Jason Gleed
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Jason William Gleed,Musician, songwriter, producer. Born November 20, 1974. Originally from Toronto, Canada. Left Science program at University of Toronto to work with Grayson Matthews Audio in 1999. Over the 5 years with Grayson Matthews, Jason became one of the top composers in Canada for television and film, winning numerous awards for excellence in music. Most notable Canadian work includes Ikea's "Rug", All Bran's "The Muse", Sears Canada's "See" Theme song, Toronto Star's "Sweet Marie", Five Alive "5 Seconds" 2 and 3, theme songs for Braceface, My Dad The Rockstar, and Spider Riders. In 2005, Jason left Grayson Matthews to work as a freelance composer, and explore other interests. In particular his touring project with DJ Hatiras, called Hatjak, where he is know as Jaxon, singer, bassist, and insane performer using various costumes. In 2006, Joel Simon at JSM Musicin New York City hired Jason, and moved him down to Manhattan. Within only 6 months of working at JSM, Jason has already produced and composed music for numerous US National television spots including: Ford's "GO" campaign featuring Kelly Clarkson, Chevy's "American Pie" campaign, Alltel's "Come and Get Your Love", remix of Scumfrog's "Music Revolution" for Chevy HHR, Hellman's mayo song.
Aside from his successes as a composer for television, Jason is also a prolific songwriter, singer, and bass player. His mother, Susan, taught him to play piano at a young age, but he fell in love with the bass at Windfields junior high school. Started with orchestral double bass, but picked up the electric bass a couple of years later at Crescent School. He started playing bass in rock bands in High School. His first band, Dry Entry, included drummer Darren Shearer who went on later to form The New Deal. Jason continued to play bass in different bands throughout high school, heavily influenced by bassists Les Claypool, Flea, Mark King, Jaco Pastorius, and Victor Wooten.
Jason continued his education briefly at McMaster University in Hamilton, but dropped out after 3 months. He returned to Toronto, and attended York Mills Collegiate for half a semester. Here he reunited with friend George Hatiras, who was running Liquid Adrenaline at the time with partners Peter Weingarter, and Craig Scanlon. Liquid was just a rave juice bar at that time, and Jason would often attend raves to help out making drinks. Eventually Liquid would become one of the biggest rave promotion companies in Toronto, and Jason continued to stay part of the rave scene by helping out at the parties, and started to perform live bass with Hatiras as he gained status as a DJ. This is what lead to the formation of Hatjak, and other Hatiras collaborations. In 1993, Jason enrolled in the Science program at the University of Toronto. He completed his first full year, but music called him back to duty. Instead of starting his second year, he took off to Halifax with Jason McGroarty to start a band called Band Of Rain. The experiment lasted about 8 months. Jason returned to complete half a year in sciences back at U of T. He spent two more years at U of T, completing 3 years of sciences, and a partial degree in the psychology of religion. During study breaks Jason taught himself to play guitar, and took an interest in songwriting and singing. This was the beginning of the end of his academic, pre med endeavours.
In 1999, friends David Sorbara, Tom Westin, and Elizabeth Taylor asked Jason to join they're new company, Grayson Matthews. Jason went to Crescent School with Sorbara, became very good friends, and they spent much of their time together learning how to use music production equipment and software. They also had a cover band called Michigan Switch, with Sorbara as singer, Gleed as bassist. Grayson Matthews eventually became the hottest music company in Canada. Working there helped develop Jason's production and writing skills, and gave him the opportunity to get his ideas out to the public. It also helped put him in touch with top notch writers, producers, and musicians. Of particular mention are Canadian musicians Tara Maclean, who Jason worked with extensively before she started recording her new album; Damhnait Doyle, Kim Stockwood, and Marc Jordan. Marc Jordan, who wrote hits for Rod Stewart and Cher, became a songwriting mentor to Jason. Jordan invited Jason to co-write with him and another successful songwriter, Christopher Ward, who wrote and produced Allanah Myles records. Together they wrote two songs for Jason's upcoming album, and they submitted demos for The Backstreet Boys.
Working at Grayson also introduced Jason to another talented songwriter, producer, and engineer Annelise Noronha. Annelise helped to get Jason out into the songwriter performance circuit in Toronto. She also helped to record Jason's album, and is currently mixing it.
Jason was born at Mount Siani Hospital in Toronto on November 20th, 1974. His parents, Charles and Susan, were living in the Sheppard and Leslie area of Toronto. When Jason was 2, his parents had their second child, Caroline, and moved to Unionville. Unionville is a small town about 30 mins outside Toronto, close to Markham. Jason spent much of his early life in this small town, attending Unionville Public School until grade 5. In 1985 Jason's family moved back to Toronto, where Jason attended Denlow Public School.
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