Jason Reeves (songwriter)

Jason Bradford Reeves (born July 1, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He grew up in Iowa City, Iowa before locating to California in 2005, where he began a long-standing working relationship with producer Mikal Blue and singer Colbie Caillat. He co-wrote many songs with Caillat, most notably the songs "Bubbly", "Realize" and "I Never Told You". "Bubbly" has been Reeves most successful work to date, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, No. 5 on the Hot 100[1] and being certified Platinum (along with "Realize") by the RIAA.[2] He has won awards from ASCAP.[3]

Jason Reeves
Background information
Birth nameJason Bradford Reeves
Born (1984-07-01) July 1, 1984
Arlington, Texas, U.S.
OriginIowa City, Iowa
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, musician
InstrumentsVocals, guitar
Years active2003–present
Labelsabeautifularmyoftrees, Warner Bros
Associated acts

Reeves works as a solo artist and also as a co-writer with other artists, including Australian artist Lenka, with whom he wrote "The Show". He self-released four albums and an EP before he signed to major label Warner Bros. Records in 2008 with the help of Kara DioGuardi[4] and released an album and an EP with the label. He again self-released an album in 2011 with The Lovesick.[5] His work has led to being named one of the Top Indie Singer-Songwriters by iTunes in 2007 and a No. 1 Folk Artist by Myspace.[6]

From 2018-2020, he was a member of the band Gone West.

Early life

Jason Reeves was born in Arlington, Texas and relocated to Iowa City, Iowa when he was around 3 years old with his father, a worker at Maytag/Whirlpool, and his mother, a food stylist/ice skating teacher.[7] When Reeves was five years old his mother started him on piano lessons, lessons that he continued for five years before quitting.[8] After the piano, he began to take drum lessons for a few years, before eventually settling on the guitar at 17 and teaching himself how to play.[9][10] Around this time he began listening to artists such as Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin[11] and James Taylor, which he'd later cite as personal influences.[10][12]

Attending Iowa City High School, Reeves was involved with various choirs and vocal groups,[13] even touring Europe with the Midwest Honor Choir in 2002.[14] During this time he also performed in a band with friends and recorded his own full-length album with a local community music program.

Music career

Early career in Iowa

Reeves began to get into musical recording at the end of high school, with his first CD being a self-produced album with a run of about 200 copies. After graduating high school, he went on to attend college at the nearby University of Iowa but quickly dropped out due to a lack of interest.[15][16] He continued on with music, playing at local venues and bars.[17][18] For the next two years he continued to play around Iowa City and self-released two albums with a local producer, Ken Heaton. These two albums, Makeshift Aircraft (2003) and Nervous Mind of Love (2004), were sold at his shows as well as on independent, online music seller cdbaby.com.[19]

Around late 2004/early 2005 he was contacted by California producer Mikal Blue who was interested in working together. Blue became aware of Reeves through his own manager, Anna Rambeau, who herself became aware of Reeves through cdbaby.com.[19][20] Blue offered to have Reeves come out to his California studio, Revolver, to record some tracks together. Reeves accepted and flew out to Los Angeles, California, with the intention of recording and coming back to Iowa.[21]

Mikal Blue and Colbie Caillat
Jason Reeves with longtime-collaborator Colbie Caillat

Reeves arrived in California around February 2005 and met with Blue to begin recording songs. Shortly after arriving, Blue introduced Reeves to a young female singer he was working with, Colbie Caillat. Caillat and Reeves formed a quick friendship and Caillat's family invited Reeves to stay with them during his recordings with Blue. This eventually became Reeve's home as he decided to stay in California and not return to Iowa.[12][15]

Caillat and Reeves began a working partnership, hanging out and co-writing many songs together and playing local venues.[22] Caillat also introduced Reeves to the social networking site Myspace, using the site to release music they wrote. After the release of the Blue-produced EP Hearts Are Magnets in 2006, Caillat and Reeves kept composing and posting songs to Myspace. They wrote Chasing The Sun for Hilary Duff.

Coco and The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache

Caillat was gaining traction and attention with her music on Myspace, leading her to be declared the No. 1 unsigned artist on the site.[23] This attention and the popularity of the Myspace-hosted song "Bubbly" lead to a record deal for Caillat with Universal Republic Records.[19] Using the material that Caillat had worked on with Reeves, Caillat released her debut album Coco in 2007. The Mikal Blue-produced album featured 10 song co-written with Reeves.[18][21] The lead single from the album, the Reeve's co-write "Bubbly", was a commercial success, reaching up to the top 5 on the Billboard charts.[24] The song "Realize", which featured vocals by Reeves, also performed well on the charts. Reeves and Caillat would eventually win three ASCAP awards for these two songs.

