Hopeful Monster

My name is Jason and I've been making music as Hopeful Monster for twenty years. I call it "psychedelic chamber pop," which I think sums it up — catchy songs, slightly off-kilter, merging 60/70s popsike, orch-pop, electro, indie, vintage country and contemporary art-pop influences. I love using unorthodox combinations of instruments and every song gets a unique treatment. 


What is a Hopeful Monster?

I got the name from an antiquated scientific theory that evolution can occur not gradually over many generations, but suddenly, in a single generation. Like if a horse gave birth to a unicorn. Admittedly, not the accepted model for biological evolution. I simply meant I would be pulling my 60/70s influences through the vortex of my own life into the present world — the best of yesterday's dreams for the future, filtered through me, so to speak. But without any cheesy '80s production.

It's a metaphor for the human spirit too. We put our best foot forward, despite our limitations. Every act is a lightning bolt, fixing a cloud of values from the past into the fertile soil of the present moment. This is how we wish great things into existence, and also abolish horrors. Culture is a fast-evolving beast, leaps and bounds quicker than the human genome. Are we spiritually light-years ahead of our animal biology? Or just beginning to catch up, and become all we can be as a species… it's not clear. Maybe a little gated reverb will bring things into focus. Just a little.


Gifts from a Flower to a Seed

Since I became a father, touring has been more-or-less on hold, apart from a few solo trips. I put out a new album every five years or so, and play local shows with my string section and some other amazing musicians. I balance work & family every day, recording in a tiny (but sweet!) home studio in our backyard, always there for my girls when they need me.

And as it turns out, when I need them. My oldest sings a little on my last album, and a lot on my new one. She's fourteen now, but made her glockenspiel debut at seven at a Hopeful Monster show. When her little sisters stop using the maracas as weapons, they can audition.


Growing Conditions

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for becoming a patron if you can. It's easy, you can choose your level of support and cancel any time. In real terms, it's a monthly commitment to spend what you might on a cup of coffee, decent breakfast, lunch for one, or for a family, helping bring music into the world instead. 

In an age when corporations are siphoning obscene CEO salaries off every endeavour, creators are running on fumes. I want to show my daughters they can devote themselves to something beautiful and ambitious, even if it rankles industry gatekeepers.