along with bassist John Turnbull, they appeared at a
laughable local music soiree at the Empire Theatre.
The quirkiness and originality of the
pop band was lost once again on the public and they received a second place
in the "alternate" category and
some movie tickets for their trouble.
After this Jason and Barry organized a
gigging band in 2000.
THR3E was the be all and end all of cover bands. Armed with the new
talents of keyboard programming, Jason could now reproduce artist's
material in a live context with real drums and bass player. He and Barry
could bring to life the works of Peter Gabriel, Queen, Toto, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Alanis
Morrisette, Madonna, Bon Jovi,
U2 and Van Halen, while still playing top ten
hits and popular rock numbers by Tool, GNR, Pearl Jam, Limp Bizkit, RATM, Kiss, No Doubt and RHCP. Not to forget
the ever present crowd favourite "Eye Of The
Tiger" by Survivor.
Jason and Barry's commitment saw a revolving roster of bass players who
tried to keep up. This lead them to refer to
themselves as the "Spinal Tap of bass players", as the legendary
band had its noted trouble itself with keeping a drummer for any length of
time.
Some time along the way, Australian living, Manchester born ex State Of Quo
bass player Tony Lingard approached Barry who was working at Royce Music
House about THR3E doing some Status Quo songs for a tribute album. This
was a catalyst that would provide handy in the future.
COUNTERFEIT QUO saw Jason and Barry become both
session musicians and producers with both tackling different mixes of the
tracks "Shady Lady" and cracking b-side "Lonely".
Recording was done mostly as a live take
on a Saturday afternoon inside Royce's. After recording on a stand alone
hard disk multi-track recorder, without the luxury of digital in/out, Jason
had to painstakingly record the tracks manually back into his pc
multi-track and edit them so they synched up. This allowed for the stand
alone to be placed back on display in the guitar shop by Monday.
Barry later had British rock legend Jim Nairn come in and record
his vocals.
Jason added some keys to
"Lonely" to get the big "everybody coming out into the
street" outro. The whole thing was sent off to Europe
where it will someday see the light of day.
After completing recording of some original THR3E songs, Barry moved himself to Melbourne. Jason continued working with
prodigious young bassist Flynn McPherson. He had joined the band for
its last few live gigs and the recording. Jason programmed drum parts and
new songs to possibly perform as a two piece or with a new drummer.
However, the spontaneous factors were not there and it was hard to juggle
night shift duties with recreating the Frankensteinal
offerings of THR3E.Tony asked Jason if he would like to come and jam with a
band he was working with doing 70's rock covers. The idea of getting out
from behind the keyboards and playing some classic lead guitar sounded
pretty good, so Jason took up the call.....
FATT became the premier rock band in the region for the next few
years.
Jason joined enigmatic front man Grover and the huge fat rhythm
section of Tony on bass, Jeff Smith on drums and the
irrepressible Wayne Palmer on rhythm guitar.
They delivered a punch that no other
pub band could. Australian classics by legends such as AC/DC, The Angels
and Rose Tattoo were mixed with 70's glam of Queen, David Bowie and The
Sweet. Tony left the band after a decent innings and moved to Melbourne. The guys
soldiered on, even allowing Wayne
to play bass at one stage, until Mark came along and rejuvenated the band
once again with an even fatter low end thanks to a tight rig and a 5 string
bass. He also brought his computer skills and a brand new website.
Jason moved to Sydney,
joining THE ROBBIE WILLIAMS SHOW-BORN TO
ENTERTAIN and THE REAL THING U2 SHOW in July 2006.
His original material is constantly
being constructed in his pc based home studio The Den Of Iniquity.
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