Reeves continued to work on his own music as well, and in 2007 self-released the album The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales...), which was again produced by Mikal Blue, as well two tracks produced by Lenka producer Stuart Brawley. The album had modest success on iTunes, debuting at No. 2 on the folk charts and went to being named one of the top indie albums of the year on iTunes.[7][21][25] He also had popularity as an artist on Myspace, being named the site's No. 1 unsigned folk artist for nine months.[9][19]

Jason Reeves playing live

Kara DioGuardi and Warner Bros. Records

In 2007/2008, Reeves was playing many shows around Los Angeles and had residencies at places like the Hotel Café.[17][26] Kara DioGuardi became aware of Jason Reeves after the release of his album The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache and listened to the CD during a long car trip in Maine.[22] As the vice president of A&R at Warner Bros. Records, she contacted Reeves and brought him to then-president Tom Whalley who signed Reeves to the label.[4][27] DioGuardi and Reeves would end up working together on music, most notably co-writing the song "Terrified" which they would perform together on YouTube and Lopez Tonight.[20] The song was later covered by Didi Benami on the ninth season of American Idol and Katharine McPhee for her second album Unbroken and featured vocals from Reeves.

Now signed to major label, Reeves' recently completed album, The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache, was re-released under the Warner Bros. Records label in 2008 with four remixed tracks.[28] Songs from that and previous albums would also be featured on TV shows such as Army Wives and One Tree Hill around this time.[20] Reeves also began touring nationally to support The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache with musician Tyrone Wells and others.[26]

Reeves began work on an EP and also doing co-writing sessions with Colbie Caillat for her second album, Breakthrough, as well as writing sessions with other artists. He did more frequent bouts of touring, including a May 2009 Vespa-sponsored "green tour" with Brendan James and Amber Rubarth during which they toured the California Coast on Vespa scooters while focusing on environmental friendliness. Near the end of 2009, Reeve's EP Patience for the Waiting was released by Warner Bros. Records.

The Lovesick and Caged Birds Set Free

Reeves had completed material for a new album, The Lovesick, with producer Adam B Smith in Nashville,[25][29] in early 2010[30] but the album was put on hold during the transition at Warner. Bros Records when CEO Tom Whalley stepped down in September 2010.[31] The album featured collaborations with Kara DiaGuardi and Colbie Caillat.[32] Warner Bros. Records eventually released a track from the album, "Helium Hearts", as a single in July 2010. With the single, a music video was also released. Months passed and Reeves was dropped from Warner Bros. Records following the aftermath of Tom Whalley leaving, but was allowed to keep his master tapes. He self-released the album The Lovesick in August 2011, a whole year after the initial single was released and nearly four years since his last full-length album.[5]

On November 15, 2011, Reeves released another EP, Caged Birds Set Free, which hailed back to acoustic styles from The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache. The EP features a re-recording of "Wishing Weed" featuring Colbie Caillat and a song featuring Kara DioGuardi, "New York in Wintertime".

Reeves also continues to work as a co-writer, writing songs for such artists as Lenka,[15][26] Angel Taylor, Demi Lovato, The JaneDear Girls and the Japanese group Kimaguren. The song "The Show" that Reeves co-wrote with artist Lenka did well, being used in advertisements for Old Navy[33] and Ugly Betty.[34] "The Show" was also featured in the films Moneyball and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

Songs Are Silent Films

Reeves released his new full-length album called Songs Are Silent Films on June 12, later than expected, on all digital retailers. He again worked with Nashville Producer, Adam Smith, on many of the tracks. Through pledgemusic.com, Jason asked fans to pledge to support the production of his new album, after being dropped by the Major Label. Pledgers get access to updates about the album as well as some of the songs to be released on the album.

“There's a little bit of everything on it," Reeves said about the new record. "It goes from really stripped-down acoustic to full band. There's a couple things on there that I’ve never tried before, but for the most part it's a return to the way I have been doing it all along – just the acoustic, organic feel."[35]

The first song from the album is called "Back With Me" and was released on March 27 along with a video on YouTube, which was directed by Reeves.[36] The second promotional released song from Songs Are Silent Films is "You're My Best Friend" and was released on April 17. The first official single is called "More In Love With You" and features Nelly Joy, who formerly recorded under her real name Danelle Leverett as one-half of the JaneDear girls.[37]

High Dive Heart

Reeves released the single "Vintage" on April 21, 2015, from his newest project High Dive Heart, a pop duo consisting of himself and Nelly Joy, who formerly recorded under her real name Danelle Leverett in the group the JaneDear girls. On July 17, 2015, High Dive Heart released their first EP: Sonic Graffiti – EP.[38]

Personal life

Reeves is mainly interested in the arts and besides music is into writing, photography and illustration.[10][12] He has done the artwork for his own albums and is passionate about taking photos.[28] After years of living in Los Angeles,[39] Reeves currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.[22][29] Jason is married to fellow singer-songwriter Danelle Leverett, also known as Nelly Joy. Both were in the country band, Gone West, which disbanded in August 2020.

