Jason Paul Johnston's "Willows Motel"

I first met Jason while looking for a Mackie channel mixer for doing some recordings. Google returned me a search result for this place called Revolution Audio in Mississauga. It was weird, because at that time, I knew every single music shop in town, and I could draw up directions to each one of them in my sleep, not to mention their inside layout. I knew which store had what kind of guitars, which store had what deals at what time of year, and which store carried my favourite brand of guitar strings. To realize that there is a new music store in town that I don't know of was, to say the least, unsettling. I immediately google mapped the address and hopped in my car and drove towards lakeshore.

I was pleasantly surprised upon reaching at the doorsteps of Revolution Audio. It was this little store sandwiched between a bakery and a laundry with cool red walls, multitude of recording equipment and all kinds of gadgets and software. They also had a small studio setup at the back of the store. I was greeted by Jason with a smile, who showed me my mackie mixer and we got talking. Jason told me that he had just opened the store, and also about bunch of recording lessons that he was planning on offering for free at the time. I promised to attend a few and left the store.

Over the next few months I'd see Jason at his store several times and attend a few of his classes (which btw were great; and I believe they still offer them). I'd take my own recordings to Jason and ask for his feedback and what he thought I could do to improve. At some point I got too busy with my own stuff and never got a chance to go to the store or meet Jason for a long time.

A couple of years back Jason contacted me asking if we'd be interested in doing a photoshoot for his upcoming album. I was obviously thrilled and had lots of ideas. He specifically wanted to use this motel up from his place on lakeshore for the location as it was the title song of his upcoming album. He rented a room (which you can actually get by the hour; yeah!) and we took some pictures.

Couple of years passed. We moved to Ottawa. Recently, we got an email from Jason mentioning that he is finally releasing the album with our artwork. We are obviously super stoked for him.

Jason has a CD release party happening this coming Saturday so if you're in the area be sure to check it out. Here are the details:

Sat, July 18, 2009 7:30 pm CD Release show at the Cadillac Lounge(1296 Queen Street West Toronto, ON)

You can see the dates with details to maps / addresses and so on here:
http://jasonpauljohnston.com/showstour.cfm

Finally, here is his album artwork along with some pictures we took.

(Click the image above to see full size)





(Click the image above to see full size)