Meet Jason Mays of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Mays.

Hi Jason, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a musician originally from South Bay, Florida. After moving to Tallahassee to attend college, I started my first band, and that decision set off a chain reaction that ultimately turned music into my career.

Over the years, I played in several nationally signed and touring bands while also working behind the scenes with artists like Mayday Parade, Go Radio, and others. In 2014, following my mutual departure from the Jonny Craig-fronted band SLAVES, I took a leap of faith and moved to Atlanta to join my friends in the band Native Suns. From there, I hit the ground running and spent the next several years completely immersed in music.

When Native Suns eventually came to an end, I found myself at a crossroads. It forced me to confront a number of long-ignored mental health struggles while also rediscovering why I fell in love with music in the first place. During that time, my friend and artist Matt Mulkey (Molekey) and I started a new project called Young Mountain. What began as a creative outlet to process the loss of my father eventually grew into something much bigger than either of us expected.

Around that same time, a few friends and I had been kicking around the idea of starting a guitar YouTube channel. During the COVID pandemic, we finally made it happen and launched Working Class Music. We wanted to build a channel that better reflected the guitar community we knew, one that showcased talented musicians from all backgrounds while creating more opportunities to highlight People of Color in the guitar space. The channel quickly gained traction, leading to partnerships with companies like Sweetwater Sound and recognition from publications such as Guitar.com and MusicRadar.

From there, Guitar.com offered me an opportunity to review Guitar Gear for them, and thus began my career in music journalism. From there, that allowed me to grow into the writer that I would eventually turn into. From there, that led me into a series of new journalistic opportunities that saw me joining the ranks of The Fretboard Journal, Guitar World, and Sweetwater Sound, where I get to review guitar gear and interview bands (such as American Football, Dead Pioneers, This Will Destroy You, etc.). While doing this, I started a second YouTube channel called PlayJason. It began to quickly see a staggering amount of success from interviews with Paul Reed Smith to working with the biggest brands in the guitar industry (Fender, Gibson, PRS guitars, etc.).

In between doing all of that, I actually released a solo Lofi album under the artist name DREAMHAÜS. It was called Lovers (A Lofi Film Score), and I’m currently working on the follow-up to that and the 2nd Young Mountain record.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road at all. There were definitely a lot of struggles and learning curves to it all. It’s all constant growth, and I had no idea about what it took to properly do any of this. It was a lot of trial and error.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve been described as an influencer of sorts, but I kind of hate that term. lol. I’d like to think of myself as a media personality. But I’m mainly known for music, from playing in different bands and mainly from YouTube for my particular love for all things Fender Jazzmaster and being a huge shoegaze and post-rock fan. I’ve also made a name for myself in the world of music journalism by way of guitar.com, guitar world, the fretboard journal, and sweetwater.

With that in mind, I specialize in more guitar culture and more than I do music as a whole nowadays.

I would say my proudest moment was my first time meeting Joel Korte from Chase Bliss and him telling me “That he appreciates what I do and that I get their pedals.” That to me felt more validating than anything else I experienced so far.

But outside of that, it’s really seeing the wonderful comments about how my video informed someone’s purchasing decision on a particular product. Those always make me happy because there are so many people in the YouTube guitar space that are quite frankly far better musicians than myself. So, it means a lot.

I would say the biggest thing that sets me apart from others is my authenticity and sincerity. I really do care about the things I enjoy, and it’s not just me trying to sell you shit. I’m just telling you why I like it. (Which there’s a big difference between the two.) It’s me talking about things I like, and I’d like to think comes across in every medium from YouTube to my articles. But I would say in part is because of my dry dad humor and wearing some of my millennial tendencies on my sleeve and more so speaking from my unique viewpoint of not only being a millennial but also being a person of color. It gives me a rather unique perspective. I’m a huge nerd, and what you see/read is definitely what you get.

What are your plans for the future?
Future plans right now is to jump back into the world of music, release the next Young Mountain EP. Because that’s something that has taken so long that I didn’t even know if we would actually release new music. and overall just release a ton of new music and write a bunch of new music with my friends.

But beyond that, I’m working with a few brands on some cool content for the YouTube stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://guitar.com/author/jmays/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JasonTMays
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonTMays
• Other: https://www.guitarworld.com/author/jason-t-mays and https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/author/jason_mays/