Jason Paige

Pokémon ecosphere fan fave Jason Paige chats with us about his New York City band days, the commercial jingle world, what creativity is, the pluses and minuses of AI, and a whole lot more. https://jasonpaige.com and Jasonpaige.com/shop

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As a vocalist, Jason toured for a year as the lead singer for the legendary band Blood Sweat & Tears. He shared the stage with Michael Jackson as the rap soloist for the hit song “Black or White” in Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden aired on CBS. He can be heard on Foreigner’s “Can’t Slow Down”, Meatloaf’s “Bat Outta Hell 3”, The Scorpions’ “Hour 1”, Frankie Valli’s “Romancing the 60’s” and “The Art of McCartney” tribute CD behind Billy Joel, Roger Daltrey, Kiss, and Smokey Robinson among others. His voice is featured in “Rick And Morty”, “Phineas & Ferb”, “Sponge Out of Water”, “The Jersey Boys”, “Annie” with Kermit and Miss Piggy in the last “Muppet Movie” and a salad of singing food characters in “Sausage Party”. He has sung and beat-boxed with Aerosmith on tour and on the Howard Stern re-mix of the hit single “Pink” and has performed with Enrique Iglesias on tour, television, and can be heard on his CD “7”. In 2022 Jason released 11 new original songs in collaboration with Dutch EDM DJ AIN0. 

for more information: https://jasonpaige.com/about

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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.

Transcript

Use imagination to creatively self-express uh that's how you save the world that's how you create art and that's how you get closer to your own your own Center through your imagination creatively self-expressing and solving problems you know that that that's it that's my North Star he's gone from bands to Jingles to becoming a fan fave in the Pokemon ecosphere the wonderfully creative and Soulful Jason Paige is our guest today

My name is Nancy Magarill I'm a singer songwriter composer performer graphic and web designer and I'm Peter Michael Marino and I'm a writer producer Creator performer and educator we are new york-based artists you may or may not have heard of and we are here to introduce you to other artists you may or may not have heard of Jason how are you Jason Paige here I'm very good how are you oh my god what have we gotten ourselves into I think of you as the Robin Williams of vocal work you are the crazy guy of music and vocals am I wrong that was uh how I got the big bucks basically wow yeah you know you got to jump around you got to be a chameleon you got to do what they want you got to dance monkey dance well but also you have a [ __ ] killer voice that you can do that with you truly have one of the best most versatile voices I've thank you much Nancy I really oh my God that's really kind of you to say that if you weren't so shy maybe more people would know about you I kind of want to quickly go back and just talk about the history of where you started about just doing vocals in New York City and from the what's up show from your band days and all that to where you how you got into doing the voice work and Pokemon stuff that you're doing well would you like to hear the AI version that I did that I typed into udio this is the history of my band so everyone will understand I did it in like 30 different styles there's a Indian Hindu version there's a rap version let's do the Disco

[Music] version3 what was the point of doing it were you doing it just to see what would happen and try test AI yeah was testing the AI style generator and I thought wow what a a great subject is just to write out all of the things that happened in my band and send it to all my band members not actually make a song out of it not industry you're not sending it to Industry something they would love no no no we but it it it outlines all of our industry failures and our industry successes and all the different band members um you know from from basically getting produced by uh Steve cats from Blood Sweat and Tears the guitar player from Blood Sweat and Tears then Steve cells from this band IR watch the closing doors he produced us the drummer father hooked it all up then this guy Mark Cunningham from the band heaven got us and the the the different members of the band switched in and out as over the years but Mark we got a deal with Paul Stanley from kiss's management company we played a showcase and nobody liked it so we got dropped then we got back together so then what's up got a band with Ross Elliot and NM entertainment for as Sunday the Dream Believer we produced a whole bunch of demos and that band got a record deal on Imago and they wanted us to be New Kids on the Block so they kind of manipulated our album and uh then they kind of ignored us so we confronted Terry Ellis the head of of IMO records who's a me record company icon in the elevator we waited for him in the lobby and we jumped in the elevator with him confronted him and then you know uh we basically assaulted him and uh then we got dropped and then it became a TV show what the band became a TV like Josie and the Pussycats no this was the whats up show that we were talking about with Russ Irwin that they're hopefully GNA do a documentary on it correct with the band was promoting its you know its its gigs online on the public access networks of Manhattan Public Access right after back then we love it yeah did I say say that porn that's