Jason Frilot: The Unlikely Musician

By MaryNell Nolan-Wheatley

Jason Frilot, though born and raised in New Orleans, didn’t come from a musical family. He didn’t play an instrument or have a band growing up. He was different from his four siblings; the only one with blue eyes, he wasn’t interested in sports or video games like the others. He drew. He wrote poetry. And, in his words, “just made noise.”

This self-described noise making turned out to be the start of a something compelling and sincere. The noise gradually became more organized, more satisfying and turned into music, a calling of which he was unaware until the ripe age of 21 despite briefly dabbling in hip hop at fourteen. “I went to California and found myself in music,” he stated assuredly within minutes of meeting me, which provided a useful context for Frilot’s art. Besides his belated dive into the music world via the land of Sublime’s Bradley Nowell, one of the musicians Frilot looks to for inspiration, it was also within this environment that he, almost haphazardly, discovered his purist form of self-expression. The self-taught singer/songwriter and guitarist admits that the process is not always initially therapeutic and that sometimes he is frustrated by writer’s block, but he has learned that his talent is dependable, and his voice eventually materializes, lyrical and gently intense. With no formal training, he improvises his music, never writing most of it down. The music “manifests” in his mind and this is the way he wants it, for now at least: “A stream of consciousness is so natural. It takes the fun out of it if you write everything down. I don’t like to see it, I like to feel it.”

Frilot’s childhood passion for poetry has translated into organically expressive lyrics. His music is personal, inspired by his own experiences, but it remains optimistic. “Music is bittersweet,” Frilot emphasized. “A lot of songs are written from pain and you get pleasure from that. The optimism is either something humorous or something sad, but it has a positive outcome. That’s life. It’s about making the best out of any situation.” Frilot’s music is indeed subtly lifting, with a beachy, Jack Johnson air. But his songs are unique in their binary quality, for the surface meaning and the deeper meaning coexist in a reciprocal communion. Frilot’s suggestively titled song, “Tomorrow Morning,” isn’t about a girl at all, which may surprise you on first listen. Instead, this song defeats something much deeper and Frilot’s lyrics and literary tools write around the subjects that disturb him.

Currently, Jason Frilot is busy completing his first studio-mastered solo album with the assistance of his producers, Pedro Lucero and Chris Robles at Medium Entertainment. The album, appropriately titled “Soul System” for its soulful vibe, is the first of many to come. Frilot assured me he is eager to not only continue making music, but also to tackle other genres, including Folk-Hop and Jazz-Funk. Judging by his track record of ingenuity, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.

Listen to Jason Frilot’s music on his myspace page, at www.myspace.com/jasonfrilot, where you can also follow progress on “Soul System,” or download versions of his songs from ilike.com//artist/Jason+frilot.