Jason : Guitars

» Posted on Jun 13, 2011

UPDATED NEWS :::  Hello everybody, just wanted to pop in here to say that life has been extremely busy as of late and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  My youngest Hudson is turning into a linebacker with every bottle he drinks!  Also, I recently joined a great country/rock outfit out of Iowa called, The New Black 7.  I have known the guys for awhile and after flirting with the idea of adding another guitar player, after a show just doing it for fun, it’s now for real.  Good times to come!  Go check “us” out : NB7 Official Site

On with the show…

Hello everybody, and thank you for visiting the Camino site, and taking a peek at my little section here.  I am a happily married lad, and I have two young lad’s of my own;  Daylan (2) and Hudson (NB).  I would have to say I’m lucky as hell to have the family that I have!  I’m originally from the great state of Iowa, GO HAWKS, but reside in La Crosse, Wisconsin these days.  Other loves beyond my family and the band would be that I’m a big Iowa Hawkeye and St. Louis Rams fan.  I’m one of the founding members of this little outfit called The El Caminos and thoroughly enjoy playing with these goof balls. I’m the guitar player and I generally stay away from the microphone. You could call it a phobia, I guess. I’ve played with James and Jeff since I was smaller than the guitar itself, and with Casey since early 2010. We have a very tight bond on and off the stage, and I guess people can sense that as we see our excitement pour off the stage and into the crowd every show.

It’s posted on this site in other regions, and you’ll probably see it again after reading this, but James, Jeff, and I were in a rock outfit called Silver Tears. We started that way back when we were in our early teen’s and continued it out until our early twenties. It was our little “School of Rock”. Playing and learning big hair band material was a crash course in lead guitar, that’s for sure. I’m still influenced by a lot of players from that era, and majority of them are still kicking ass today. I recently found an old bio of us for our old management company from Nebraska.  Listing my influences, it went something like this…

“I’m heavily influenced and shape my playing after Jake E. Lee, Warren DiMartini, Butch Walker, and Zakk Wylde”. – from a 1990 something promo piece.

I look back at that now and I laugh as I still am influenced by those guys.  The good thing about the El Caminos is that we can still play some of that big hair music and it’s just as popular today as it was back when we had hair down to our waists.  It’s always fun to be able to play a song live now, that I played 20 years ago in my bedroom full of Kiss and Mötley posters.  Timeless I guess.  However, If you were to tell me back in the day that I would be playing some Country music at my live shows I’d tell you that you were flipping crazy even though I did grow up on a lot of Country N’ Western.  My Mom played it non-stop, as did my Dad.  I can still turn on a Country station today that is playing the REAL C&W music, and sing along to about everything.  Obviously the landscape of Country music has changed, hence that is why it fits right into our style of Rock and goes with the flow of the show.

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How long have you been playing and what got you started?

I started playing guitar when I was 13 years old or so.  Hanging with my buddy Ted, all we did was watched Kiss videos, listened to The Doors, and read Metal Edge magazine.  We decided to start a band, and convinced our parents to get us all instruments.  I had a major love for Ace Frehley so I decided to go with guitar, Ted played bass.  So funny to think back to those jam sessions, YIKES.  We ended up forming a garage band called, Suicidal Priest.  How scary is that, funny thing is we all went to Catholic school.  Not sure where that came from!?!  I ended up asking a neighbor of mine’s boyfriend if he’d be our manager since he had played in a local successful band, plus he looked like Slash.  He agreed, and after the other guys showed no interest in playing at our first practice, I asked him to start a band with me.  He said yes, and then we started rehearsing and recruited Jeff Bahr.  He then got James in the fold as our keyboard player.  However, we didn’t need a keyboard player, so James sang.  I remember on of our first songs… “Dr. Feelgood”.  Oh my, I’m glad we’ve all gotten a little bit better!

Who are your favorite bands and influences?

Kiss, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Tesla, Tom Petty, and Old school Country.  Favorite band of all time though has to be KISS.  Huge fan of theirs.  They literally scared the crap out of me as a child, but I now have there memorabilia littered throughout my office.  As for influences (see above) I’d have to say Ace Frehley, Zakk Wylde, Richie Kotzen, Paul Gilbert, Keith Urban, Joe Walsh, Phil X, Jimmy Page, and this other lad out there call Joe Bonamassa.  I could sit and listen to those guys play on an acoustic with 3 strings with the worst action for hours on end.  They’re all great guitar players, but they OWN the guitar when they play it, very in control and could play perfect in their sleep.  Maybe not Ace after a bottle of liquor, but he is ACE, he can do whatever he wants.

What do you like about being in the El Caminos?

I get to play with my friends!  At the end of the day, these guys are my brothers, not just guys I have to go play a show with on the weekend.  I love that.  We’ve been doing this for so long, that it’s effortless.  We all have the same mindset, we pour our heart and soul into every show, and that is what I love.  Nobody takes it lightly.  We are playing cover songs, and we respect the original artists, but we still go out and put our heart into it as if we wrote them.  We get just as big of a thrill seeing everybody responding to it and singing it back to us, as if we wrote the damn song ourselves.  It’s just FUN, and that’s about as simple as it gets right there.

Any random thoughts you’d like to share?

Random thoughts or rants?  Let’s see… I am not a fan of complainers or people that have negative attitudes.  Anytime you’re feeling like your life sucks, and it isn’t fair, think of the others that have it far worse then you.  Things can always be worse, always remember that.  I try and stay positive, and project that to others as well.  Life is a lot more enjoyable when you’re happy and have a smile on your face, trust me.  Since this is a RANDOM section, it may get updated on a regular basis!  Oh one more… I don’t get why people that ride bicycles think they have to be in the same line was cars at stoplights??  If you can’t keep up with traffic, get the hell out of the way.  Does that sound negative?!?  IF so, it wasn’t, I still have a smile on my face

Jason’s Favorite Websites

Kidding me… Of course.  If you don’t go and visit this site here, I will hunt you down and shave off your mustache… even if you don’t have one. Alright, as for other things that I’d like to share with you are some of my favorite musicians, bands, and gear.  Check them out below!

ENDORSEMENTS:
Jason proudly uses Steve Clayton products!!

MUSIC:
Gibson Guitars
Marshall Amps
Vox
Fender Guitars
Joe Bonamassa
Zakk Wylde
Phil X

SPORTS:
St. Louis Rams

WORK:
Clients From Hell