where we that's where we watched porn too robin bird uh robin bird was the first porn some of you watched porn not all of us watch okay soft porn it wasn't actually even real porn but we promoted ourselves on public access not online that's not online on tv before online uh and that freedom was what really expanded us creatively and as uh performers and and the jingle World sort of is an expansion of all of the fun we were having on this public access T TV show then we started doing Jingles which is just sort of the same thing but in musical form because we were acting and doing skits and twisting ourselves into characters and different scenarios that would entertain the public and that's really what Jingles are you're twisting yourself into a scenario that is going to capture the attention and the imagination of The Listener and sell them a product so wait the band had the your intention was to create a band that created Jingles no the band was already created we're promoting the band online now I mean on public access and the the the the silliness of the band's Antics became more interesting to us than the music of the band I see and all of that silliness were sketch comedy and different reality TV that we were doing as a band and then we'd have one song from the gig but the rest of the show would be the band doing all this crazy stuff like the monkeys yes hey hey with the monkeys but also but also that was a time where a lot of people especially in town I don't know elsewhere in the country but were really doing jingle work there was a lot of demo money for Jingles back then I don't know what it's like now but there was a lot going on yes there was a lot of music Houses music houses all over New York City that were producing many many spots on demand for tons of marketing agencies and yeah the the era of Jingles were you writing and singing Jingles or were you a jingle artist like oh you were doing both so you working with the advertising companies and uh Russ and I were doing Jingles at writing them together uh we were we were producing and writing them and then I was running around singing them elsewhere because the real Financial reward with Jingles is in the vocal contracts in the performance cont in the vocal contract specifically but I imagine like you know fizer there's a thousand people that have to like approve your lyrics first right it goes it's like so that's what you were going through at a as a young man well yes uh however the the hierarchy goes fizer hires a advertising agency the advertising agency might hire two or three music houses the music houses have producers that produce the spots and then I'm a singer under those producers and of course we were also a music house working sometimes in partnership with that agencies but uh never directly with the client like when we wrote Lego Mania that was through New York Jam the music house through I believe mccan Erikson are one of the big companies that Lego hired right yeah right so you in a special position where you were also working to write Jingles with Russ in your own company but then you also could be hired by other houses to do the actual vocal when it got picked up correct or before it got picked up as a demo yeah right and that is how you became the singer of Pokemon you did not know you just went into this thing and they were looking for the right voice and you were like what is this I don't care I'm just going to sing this thing and then it becomes to to us in the states we didn't know it was already this huge Global thing yes yes that is one of the vocal sessions that I did over the over the years over those those jam-packed years um for a company called Paradise music I sang Domino's Pizza delivers for them and we also were writing some spots for that company as well U but that was just a vocal demo gig that went final and then went to an album it was so popular in the first couple years that they took the theme song and stretched out into a full single played it on the radio radio Disney it was a number one single on Radio Disney the album of music from that uh was called to be a master with 12 other Pokemon related songs I sang one other one I'm on the road to viian city and that was uh probably the second most popular song on the album um and that album Still today is the is you know a major major part of Pokemon history as is the theme song obviously it's interesting that you have a voice that or at least the voice you've been using today is uh is reminiscent of like a a young man on a quest right which is kind of like exactly what Pokemon is yes did you find that that you kept being called in for that same type of energy or voice placement or character no not at all as a matter of fact it's all always a different assignment and I am a young man on a quest still even though I'm you know wouldn't be considered a young man on a quest I consider myself a young man on a quest but that that particular sound is a very specific sound and it is kind of true to my inner voice it is I think definitely uh as a in the bands that I sang with I was singing about optimistic you know life and and it was very inspirational and I I always felt like I needed to make an impact as an artist in a way where I that was a little more important uh and our are my the band what's up that nany's familiar with always had very inspirational very positive powerful messaging and even the bands before that when I was between