About
Welcome to
BuckyTunes!
Jason, originally from Brooklyn, New York, started piano lessons at age 7. Briefly leaving the NYC area, he went on to co-found the Buffalo-based rock/pop band “TDM”. Insisting on original music, the female-fronted quintet quickly garnered local attention, appearing on local radio and television’s Eyewitness News. After their studio debut, TDM went on to perform extensively in the western NY area, and opened for Helen Reddy, The Scintas, and Ronnie Milsap, among others.
Jason, as a music major, then co-founded the reggae/ska/funk group, “The Groovy Buddhas” in the Schenectady/Albany area. Their James Brown-inspired song “Shake Your Butt” earned them significant local college airplay, and before long the group was playing extensively in Albany, Saratoga Springs, and NYC- including being invited to play at CBGB.
During his college and graduate school years, Jason also was quite involved in the college a cappella scene, performing, directing and arranging for several groups, which ultimately led to a performance in Carnegie Hall. Jason was also privileged to be a part of a multi-university performance of Mozart’s Requiem with a professional orchestra at West Point Military Academy’s beautiful chapel. Jason regards this as one of his favorite non-rock band experiences. Another high point during this time was studying traditional Japanese music while living in Osaka, Japan.
Once done with school, Jason co-founded the progressive/pop band “Days Before Tomorrow”. Based in Wayne, New Jersey, Jason and the band moved forward releasing their self-titled debut EP. The self-produced CD, in combination with the band’s remake of Nelson’s “After The Rain” on Main Man Records landed the interest of legendary rock producer Ron Nevison (Led Zeppelin, The Who, Heart, Jefferson Starship, Europe, Kiss, Damn Yankees, and more), and Grammy award winning engineer Earl Cohen (Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Will Smith, Tina Turner) who both went on to produce and engineer the band’s first full-length album, The Sky is Falling.
Prior to The Sky is Falling, the band released a track that Jason co-wrote, “Can’t Do Anything”; this was a political statement disguised as a jaded love song, and received an honorable mention in Billboard Magazine’s 14th Annual Songwriting Contest.
In August 2008, a demo recording of the song “Sleepwalking” (from the band’s 2009 CD, The Sky Is Falling, of which Jason wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 13 songs) received an honorable mention in Billboard Magazine’s 15th Annual Songwriting Competition. Jason, of course, also performed on the CD, and a number of tracks were recorded at The Operating Room, Jason’s recording studio, as well.
In 2009, The Sky Is Falling won Record of the Year at the 2009 LA Music Awards, which included the band’s performance at Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. Jason looks at the experience as a time of tremendous growth and development and is thankful to have worked with some very talented people.
Despite his success on the East coast, Jason relocated from the tri-state area to Arizona for his primary residence and studio location, but still maintains a residence and smaller studio in Manhattan, which he visits regularly. Jason’s endeavors include the creation of The Operating Room, a Pro Tools based professional recording studio, and further development of BuckyTunes Publishing, LLC. Jason is an ASCAP member as well.
Jason has written for and co-produced Arizona-based pop/R&B artist Promise the Truth. Promise has worked alongside world-renowned producers and writers such as Ced Solo, the Platinum Producer for Genuine, Anthony Hamilton, and Kelly Rolland. Jason’s instrumental and composing expertise combined with Promise’s exceptional vocal skills and great understanding of urban/R&B sound production led to a unique blend of classical, pop, and R&B sound- all in a radio-friendly package. After several local performances, Promise and Jason had gotten radio airplay on their single “A Million Signs”. A Million Signs charted as high as #35 on the R and B charts, and quickly garnered more than 200,000 views on YouTube. Around the same time, Jason and Promise also recorded “Like California”, an upbeat song that Jason plays primarily on electric guitar, again showing his versatility in creating songs.
