Because you need more songs on a variety of lyrical topics to balance the listening portolio.   There's a gazzilion possible human experiences, but there's a gazzilion songs about just one of them - which is breaking up with your love interest.   So I will promise to never do a breakup song, or a falling in love song.   And I don't like to define myself by the negative, but that's just simpler than listing all the other things in the world that might make us happy or sad.    I do like staying in love songs though…there's not enough of them either (I'm happily married).   So please enjoy your change in love interest songs by other people too…but my songs are going to be about something else.   Diversity. Of. Lyrics.   

Beyond that, I'm a genre wanderer, and I'll make whatever sounds I think serve the lyrics.   Mostly indie folk.   It'll sound nice…I like things that are bit strange. 

I run a DIY “full stack” musical shop...now including the building of the instruments.   I call this portfolio of activities the Make It Fit Musical Empire, which is also a statement of philosophy.  To me, "making it fit" means to keep the focus on what makes the best sound, and not necessarily what it looks like, or how messy the process is.   Bling is not required.   I record in my pyjammas, and the instruments I build do not have fancy paintjobs.   My primary product is for your ears, not your eyes.  

I am prolific in the studio.   I love the recording process, clearly more than many of my peers.   So I release a lot of music because really nothing can stop me!   But the flipside is less focus on playing live.  In 2025 I released:

• two collaborative singles in Jan and Feb.   
• March to Oct was the album release cycle of ukulele songs, with extra “drama” added by producer  Gabrielle Papillon.  
• Probably sneaking out one more collaborative single in Nov…we'll see!

In 2024:

• A full album, Power Down.  A set of acoustic rock remakes of my own previously electrified rock songs
• An EP released on my 25th wedding anniversary, with lyrics as you'd expect (or maybe not)
• A collaborative traditional rock single under the Young Toques artist name
• A single cover version of a fellow indie peer's lovely song about early parenthood anxiety 

I do enjoy building instruments.  It's a different part of my brain.   I started just for fun, and posted a few short videos about it.   I was surprised to discover that people really liked this content.   I'm no snob when the people speak!…so I'm leaning in.  I get more instruments this way too.    Some recently completed projects with YouTube videos (see link below):

• a semi-acoustic ukulele blending a P90 with piezo pickups
• a semi-acoustic double bass
• restoration of an 80's baritone ukulele

In progress now, I've got a “Recycler Bass” made from all the leftover parts, and scrap wood.  Another nice 80's classical guitar that's showing it's age, might be restored and converted to a fretless guitar (interesting sounds there!).  Might have other ideas later.  

Growing up before the ubiquity of home recording, Jason learned his craft as the classic voice and guitar combination.  From the very beginning he was not interested in the common ballad.  The first album Ambidextrous was written for solo performance, and it lived that way as a solo acoustic set performed many times before it was ever recorded.  To keep the solo act fresh, most of the songs had twists like delicate finger-picked passages melting into punchy power chords.  Everything was self-taught and figured out intuitively.  When finally recorded, Ambidextrous included several over-dubbed layers but remained, at its heart, an acoustic folk album.  

After the long mortgage-paying break, and a leap forward in recording technology, the home studio experimentation started in about 2016.  Like playing the actual music, recording engineering was self-taught.  The album White Collar Melodies was born here.  A whole new writing style emerged from the ability to cut, paste, loop, and infinitely layer.  No considerations given to the difficulty of actually performing it.  There was still a strong resistance to synthesizers at this stage but the virtual organs sounded good and were all over the final album.   Many electric guitars passed through as rentals, and some were kept.   There was experimentation with time signatures and more fancy chords, and the album included Jason's first punk song.  It was a bit of a genre mess, but tied together strongly with the lyrical theme that all songs related back to working in an office.   White Collar Melodies was also a one-man show: Jason played every sound, self-recorded, mixed, and mastered it.

Since White Collar Melodies took almost 3yrs to finish while still working the day-job, Jason stepped back to consider creative options after this.  He joined a few bands and they broke up.   Synthesizers were finally embraced.   Thirty-ish tracks on a collection of singles and EP's have been released in the 5 years since White Collar Melodies.   Many of these songs also included collaboration with other players.  2025 will see the first full production collaboration released with an album called Post Nursery Rhymes.  “PNR” is very much a sibling to White Collar Melodies…because it's basically about the rest of your life that is NOT work.   PNR was produced by Gabrielle Papillon who was asked to “add drama” to some charming ukulele songs.  

Email at j.pilling.music@gmail.com

Otherwise Jason is friendly, open to conversation, on multiple platforms.  Links to all the socials and platforms are in the sidebar or dropdown menu.

Jason performs in multiple groups around Toronto.  He performs solo, as a duo, and bass in The Spare Parts band.   The best way to find Jason's next performance is on Instagram.