the ages of 13 and 20 it kind of sounds like that same Pokemon character where do you think that came from I I'm trying to find the word um it's not like um you're not an artivist that's even hard to say AR I've never heard of that you know where you're using your art to make social change yes yes well I was doing that in a very concerted and direct way from the time I got out of the band days until Pokemon resurged again which is basically from the year 2002 until 2016 when Pokémon go came out um I was an artivist in a very direct and specific way before that I was an inspirational artist and I wasn't really in an activist sort of mentality we were just sort of like I wanted to do a song that wasn't about a breakup relationship I wanted to do a song about making the world a better place and and living your dreams and inspiring people and not just you know the Tom Robbins of music yeah you know of Music where did you where did where do you think you got that from yeah that's an interesting question I I I I'm not really sure where I got my optimism from but I I think I just kind of from my friends from the love that I received as a child from being an only child perhaps and being the center of attention and wanting to make people happy I think there's a sort of a an element of the performer that wants to make people happy there's also the element that want the performer that wants to express his angst and get out his emotions but the happiness was more what I wanted I as being the center of attention as an only child perhaps that performer that wanted to just be outperformed the other guys who were just talking about their problems yeah in the music that was going on at the time when I was creating that music and being the center of the band so did you always know you wanted to be a musician and a singer um I think we are all singers when we come out of the womb we learn music to learn how to speak we learn the ABC's ABCDE e f g before we learn how to speak we're singing and that is a music that we are musicians we're born musicians it's when do we stop becoming musicians when are we diverted from our natural creative path drawing playing writing imaginative thinking uh beings and that diversion usually happens in school when they divert us into square rooms for 40 minute intervals doing things that we could care less about that are not creative that limit our imaginations and stop us from being the Geniuses that we are I recently heard about a study that NASA did where they they wanted to determine what Geniuses were what made people Geniuses and they developed a test that basically tested the imagination creating solutions to the problems in the test basically the test was you know questions and you'd have to use your imagination to create solutions they tested the the children the three to five year- olds and they scored 85% of them in the genius range as they went up in age less and less Geniuses were found to the adult range there were 2% of adults would score in the genius range and they determined that it was school that is what diminished the imagination and the development of Genius was it just in the US or was this a more Universal they're pretty much the same our education comes from the Prussian system which was adopted by all European nations and it's the and it was designed to help the Prussian government create soldiers that wouldn't run away from Battle to ultimately protect their nation and that Prussian nation grew exponentially from this modern education system that they created which was basically the appeal to authority to diminish the imagination and to create soldiers that were not going to think but to appeal to Authority and do what they were told and we have pretty much the the same nuts and bolts of that system in all schooling around the world now so basically what we're saying listeners is that art is what is going to save the world it's that simple and we encourage you all to go make art and save the world with us yeah we're done there you go we're doing our job time for you to do yours listener I I have a uh I have a phrase that I I have as my North Star whenever I'm like trying to figure out which way to go in my business or my career or creatively in a show and I made did a painting of this it's just black letters on the yellow splotches with chocolate chia seeds that I threw all over at the end of it so but it's and it just says use imagination to creatively self-express so that really is what it is uh that's how you save the world that's how you create art and that's how you get closer to your own your own Center through your imag ination creatively self-expressing and solving problems you know that that that's it that's my North Star this is coming at such a good time for me Jason I will I will be intimate with you in this moment uh that I've been should I go away uh I've been I've been you know I've been working on some mental health stuff very intensely for the past year trying to figure some stuff out why do I have this problem and why does this bother me and blah blah blah blah blah and recently my one of my 18 te therapists um was we sort of went back to Childhood and uh well I won't even go into it but basically my job now is I think I have my Post-It note right here your assignment things things that brought me joy as a child ah yeah and I have to keep thinking about those things and then I have to uh I've always been attracted to