Jason has also had the pleasure of playing keyboards for long-time friend and previous TDM band-mate Matthew Facciolla, in the Matthew Johns Band. Matt has appeared as direct support for several national acts, including One Republic, The Goo Goo Dolls, Foghat, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and The J. Geils Band. Matthew has asked Jason to be his keyboardist, which has been very exciting and led to recording songs for a future album at GCR studios in Buffalo, produced by the Goo Goo Dolls’ own Robby Takac. It also led to multiple performances, including playing keyboards for 15,000 fans, opening with Matt for Foghat. This led to other performances, both large and small, including opening for the Vinyl All Stars (a band that includes Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers alumnus Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Boston former members Barry Gordreau and Fran Sheehan, Leroy “LRS” Romans (The Wailers/Third World), Robert “Mousey” Thompson from James Brown’s band and Fosterchild’s Danny Beissel, Hugh McDonald (Bon Jovi), Cliff Williams (AC/DC) and former Gregg Allman Band drummer Chaz Trippy) at a charity concert. As of 2025, Matt has asked Jason once again to play piano and keyboards on his upcoming album in 2026.
While working with James Linton of Soundwaves Productions for the Promise sessions, Jason was asked to collaborate with James and Paul Barrett, founder and lead singer of One World Government. Sonically influenced by Pink Floyd, Rush, and The Doors, the fusion of alternative, progressive, psychedelic and classic rock is often marked by lyrics of conspiracy, humanism, and spirituality.
Several videos from the first album- Souls for Robots and Spiritual Cage- Jason appeared in. Jason’s ability to work in many genres, as well as experience in orchestrating keyboard and string parts, proved invaluable to the next One World Government album release. In fact, Jason was not only asked to finish the album with Paul and James, but was asked to be the keyboardist of all subsequent albums and live performances. The Spiritual Cage video has even had some success overseas in Switzerland. Certainly, one of the highlights was that One World Government was placed on the Official Ballot for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards by The Recording Academy for Record Of The Year, Best New Artist, and Best Rock Performance!
Although previously leaving Days Before Tomorrow, Jason stayed friendly with the band, and ironically has made a guest appearance on every album since his departure.
Eventually, however, Days Before Tomorrow did go on hiatus, and two band members decided to do something a little different. Bandmates Scott Kahn and Derek Davodowich started pursuing something more commercially appealing, which is what became Dream Eternal Bliss. Around the time of the pandemic, a new lineup was created, including Jason. Given the geographical distances involved, and the pandemic, it took quite some time to finally complete- but in 2023, the EP “Sunset to Stars” was finally released. Jason again contributed heavily to the writing on the album, and of course, performed on the recording as well.
Teaming up with multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/engineer Dominic Guss, Jason and Dominic released an EP under the entity Inn of Itself. Inn of Itself is a continually evolving music production and writing team originally formed by Dominic Guss and Kat Werlin featuring a variety of guest artists. After releasing a number of singles, Inn of Itself’s first EP, “Beautiful Restart” was released October 20th, 2023. Produced by Dominic and Jason, it features five songs in the Dance and R&B/Soul genres. Jason has substantial writing credits on the original songs, and, of course, performed on the album as well.
In 2024, Dominic and Jason discovered a talented young vocalist/artist, Isha K, in Arizona. Again teaming up for writing and producing, Jason and Dom released a dance remake of the classic song “When You Say Nothing at All”, as well as the original song, “Too Much”. More songs are in various stages of development for this artist. In 2024, Dominic and Jason discovered a talented young vocalist/artist, Isha K, in Arizona. Again teaming up for writing and producing, Jason and Dom released a dance remake of the classic song “When You Say Nothing at All”, as well as the original song, “Too Much”. More songs are in various stages of development for this artist; additionally Dom and Jason continue to work together on additional projects to be released soon.
Jason continues to write, record, and perform, and is excited about new projects. When not in the studio or on stage, Jason is also the Senior Keyboard Editor for MusicPlayers.com, an online music magazine for professional musicians.
