Jason Shand: My Musical Journey
- Written by Jason Shand
I had such an eclectic musical background that it took me sometime to figure out what front I wanted to present sonically. As a child, I can remember my mom playing these artists that had an early impact on me:
Shirley Bassey… her cover of The Beatles’ ‘Something’ was a song I wanted to hear over and over again. She had such a unique vocal full of character. I think Shirley may have unknowingly planted that seed of wanting to be a singer in my head.
Michael Jackson… anything he did fascinated me… but mom would have me sing ‘Ben’ to many of her friends who would visit. The melodies of the Jacksons and the vocals of Michael always caught my fancy.
Tom Jones… I loved his theatrical showmanship and I loved his voice. Mom played a lot of his music.
Donna Summer… I absolutely loved her. Amazing voice, a fantastic production behind her, and phenomenal songs. Mom would constantly play ‘A Love Trilogy’ in our house.
And then I remember my cousin Cindy moving into our house and she introduced me to Queen and the Eagles. So I would pin that as when my rock sensibilities started to take shape.
Then moving to England for a couple years pretty much changed my life musically in a big way. It’s there where I discovered British rock, punk rock, The Police, The Pretenders… but on the flip side of that, I also got into Abba. Their melodies, their song writing, how those women could sing.
But it wasn’t until I heard U2’s ‘Bad’ - that was pretty much the defining moment when I said to myself that I wanted to do that… I wanted to be a singer. The way Bono sang with such passion and how the arrangements of the music allowed him to soar, yet the music was still just as essential as his vocal. It sounded like a symphony to me and I wanted that. Not that I would act on this right away, but hearing that song, I remember consciously saying to myself that singing is what I wanted to do. I just had no idea how I was going to accomplish it, but that was the moment.
Though my mother did play piano in the household, and she was fantastic at it - she just did that as a hobby. I was not surrounded by any musicians or artists in my childhood or college years so I really didn’t really have anyone encouraging me to explore this artistic part of myself. It was only after college when I was able to summon the courage to put myself out there. It was only then when I started to be verbal about this desire which I kept to myself prior.
After graduating from college, I moved back to NYC and the urge to explore the possibility of being a singer was full on. I auditioned for a band and the audition was horrendous because I practiced so much that I lost my voice by the time of the audition. In those days I didn’t know about singing from the diaphragm, it was all throat. But doing that audition was a fantastic experience. I moved to Boston and auditioned for this rock band of very seasoned musicians along with 150 other people, and this band picked me based on my raw talent, but took me under one condition - that I get voice lessons.
So in my first band ever, I was headlining from the get-go. I was cramming learning how to sing, how to be a frontman, and learning about music and songwriting at the same time. I lucked out in that the songwriter for the band was a very very good one. Without even realizing it, I soaked up the art of song writing.
I would be in this Boston rock band for five years, we’d get signed to shitty deal with a British independent label and that went kaput before we knew it. But during this time in the band, I had only composed one song. Otherwise, all the writing was done for me and I would just show up and sing. It was a great learning experience but what sucked was that I wasn’t taken seriously in regards to my musical opinions. I had no musical background and I was surrounded by guys who went to Berkeley and Oberlin.
But over the years in this band I guess the artist inside me started to assert himself. We were in a guitar heavy rock band and I found myself wanting to hear strings. I found myself wanting arrangements that would allow me to shine. I just wasn’t very good at expressing myself clearly. But I loved what Seal was doing. I loved what Peter Gabriel was doing. I loved that you could hear their voices. I loved that their voices were the centerpiece of the production. That’s what I wanted for myself.
I reached the point with the band that I was too frustrated with the way things were. I was bored. And perhaps they were bored with me as well. It was a mutual parting of the ways. I remember having a migraine because I was leaving the only band I’d ever been in. At that point, I had only written one song. What was I going to do? And that very week, out of nowhere, I wrote probably six or seven songs. They just flooded out of me. And the songs were good. I knew I would be OK after this happened.
I found a producer in Boston and recorded an EP that had rock elements but also some dance elements as well. I then moved to NYC all cocksure with the intention of shopping this EP to labels very certain that I would get a record deal. But then Neil Finn’s ‘Try Whistling This’ stopped me dead in my tracks. I remember listening to his album on the bus ride from Boston to NYC and there was such an organic truth to his music. I decided that sonically, I wasn’t there yet. I still had not found myself musically.