Underdog stories I guess because I was one so I'm supposed to be watching all these Underdog type movies and and see what it is that connects and all that and on top of all that I kind of had to revisit the moment in my childhood where my best friend said uh you can't be in the folk group at church because you can't sing and then I remembered right I was like probably 11 or 12 and then cut to like you graduate college you move to New York you buy the artist way because that's what you do yes and it's like who told you you weren't an artist you must confront them there I am calling my best friend going just letting you know I'm flat when I sing because of you right I don't have any confidence so it's just interesting that you're talking about this because I do I I I do miss the untethered imagination that I had as a kid and uh although people who are familiar with my work now will be like you think like a 10-year-old but my 10-year-old thought of a lot more stuff than what I'm thinking of as an adult so I'm glad you're talking about yeah you're trying to restore yourself to that natural state that is the human expressive imaginative being that we all are underneath of all of the programming we're not censoring ourselves you're you're learning to not sens you're learning to not censor yourself right didn't as a kid exactly and I think I just may maybe I got less censorship than other people or my at some point I was just encouraged more to not censor but but I did go through the schools the 12 different public schools that all tried to censor me and put me in the Box do you teach Jason I will Coach but I do not teach my God wouldn't it be so wonderful for a generation of people to have you as a teacher just be like I've often thought about that but but the I don't really believe in the teaching model I believe in the learning model where you educate yourself not somebody teaching you what they know you get and see what they know and and then you educate yourself based on that but I don't think everybody has that ability I actually think there are people that do learn that way and then I think there are people that need teachers and people that can show them how to get somewhere that they couldn't get to granted yes we all have inate ability when we are born but then when it's stripped away I think that sometimes people don't know how to access it after yeah and that's what great teachers do like I think Ty Ross do you do you know Ty uh he was East Village Opera Company oh yeah yes yes I've worked he's a phenomenal teacher and he he works with people who have had problems with their voices I had vocal dysphonia and he really helped me get out of that and I think and he works with people that have had those kinds of problems and I think that yes maybe I could have found my way back out of that on my own but I'm so grateful I had someone like him to help lead me there yeah but you had that one-on-one I think we're talking about just being a teacher to a lot like how do you break down the needs of 13 or 23 or 3 kids well yeah that are all the same age chasing the same answer that you have really very little control over I did do some official work in a school with a good friend of mine Mark Wilson was the theater director of Hartford Academy of the Arts and he said hey they've got to they've got to read this book uncle Tom's Cabin Harry beer Stow wrote this book it's it's 600 pages long or whatever they're not going to read it the sto house is here and they want to do a program where we you know we write a musical based on it why don't you come in and we'll write a musical based on this book with the kids W and I went to hardford a couple times a week drove up there and we took chapters and we turned them into songs and a musical that was an incredible experience of not just Harry beer stow's Uncle Tom's Cabin but the world of slavery as it exists today with anti-slavery societies and organizations coming in to sort of educate the kids and the audiences that were showing up to see this thing Harry Peter sto house also promoted it we performed it at the Bushnell theater it was an it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life without having any credentials or any yeah any ability to to Really legally teach in this in this way I was governing the way that these kids were expressing themselves and writing songs with them about modernday slavery and scenes about how these settlers back in the day might have Justified the slavery that uh was going on you know it was very very very enlightening then we then then we did another the next year we did a musical based on Henry Box Brown the slave who got into the he got into the box and mailed himself to Freedom pretty cool oh I don't know that story it's really it's really cool I think there's a oneman show about it actually yeah he he basically he went around the world doing a oneman show about it afterwards with a diarama that he painted that was just like a backdrop of scrolling uh backdrops that he would he went around doing the show it incredible so we did a show about his him and his life wow I want to just circle back real quickly and just insert something because I think we talked about this very briefly and I think it's such an important book besides uh Uncle Tom's Cabin which is the best book I've ever read but the artist's way is something that everybody no matter whether you're artist or not should do yep because it is