Jason Hader
In your own words, what genre would you consider yourself?
Synth-Pop is what I'm going with for my first album. Genre is tough because I'm a 51-year old artist who plays guitar and keyboard competently, and who loves a fairly wide range of music.
Who is your biggest musical influence?
Myself. It feels like a cop-out to say that, but I could be writing music like Depeche Mode, but I don't. I could be writing music like James or Elbow, but I don't. I will say that for a time Johnny Marr inspired me on guitar. The 80's broadly inspired me on electronic music.
If you could only suggest one of your songs to, which would you recommend and why?
I don't have a huge amount of music released, but a song like E.T.rance would be a fairly good demonstration of what I'm capable of musically with my primary instrument now, which is Roland's Verselab MV-1. I disqualified other really good tracks for reasons like being too upbeat (Optimist, Drones & Beats), too polished or standard (San Francisco, my remix of Rome In Reverse's Here It's All Over).
How long have you been making music?
In terms of years, close to 40. I started playing before I was a teenager. My mom had tried getting me guitar lessons earlier, but I didn't take to it. When the family got a little Casio keyboard, I took it over and started working out songs by ear. This eventually lead to piano lessons. When I was in late high school, I decided to teach myself bass guitar, but all we had was my mom's classical guitar, so I taught myself guitar. Throughout junior high and high school I would regularly play keyboard. I just enjoyed doing it. I was a good piano pupil, but he taught me enough theory to get on pretty well.
What band(s) or artist(s) do you feel you sound the most like?
I have no answer for who I sound like. I probably sound like lots of artists. I've assimilated a lot of music into what I do, and I am equally capable of getting really creative or getting really run of the mill.
If you could open for any band/artist, who would it be?
The first band to come to mind was The Cure, and I think that's because they're of my favorite era and have a similar skill set. I have several covers of their songs started on my Verselab. Other names that come to mind are Spoon, James, Blur, Stereo Total.
If you could do a collaboration with any musician, who would it be, and why?
Lately, I've been thinking about wanting to collaborate with Tim Booth of James. He's still writing really good stuff, and he did a one-off album with Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks fame that was fun and weird, so I think it could work.
What’s your favorite brand of coffee and how do you like your coffee prepared?
Mukilteo Coffee Roasters puts out some really good coffee. I'm a little boring on this front. I like medium roast regular drip coffee.
If you could tell your fans one thing, what would it be?
Art and music is ultimately about teaching yourself to be free. Try not to get lost in other people's projections of what you're about. The happiest road may be the loneliest road, yet there is an audience for every kind of art.