But I moved to NYC, and I had to start all over again having left my music world behind in Boston. Until this day, I will never understand what pulled me back to NYC. I had a whole life in Boston. I had a whole musical foundation there. But something pulled me back to NYC and for better or worse, I decided to stick it out.
I slowly met some musicians and started to put the pieces together. I would record an EP that I would never release. I remember putting a band of really good musicians together but they all quit on me because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was still figuring myself out, and truth be told, I probably needed a musical director back then.
Enter drummer/music arrangerJohn Clancy. A singer friend of mine connected John and me and we met at The Coffee Shop in Union Square. He understood me. He believed in me. And we’ve been working together ever since. I think meeting Clancy was pivotal for me. He was so professional and so good and he inspired me to aim high.
I started gigging again in NYC and it was a fantastic feeling to finally be doing this again as a solo artist. I would release an EP in 2004 that Clancy produced. Though it was so professionally well done, it still wasn’t where I wanted to be sonically. I wasn’t happy with it and I don’t blame John for that. I was still figuring myself out. And Clancy would go onto big things on Broadway being nominated for two Tony awards for ‘Best Orchestration’ for the plays ‘Fun Home’ and ‘Mean Girls’.
It would take me 10 years of going to friends’ concerts, writing, recording and experimenting, before I was ready to release my first full length album Because of Zeeva. Through Clancy, I was finally able to put the right band together. A band where all the players for the most part instinctively knew what I wanted. By this time I was a full-fledged songwriter. And I had a clearer vision of myself as an artist.
Releasing Zeeva was such a great accomplishment for me. I can’t believe I stuck with it through a decade of ups and downs and many doubts. I’d been through so much that after I released Zeeva, though I began gigging again, I did not promote the album at all. It was like I just needed a big exhale. I enjoyed the live shows but didn’t have it in me to take it a step further. So I guess that album was just for me and my friends.
Since Zeeva, I’ve been very prolific in my song writing. And now here I am five years later with The Petty Narcissist. It’s a very personal album and it’s the best material I’ve ever written. I’ve come a long way both as a singer and a songwriter, and I am ready to take this album a step further.
I’m not going to just exhale and relax on this one.
Shirley Bassey… her cover of The Beatles’ ‘Something’ was a song I wanted to hear over and over again. She had such a unique vocal full of character. I think Shirley may have unknowingly planted that seed of wanting to be a singer in my head.
Michael Jackson… anything he did fascinated me… but mom would have me sing ‘Ben’ to many of her friends who would visit. The melodies of the Jacksons and the vocals of Michael always caught my fancy.
Tom Jones… I loved his theatrical showmanship and I loved his voice. Mom played a lot of his music.
Donna Summer… I absolutely loved her. Amazing voice, a fantastic production behind her, and phenomenal songs. Mom would constantly play ‘A Love Trilogy’ in our house.
And then I remember my cousin Cindy moving into our house and she introduced me to Queen and the Eagles. So I would pin that as when my rock sensibilities started to take shape.
Then moving to England for a couple years pretty much changed my life musically in a big way. It’s there where I discovered British rock, punk rock, The Police, The Pretenders… but on the flip side of that, I also got into Abba. Their melodies, their song writing, how those women could sing.
But it wasn’t until I heard U2’s ‘Bad’ - that was pretty much the defining moment when I said to myself that I wanted to do that… I wanted to be a singer. The way Bono sang with such passion and how the arrangements of the music allowed him to soar, yet the music was still just as essential as his vocal. It sounded like a symphony to me and I wanted that. Not that I would act on this right away, but hearing that song, I remember consciously saying to myself that singing is what I wanted to do. I just had no idea how I was going to accomplish it, but that was the moment.
Though my mother did play piano in the household, and she was fantastic at it - she just did that as a hobby. I was not surrounded by any musicians or artists in my childhood or college years so I really didn’t really have anyone encouraging me to explore this artistic part of myself. It was only after college when I was able to summon the courage to put myself out there. It was only then when I started to be verbal about this desire which I kept to myself prior.