Discography

Albums
  • Makeshift Aircraft (2003)
  • The Nervous Mind of Love (2004)
  • Hearts Are Magnets (EP) (2006)
  • The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales...) (2007)
    - The album was re-released by Warner Bros. Records in 2008 with four remixed tracks[19]
  • Patience for the Waiting (Special Edition Acoustic EP)|Patience for the Waiting]] (2009)
  • The Lovesick (August 2011)
  • Caged Birds Set Free (EP) (November 2011)
  • Songs Are Silent Films (June 12, 2012, charted at number 15 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Albums chart)[40]
  • Sketches (September 30, 2016)
  • Canyons (June 12, 2020) - with Gone West

References
  1. "Bubbly Billboard chart history". Billboard. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  2. "RIAA Searchable Database". RIAA. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  3. Etan Rosenbloom (May 24, 2011). "Songs Are Like Tattoos: Jason Reeves". ASCAP. Archived from the original on October 13, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  4. Kristina Valencia (May 13, 2010). "Jason Reeves for the Waiting". findyourfav.com. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  5. "The Lovesick amazon page". Amazon.com. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  6. WPVI-TV/DT (June 13, 2010). "Tuned in to Jason Reeves". ABC News. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  7. "Blackbird official bio". Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  8. Sindy. "Jason Reeves interview". Kidz World. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  9. Amy Kelly (October 27, 2008). "Jason Reeves: The Internet Has 'Put The Power In Musicians' Hands'". Ultimate Guitar. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  10. Ashley Schaeffer (December 20, 2008). "Jason Reeves interview". Buzzine Music. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  11. Aaron Keker (December 1, 2008). "Always Acoustic interview". Always Acoustic. Archived from the original on September 11, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  12. Rick Florino (August 13, 2008). "Interview: Jason Reeves". Artist Direct. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  13. Jeff Moehlis (April 11, 2011). "Jason Reeves interview". Music Illuminati. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  14. Kent Williams. "Makeshift Aircraft blurb". The Little Village. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  15. Erin Vogel (February 14, 2011). "Jason Reeves and the realities of co-writing". Chicago Flame. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  16. Kirsten Steffey (August 24, 2011). "Jason Reeves returns to The Mill". Press Citizen. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  17. Mike Farley (August 28, 2008). "A chat with Jason Reeves". Bullz-Eye. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  18. Joe Lawler (February 16, 2011). "Jason Reeves: The man behind Bubbly". Des Moines MetroMix. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  19. Jonathan Widran. "Jason Reeves Co-Writes Two Hits With Colbie Caillat, Releases Solo Album on Warner Bros. Records". Song Writer Universe. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  20. Mike Ragogna (February 23, 2011). "A conversation with Jason Reeves". HuffPost. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  21. "Jason Reeves' 'Adventures' Bring Him Back To Iowa". Des Moines Register. March 6, 2009. Archived from the original on March 24, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  22. David Burke (August 18, 2011). "Iowa City native Reeves strikes gold with Caillat". Quad City Times. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  23. Whitney Self (March 11, 2009). "Colbie Caillat's Insight into Her MySpace Success". CMT. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  24. "Colbie Caillat Billboard charts". Billboard. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  25. Amy Sciarretto (February 3, 2011). "Jason Reeves to Release 'The Lovesick' This Summer". Artist Direct. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  26. Michele Reverte (October 12, 2008). "LAist Interview: Jason Reeves". LAist. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  27. DioGuardi 2011
  28. Jennifer Maurer (August 4, 2010). "Exclusive interview with Jason Reeves". Popstar. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  29. Bill Palmer (May 25, 2011). "Jason Reeves interview: Beatweek Rising Star 2011 talks The Lovesick". Beatweek Magazine. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  30. Beatweek (April 19, 2010). "Jason Reeves interview". Beatweek Magazine. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  31. Daniel Kreps (September 14, 2010). "Warner Bros. CEO Tom Whalley Steps Down". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  32. BWW News Desk (August 16, 2011). "Jason Reeves Releases THE LOVESICK". Broadway World. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  33. "Old Navy Ad". Old Navy. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  34. "Ugly Betty Promo". ABC. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  35. "Interview about 'Songs Are Silent Films'".
  36. Jason Reeves [@JasonReeves] (March 21, 2012). "The 1st song from my new album is coming out March 27th!! The video is coming even sooner! Here's the cover:" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  37. "Jason Reeves to Release "Songs Are Silent Films," in Stores and Available Online June 12". Prweb.com. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  38. "Sonic Graffiti – EP by High Dive Heart" – via music.apple.com.
  39. Melanie Love. "Hearts are Magnets info". The Daily Vault. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  40. "Jason Reeves Chart History (Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
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