it so opens up every Avenue of creativity it's on your shelf somewhere isn't it someone recently asked on Facebook did anyone read the artist way and was it good and I was like yes 35 years ago and it's why I'm a writer that's all I need to say and it's why I can sing now there you go um for me I wrote The Artist way instead of reading it no I mean I read the first part that said write three pages and then I wrote 10 volumes of three pages and then and then then it was the past three pages it was 10 pages it was however many pages I needed and it all got organized and I and I thought at one point this might it might be dangerous to not read the whole artist way and get some context about what happens when you open up the floodgates uh and then I start I kind of went back and I was like oh yeah there is more context and there's even a workbook that goes along with it to help you contextualize and organize your flood of creativity that happens when you when you open it up the instructions are three pages you broke the rules you decided I know better than this thing that every person I know has done I'm going to just keep writing I'll show you artist way yeah yeah that's pretty much what they did but I will say I will bet at some point in your creative life all of that stuff will come in in some way that will be creative CU I don't I personally don't believe that there's one way even with the artist way there's not one way to do any of this and I think that the thing that's great about journaling which is in essence what you were doing is that it sort of brings up all that subconscious [ __ ] that as artists we tap into and whether we're um cognizant of it or not at some point it comes out in these beautiful ways in our art um I don't think in any way that can hurt you to at least let that come up on a page somewhere and just talk letting it out you're releasing the Beast I mean otherwise it's just going to cause you anxiety inside I mean you have to I'll share this and I also real quickly I just don't see you as someone who has to worry ever about not being creative you know sorry Pete I didn't mean to your Traina but I think it's probably always going to come out there somehow I kept like they tell you know whatever you're an actor you're right whatever you're an artist so they tell you Journal everything and clearly by the tone of my voice which indicates how I'm feeling I am not a person who likes doing that but I did what I was supposed to do and I would journal and especially if I got like a show out of town and I was gone for 3 weeks weeks or three months like okay let me just Journal okay so I had a lot of [ __ ] journals and a few months ago I was just cleaning up and realized that there was an enormous box that was taking up an enormous amount of space and I I made the decision to throw out all of my journals so right there were artist friends who reacted like Jason just did and then the other people I've done that too other people that were like good you you've opened up room for new ideas great great so weeks went by and I was like I made the right decision I'm good and I started having this idea about writing this play that is inspired by some people I knew including myself growing up in Long Island in the 80s and I was like God damn it I would be able to literally pull passages from my books for all three characters like that's how all over the place I was you know now you have to dig into your memory it was already written you could photograph it all and now you've got it on a dri somewhere of in a book and now it's even more disorganized that's actually you you could hire someone to scan your journals but then that [ __ ] is going to turn your journals into a great movie because they're like reading all the material I I I might I thought about doing that same thing but I wanted scanning or throwing them out no throwing throwing them out but it wasn't going to be thrown out I was going to take it to Burning Man and I was going to read it at the temple and then I was going to give it to the temple and have it be burned and in some sort of more important ceremony yeah but you're still making a performance out it was the same thing but I wanted to see what it was that was in it plus when it's at the temple people can read through it and kind of have that experience of it but or I'm tell you if anyone read through my journals I think I would be mortified because I think I mean I know I have little bits and pieces where I'm like oh that's a great lyric or that's a great idea but most of it is just [ __ ] wait you went to like your lyric your artistic expressions in your journals I automatically go to like I said some horrendous things about all of my friends and family in my oh of course oh there's that too of course okay just making sure was I doing it wrong it's a dear diary yeah but I think that's the whole thing is you you get to a point where you're like I don't know if I want to leave this behind and we're you know we're not 20 anymore so now we're starting to think a little more about mortality and it's like you know what I I don't I'm not so sure I want anyone reading this this they could read that well you could edit it right you want it you want to edit it down to what they can read redacted but it also works both ways I guess because there was there were some things that I was like you clever little [ __ ] that was you know 18-year-old that was really clever that was a great observation that's really funny and then there's other stuff that it's like that is mortifying horrifying you should be you know put in an asylum or you're very violent you sound angry you know uh all of that so so it's interesting that you can actually look at your past your childhood really your younger self and uh to be able to pull out that something that there was a glimmer of hope and light and lightness and comedy and humor from that it kind of like makes you go okay yeah I turned out the way I'm supposed to yep well we are what we are anyway it doesn't matter we are what we are

