Biography
Toronto native Jason Collett received praise for his individual records and stints in multiple ensembles, above all Broken Social Scene, yet his earliest critical notice arrived through his partnership with fellow songwriter Andrew Cash. He appeared with the Andrew Cash Band in the late ’80s and early ’90s, then moved into Ursula, an alternative-rock project spun off from Cash’s prior band. The group crisscrossed Canada and supported acts including the Odds, but after several years in the business Collett stepped away from music for an extended stretch.
Music nonetheless remained in his blood, and by the mid-’90s he reunited with Cash and Hawksley Workman to launch the alternative-country band Bird. Its lone album, Chrome Reflection, drew from pop, rock, and country sources that would later surface in Collett’s own work. Before issuing his first solo songs, he launched a recurring series of singer-songwriter nights that showcased members of Blue Rodeo, 54-40, and Skydiggers. The events quickly became a gathering point for local players and helped solidify Toronto’s rising indie scene.
Collett issued his debut album, Bitter Beauty, in 2001 while continuing to host the Flood Family songwriters’ forum. He also joined the Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene, performing alongside numerous Toronto contemporaries. In 2005 he stepped back from the collective to focus on solo material and soon delivered his second record, Idols of Exile. Buoyed by strong reviews, the father of three began shaping a third release by winnowing more than forty accumulated songs. Here’s to Being Here was captured in two swift sessions during the winter of 2007; the Toronto-based Arts & Crafts label released it in early 2008. He remained with the label for Rat A Tat Tat, which appeared in March 2010. Pony Tricks, an all-acoustic eleven-track set of reworked material, followed later that year. Election-year tensions informed 2012’s Reckon, which confronted both global unease and private concerns. After the longest gap between solo albums to date, he returned in 2016 with Song & Dance Man, titled after Bob Dylan’s 1965 interview remark (“I think of myself more as a song and dance man”). Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas produced the sessions, lending a breezy quality to Collett’s reflective songs.
Music nonetheless remained in his blood, and by the mid-’90s he reunited with Cash and Hawksley Workman to launch the alternative-country band Bird. Its lone album, Chrome Reflection, drew from pop, rock, and country sources that would later surface in Collett’s own work. Before issuing his first solo songs, he launched a recurring series of singer-songwriter nights that showcased members of Blue Rodeo, 54-40, and Skydiggers. The events quickly became a gathering point for local players and helped solidify Toronto’s rising indie scene.
Collett issued his debut album, Bitter Beauty, in 2001 while continuing to host the Flood Family songwriters’ forum. He also joined the Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene, performing alongside numerous Toronto contemporaries. In 2005 he stepped back from the collective to focus on solo material and soon delivered his second record, Idols of Exile. Buoyed by strong reviews, the father of three began shaping a third release by winnowing more than forty accumulated songs. Here’s to Being Here was captured in two swift sessions during the winter of 2007; the Toronto-based Arts & Crafts label released it in early 2008. He remained with the label for Rat A Tat Tat, which appeared in March 2010. Pony Tricks, an all-acoustic eleven-track set of reworked material, followed later that year. Election-year tensions informed 2012’s Reckon, which confronted both global unease and private concerns. After the longest gap between solo albums to date, he returned in 2016 with Song & Dance Man, titled after Bob Dylan’s 1965 interview remark (“I think of myself more as a song and dance man”). Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas produced the sessions, lending a breezy quality to Collett’s reflective songs.
Albums
Head Full Of Wonder
2022
Best Of
2021
Song And Dance Man
2016
Reckon
2012
Pony Tricks
2010
Rat A Tat Tat
2010
To Wit To Woo
2010
Here's To Being Here
2008
Prodigals
2007
Idols Of Exile
2005
Motor Motel Love Songs
2003
Motor Motel Love Song
2003
Singles
