Jason Mitchell is a singer/poet/guitarist/storyteller who makes his Warner Music Canada debut with a deeply personal collection of songs, The World Is Flat. He is an energetic, spiritual, grounded man of many talents; a restless traveler, a gourmet cook and a diverse athelete.
Born and raised in White Rock, BC (though he now resides in Kelowna), Jason had an interesting childhood. "I was raised by the quintessential hippie mother, raised on words and books and poetry, raised on Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. It was always around at home or on road trips in her VW van. When I was 8 years old, she'd stop the tape player so that she could go over a lyric with me."
Jason was a dabbler and dilettante from his early years: "I tried many different things and my mom would always say `good for you, go for it." He first tried guitar lessons in Grade 5, but then never picked up a guitar until his final year of high school. "I used it as a catalyst, a tool I could use to finish the poetry I was writing."(Self-taught, he nevertheless makes his instrument a part of him with his energetic stage presence.)
To have something he could fall back on, Jason studied massage therapy for several years. "It was a great thing, to study how the body works and to let the other side of my brain kick in." However, he found myself writing poetry more often than studying for exams.
"I've always admired people who had a singular focal point of attention," he muses, "and I've never had that. But music was always there for me, and it extended itself further than I thought it ever would."
Nights, Jason stretched out his songs and worked out his musical demons in coffee houses, where he did not go unheard. Manager Keith Maryanovich - who first managed multi-platinum band Moist -- hooked him up with EMI Music Publishing Canada, who financed a demo tape and encouraged him to keep it up. One fateful night, he was opening for Big Wreck, when talent agent (and recently-hired Warner Music Canada A&R man) Steve Blair was struck by how quickly Jason's acoustic, bare bones approach quelled the room's chatter and captured the audience.
Produced by Kevin Hamilton (Moist, Rose Chronicles, Mollies Revenge, Len) with Maryanovich, The World Is Flat was recorded in Vancouver with the help of drummer/percussionist Ed Johnson and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Carrier. Although old friends of Jason from White Rock, the trio had never played together until the album sessions.
With The World Is Flat waiting in the wings, Jason is stepping up his performances and will soon be seen all over the country. He has been patient so far, gradually bringing his songs to the world, "I'm willing to gather speed slowly, and work with people who are good friends. Honesty is what we really want."
"I needed to convey my emotions," he sums up, "there was only one way I knew how to do it, and I got the chance to do it. Not everybody does. I'm a lucky man."