oh I want to talk about your experience when you go cuz I know Pete also wants to talk about the ComicCon festivals what's that experience for you are people ACC costing you do you have like a crazy fan base it it's a very unique experience in the sense that they're in my mind I understand who I am and I understand who I what I want to be in the world and I understand the impact that I that I want to have over people people and that I try to have and what is happening is all of my own understanding of myself and my efforts is being reflected back to me in almost the exact way that I would have imagined it but from a totally different Outlet I wouldn't have I didn't imagine it coming back at me from this effort but from my efforts as a an artist my efforts as a as a performer my efforts uh as a writer as a producer as as as a Creator and as a singer and this is from me being a singer but it's not from any of the things that I would have thought it would have been from but it is the exact thing in the sense that people are confessing incredible amounts of love and uh the impact that I've had over there lives like it's one song but the song extends into the entire Pokemon ecosystem which had a a massive profound impact over their lives so it's all funneled back to this the song and and the there's a couple of celebrities that exist in the Pokemon ecosystem a couple of VoiceOver actors but they don't represent the whole thing they represent the character right you are literally the introduction into the series I represent the entire ecosystem as if I created Pokemon which I did had nothing to do with it and the and the guy who created it is extremely private and not public and I'm sure people would say you changed my life to that guy I mean he's the real guy that changed everybody's life but I am the frontman to that and I am the voice that helped to make that industry and that ecosystem happen uh just happen to be in the front not visually just my voice and so therefore I am the recipient of this lifechanging experience that a billion and a half people have had that's amazing and that's sort of in my mind what I always wanted from my life right through my efforts as a writer and a Creator but it came from this one experience this one effort and uh and I have a profound gratitude for that and so basically I I say I spent four hours on this song I spent four hours on this effort maybe a little bit more with travel and the subway and the cabs and how long they took to get there but in terms of the session time the singing time the people that line up for hours to get my autograph depending on the the event uh and a photo with me have spent thousands of hours on in this building this ecosystem so now I'm just trying to catch up I'm trying to give as much as they gave to the ecosystem by appearing at these events by creating content for them by creating you know merchandise and using my imagination to creatively self-express to this group of people how much of your time now is spent in the Pokemon world versus doing other creative projects that you might be working on um I would say it's a 6040 and 60 is Pokemon Po at this point yeah and is a lot of that travel related yes and most of it is is travel related and and in the in the show in my Pokemon in my show at a at a Comic-Con 60% of the material will be Pokemon material and then 40% will be my own when I have a full concert I have done shows with where I just do all Jason pagee material and then one or two Pokemon songs yeah of course but most of the most of the time there's four songs and three of them are Pokemon and one of them is and do you find both audiences relate to all the material like your your Jason Page music Audience is well my Jason Page not not my artivist material the arist material is no longer part of my my Paradigm uh however I just I I sort of Rebrand Ed and I I when Pokémon go came out and the Pokemon Generation became adult age and wanted to know who I was I decided to take all of my really sharp sociopolitical

