2x Carolina Music Award Winner, Actor & Producer.
High octane, blues rock, recording artist/actor, multi-instrumentalist, producer, Jason Damico is an emerging and driving force in the entertainment industry. Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina this “rocking young turk” has already racked up many awards: Carolina Music Awards Rock Male Artist of the Year and Youth Artist of the Year; Triangle Blues Society Solo Blues Challenge Winner competing in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis; Best Overall Musician Award; Youngest Member (15) of the Duke University Jazz Ensemble; Song of the Year Semi-Finalist Winner; winner of multiple music video awards, and more.
Damico’s “amalgamation” writing style, high energy, deep, powerful, baritone vocals in the vein of Jim Morrison (The Doors), Peter Steele (Type O Negative), and Johnny Cash, blended with blistering guitar riffs in the styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Zakk Wylde, and Jimi Hendrix, results in an undeniably, soulful swagger of a satisfyingly “new blue” sound.
Over the years this artist has had the privilege of sharing the stage or opening for world-renowned, musical greats in a multitude of genres. Some notable names include: Claudette King, Joe Louis Walker, Slam Allen, Mr. Sipp, Tony Holiday, Mike Mc Kee, Vito Luizzi, Brad Russell, Galea Galea, Buddy Guy, Joe Chambers, Monty Alexander, Trae Pierce, Big Daddy Wilson, Will McFarlane, Lucky Peterson, Jason Marsalis, Ray Codrington, Vincent Gardner, Kevin Mahogany, John V. Brown, Sonny Rock, Jason Adamo, John Arthur Greene, and more. The most prodigious honor came when Jason Damico opened two pre-shows for the late great B.B. King at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
Damico has toured the East Coast both solo and with his band New Blue—rocking thousands of fans at hundreds of celebrated venues, some of which include: House of Blues (SC), Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts (NC), Bull Durham Blues Festival (NC), The Big Apple Indie Music Series at Toshi’s Living Room (NYC), The Towne Crier (NY), The Falcon (NY), Arlene’s Grocery (NYC), The Empire Hotel (NYC), The Orpheum (TN), Lincoln Theatre (NC), The Pour House (NC), The Blue Note Grill (NC), SAS 35th Annual Concert Series (NC), Hilltop Tavern (NJ), Hilton’s Ad Lib (PA), Earl’s Hideaway (FL), Midtown Live (NYC), Orange County Choppers (NY), Helsinki Hudson (NY), The Color Run (VA), Durham Symphony Orchestra (NC), and many more.
At the age of fourteen, a seminal turning point in Jason’s life happened when he experienced an unfortunate traumatic eye injury due to a fishing accident. For six months, he would find himself nearly blind in his right eye and unable to lift more than five pounds per doctor’s orders. He was also unable to read and had to sleep upright throughout this recovery period; left to only listen to music on his iPod. It was during this period of convalescing that Damico began to experience a supernatural, internal sonic sense “awakening” where he was able to hear everything “all at once” and somehow intuitively understand it. Damico recalls the incident in an interview, stating:
“The best way I could define it is like it is as if there was a dark drape that had been unveiled from my visual sense of sound. I was able to see relationships between instruments, frequencies, emotional reasonings, nuances, etc. in music that before were simply non-existent to me. But most of all, I was able to decipher and understand melody and harmonic relationships within about ten seconds—it was as if I learned years of college level music theory all in a moment. It’s still baffling to me to this day, because I was always a drummer first, and always listening to just drums on recordings. But after this happened, everything changed dramatically—I was able to see the entire picture.”
This physical weakness would soon turn into his creative drive and self-production strength—with all instrumentation and vocals performed, recorded, produced and mixed by Jason Damico—He would become one of the most promising, young, millennial, blues rock artists currently emerging on the circuit, releasing his first EP “For You” (2010) at the age of 16 as well as his debut CD, “Blood, Sweat & Blues” (2014) at 20, followed by a second full length CD “Terra Firma” (2015). Soon after these releases, Jason began working as an intern at one of the world’s most prestigious studios—Manifold Recording. He would soon develop a sense of world class engineering and producing practices while under the tutelage of world-renowned engineer and producer, Ian Schreier (Sony/Columbia, James Taylor, Slash, Velvet Revolver, Nile Rogers, Kenny Chesney, Sarah Shook, etc.). He would continue releasing music during and beyond this time, including “No More Tears To Cry” (2016), Mary Did You Know (2016), “The Bedroom Rock Series” (EP) (2017), “Alex” (2018), “Running On Water” (2018), “The Changeling” (2019), “Hole In My Soul” (2019), “I Just Want To Be With You” (2019), “Only Myself To Blame” (2019), “Old Soul” (2020), etc.
Aside from Damico’s music career, he works regularly as an actor in TV, film and theatre as well as commercial/industrial—experiencing much success. Some of his most notable appearances include: “The Irishman” (Martin Scorsese, Netflix), “Nikon” (Joe McNally Photography), “Famously Afraid” (The Travel Channel), “Study Abroad & “Back to Beijiing” (Enmaze Pictures), “Quantico” (ABC), “Homicide Hunter Lt Joe Kenda” (Investigation Discovery), “Good Behavior” (TNT), “Fan Girl” (ABC Family), “Art Camp” (Myriad Media), “The Believers” (David Quillin), “Eastbound and Down” (Will Ferrell, HBO), “Hick” (Derick Martini), “Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural” (ISN, TBN, Daystar), “All Shook Up” (Chad/lead, North Carolina Theatre), and more.
In the summer of 2019, Damico began a You Tube series entitled “The Jason Damico Show” which has now turned into a burgeoning, self-propelling, and captivating podcast available on iTunes, Spotify, SimpleCast, iHeart Radio, etc. The program showcases and interviews artists from all works of life, genres, talents and trades. His engaging interview style elicits fascinating insights from his guests—including their success stories, career lessons learned, beliefs, and ultimate visions as creative entrepreneurs. Some noteworthy guests include: Jessica Lynn, MessiahSez, John Custer, Mel Melton, Slam Allen, Jason Adamo, Dave Rose, Ira David Wood III, Lou Plaia (co-founder of Reverbnation), Ian Schreier, Rob Schwartz, Rick Eberle, Gino Caporale, LSDJ, Bridget Callahan, and many more.