After graduating from college, I moved back to NYC and the urge to explore the possibility of being a singer was full on. I auditioned for a band and the audition was horrendous because I practiced so much that I lost my voice by the time of the audition. In those days I didn’t know about singing from the diaphragm, it was all throat. But doing that audition was a fantastic experience. I moved to Boston and auditioned for this rock band of very seasoned musicians along with 150 other people, and this band picked me based on my raw talent, but took me under one condition - that I get voice lessons.
So in my first band ever, I was headlining from the get-go. I was cramming learning how to sing, how to be a frontman, and learning about music and songwriting at the same time. I lucked out in that the songwriter for the band was a very very good one. Without even realizing it, I soaked up the art of song writing.
I would be in this Boston rock band for five years, we’d get signed to shitty deal with a British independent label and that went kaput before we knew it. But during this time in the band, I had only composed one song. Otherwise, all the writing was done for me and I would just show up and sing. It was a great learning experience but what sucked was that I wasn’t taken seriously in regards to my musical opinions. I had no musical background and I was surrounded by guys who went to Berkeley and Oberlin.
But over the years in this band I guess the artist inside me started to assert himself. We were in a guitar heavy rock band and I found myself wanting to hear strings. I found myself wanting arrangements that would allow me to shine. I just wasn’t very good at expressing myself clearly. But I loved what Seal was doing. I loved what Peter Gabriel was doing. I loved that you could hear their voices. I loved that their voices were the centerpiece of the production. That’s what I wanted for myself.
I reached the point with the band that I was too frustrated with the way things were. I was bored. And perhaps they were bored with me as well. It was a mutual parting of the ways. I remember having a migraine because I was leaving the only band I’d ever been in. At that point, I had only written one song. What was I going to do? And that very week, out of nowhere, I wrote probably six or seven songs. They just flooded out of me. And the songs were good. I knew I would be OK after this happened.
I found a producer in Boston and recorded an EP that had rock elements but also some dance elements as well. I then moved to NYC all cocksure with the intention of shopping this EP to labels very certain that I would get a record deal. But then Neil Finn’s ‘Try Whistling This’ stopped me dead in my tracks. I remember listening to his album on the bus ride from Boston to NYC and there was such an organic truth to his music. I decided that sonically, I wasn’t there yet. I still had not found myself musically.
But I moved to NYC, and I had to start all over again having left my music world behind in Boston. Until this day, I will never understand what pulled me back to NYC. I had a whole life in Boston. I had a whole musical foundation there. But something pulled me back to NYC and for better or worse, I decided to stick it out.
I slowly met some musicians and started to put the pieces together. I would record an EP that I would never release. I remember putting a band of really good musicians together but they all quit on me because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was still figuring myself out, and truth be told, I probably needed a musical director back then.
Enter drummer/music arrangerJohn Clancy. A singer friend of mine connected John and me and we met at The Coffee Shop in Union Square. He understood me. He believed in me. And we’ve been working together ever since. I think meeting Clancy was pivotal for me. He was so professional and so good and he inspired me to aim high.
I started gigging again in NYC and it was a fantastic feeling to finally be doing this again as a solo artist. I would release an EP in 2004 that Clancy produced. Though it was so professionally well done, it still wasn’t where I wanted to be sonically. I wasn’t happy with it and I don’t blame John for that. I was still figuring myself out. And Clancy would go onto big things on Broadway being nominated for two Tony awards for ‘Best Orchestration’ for the plays ‘Fun Home’ and ‘Mean Girls’.
It would take me 10 years of going to friends’ concerts, writing, recording and experimenting, before I was ready to release my first full length album Because of Zeeva. Through Clancy, I was finally able to put the right band together. A band where all the players for the most part instinctively knew what I wanted. By this time I was a full-fledged songwriter. And I had a clearer vision of myself as an artist.
Releasing Zeeva was such a great accomplishment for me. I can’t believe I stuck with it through a decade of ups and downs and many doubts. I’d been through so much that after I released Zeeva, though I began gigging again, I did not promote the album at all. It was like I just needed a big exhale. I enjoyed the live shows but didn’t have it in me to take it a step further. So I guess that album was just for me and my friends.
Since Zeeva, I’ve been very prolific in my song writing. And now here I am five years later with The Petty Narcissist. It’s a very personal album and it’s the best material I’ve ever written. I’ve come a long way both as a singer and a songwriter, and I am ready to take this album a step further.
I’m not going to just exhale and relax on this one.
Twitter: @jasonshandmusic