Pharma about all the causes and all of the problems in the world that I was going to point out in funny songs and uh so now there's an army of those people and on social media and all the way up into you know our current political system that is divided one half of them are in this sort of make America healthy again Camp the Maha Camp which is pretty much the camp that I was in that I said I'm not GNA I'm not going to risk all of my platforms being shut down for my you know my truth speech my artivism and now that segment is like just giant so I don't feel the need to be an artivist anymore because they got it covered it's already covered now and I can just continue to give joy in this other way right and and at some point you know I I I mean I have written more artivist pieces I just haven't put them out I might just put them out anonymously through AI at some point but they don't have to be attached to me just in case anyone who's listening thinks like oh Jason he's Untouchable he is such a such an upstanding you know Creator and an artist and all of that he also wrote the pepop bis small theme song I think sang sang oh oh you only sang it oh well you only sang it then I believe the the Ad Agency may have written it but Pepto themselves may have written when you get nausea heartburn in suggestion upset stomach diarrhea diarrhea that's really all there is to write in that and I think they probably said listen we have a thing it's for nausea heartburn and indigestion upset stomach and diarrhea give us a song you're like I'm therey you really nailed the diarrhea and I'm sure there were I've I've done very I I've done voiceovers like you know like three words for McDonald's whatever one of their I don't know you got it let's say and you're there for three hours just you got it you got it you got it you got so diarrhea your diarrhea the one they chose diarrhea it's so it's so like under it's like under but it's so over at the same time does that make sense my friend Kelly had a diarrhea commercial and it's hysterical to listen to her she has to whisper like diarrhea so what's next for you well I'm I'm continuing to expand the uh the the ecosystem that is Pokemon related I have Artistic Endeavors and these Artistic Endeavors are are sort of on my my hats and my my own original art that gets put onto my merchandise and as you can see I've got a little art behind me as well that's and is that on your website uh the hats are on the website however the the concert worn items are only live at my venue at my events so I sign sign I sign them I Dole them and then I concert wear them we're looking at these hats listener we're looking at these hats I'm wondering how much do you sweat during a concert uh well this one was only worn in one concert so there's not a lot of sweat in it but you could probably extract some DNA and do some cloning if you want that's why this the hats are more expensive than the nonc concert worn one I am continuing in the 15th year this season of and we're about to get start start on a pre-production of The Beatles gospel Nativity it's called both a Beatles gospel Nativity I've taken uh The Beatles myself and Mark Wilson the same person that I did those high school work with he cre he created this incredible musical uh mashup back in 99 and we brought it to the stage in 2007 I think and it and then it keeps expanding every year it's the beetle songs with gospel Arrangements yes gospel Arrangements telling the Nativity Story in incredible accuracy as if the Beatles knew that they were writing about the Nativity Story I love that you call it the Nativity is this a is this Nativity Nativity Nativity he's a Jew he Jew so of course call it the Nativity the Nativity I thought I thought you were doing a bit I'm like oh he's actually calling it The Nativity Nativity Nativity Nativity this is a very original idea I like this idea I love mashups I love repurposing and recycling things it's phenomenal in her 15th year and it tells the story so perfectly and it's a community uh a gospel choir that I have built here that is between 20 and 45 people depending on the year and availability of people uh plus a cast of 10 to 15 for the principal roles so there's about 60 of us in the entire camels those kind of wise men no camels uh no camels no camels uh but and do you do it in a music venues that's why you're able to have rights we've started in in uh small Los Angeles theaters and it's been expanded to like the broad stage in Santa Monica which is a 500 seat theater but they're V they're music venues that have an ASCAP license and that's how you're able yes yes we do it in a concert we do it in a concert you have to license the songs we do a concert license okay so to do a the grand rights is another step that we've been working on to contextualize uh and that's a very difficult process but we are working on it and it is so and there's actually someone else did it in the middle of I think it Iowa somewhere some church did it it's just like an idea that's in the universe when somebody sings Here Comes the Sun you're just thinking of the son of man the Son of God it's not the Beatles just you know it's not the sun it's the Sun so there's no way and then all you have to do is point at a pregnant belly or not even a pregnant belly and you're contextualizing here comes the sun I believe she Mary was impregnated in the Octopus's Garden is that right that's correct yeah I think now Pete and I might like the Beatles yeah this will make you a Beatles fan for sure it sounds I mean or at least a a Christian I mean at least it is very it is very panp spiritual I want to climb inside of your head Jason Paige for a short amount of time I don't want to stay there but uh it just seems like a really fun place and I I feel like we don't or like it's just in life you don't meet a lot of artists who are able to balance serious and silly and that is like a great GI you Jason so much this was so wonderful thank you guys this is this is really great it's good to good to talk with you and really get to the bottom of things hey thanks for checking us out links to today's guest can be found in the show notes don't forget to subscribe like and rate US and tell all your friends about arts and crafts