Jason Gladwin – from milk tart to record deal
Jason Gladwin is on the brink of something huge… his demo album is currently sitting with Universal in Los Angeles and Sony in the UK and, any day now, he will receive news of a record deal, a deal which could quickly shape the future for the East London based singer/songwriter.
We caught up with Jason recently and found out how it all started for him and the journey to where he is today.
A Selborne boy, Jason taught himself to play the drums when he was about 13 years old. A couple of years later, after deciding that the drum kit was too big and noisy, he picked up his older brother’s guitar and, as with the drums, taught himself how to play. He dabbled in other instruments, including the piano, but it was the guitar that he fell in love with and became his focus.
You’d think that with such a passion for music, Jason would have studied it at school, but he tells us that he had no interest in the formal training and lists English as his favourite subject as it was an outlet for the lyrics he had written, an opportunity to recite them as poetry. He wrote his first song at the age of 14 and explains that the writing process back then was different to how it is now, a process which has clearly developed as Jason has grown.
Citing Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Woody Guthrie, The Tallest Man on Earth and Mumford & Sons as some of the artists that have influenced him, Jason recalls his first time ever on stage at the tender age of 15 – playing cover songs with a friend in a band called Zondernaam. They performed at Musos in Gonubie and their payment was a nice slice of milk tart… not exactly a rock ‘n’ roll start to his career but delicious nonetheless.
From milk tart in Gonubie, Jason’s career really started to take off when he began to play frequent gigs at The Lowlander in Grahamstown. Discovering this venue while visiting friends at Rhodes University, Jason became recognised for his original music and, to this day, it’s a place where he has a very loyal following.
His popularity has clearly grown from there and, in addition to having a solid fan base in East London, he is pretty well-known in Cape Town too, having lived there for a couple of years while working for Assembly Radio. It was while in Cape Town that he met singer/songwriter Matthew Mole, somebody who has since become a close friend. Upon meeting him initially, Jason was extremely humbled by the fact that Matthew knew much of his material and they have since done shows together, here in East London at Buccaneers and also at this year’s Grahamstown Festival.
Performing live is something that comes quite naturally to Jason and he says that although he no longer gets nervous before a show, the attention from girls can be quite a distraction! But at 21 years of age and on the brink of a major record deal, the attention should come as no surprise… attention, it seems, that is likely to keep on growing.
A relatively shy person who actually appears rather overwhelmed by his popularity, Jason is humbled that he has had the opportunity to perform live at some of the biggest festivals in the country, namely Mielepop in Mpumalanga and the Wild Kei Festival here in the Eastern Cape. This year sees Jason return to Wild Kei, his third year performing and this time he is hoping to do so with a full band.
Jason has a management team behind him who have previously looked after Ard Matthews and Mango Groove among others so it seems he is in very good hands. He has already had many radio interviews on stations including Algoa FM and Wild Coast FM and describes the first time he heard one of his songs played on air called ‘Hunt Me Down’, an acoustic song he wrote and recorded in studio with his guitarist Wesley. The song’s release was timed with an interview on Wild Coast FM and, after leaving the studio and driving back home, their song came on the radio, a moment Jason describes as “pretty surreal but the coolest thing.”
Jason is extremely passionate about his music and explains how the most important thing is to keep his integrity with the lyrics. He knows that to write something catchy and poppy is a relatively easy thing to do but it’s another thing entirely to write a song straight from the heart.
But the most amazing thing for Jason, something that will never get old, is the realization of just how widespread his music has become.
“Putting on a show in a new place, playing the first word of the first song and hearing everybody start singing along. That’s special.”
Indeed, Jason has already found his lyrics used as captions to photographs on different social media platforms and he is well accustomed to signing autographs too. We have no doubt that this recognition will only spread further and with the advent of signing with an overseas label, it will surely promote growth in South Africa for him.
When we asked Jason what he hopes for the future, once again his passion for what he does shines through.
“I just want to be happy and secure. And to have my music heard by as many people as possible.”
A dream that doesn’t seem out of reach at all. With all the right ingredients, Jason Gladwin is a recipe for success.
Have a listen to one of Jason’s tracks entitled ‘Beside Your Shadow’, we believe you’ll love it as much as we do.