The Story So Far...
Early Years
I started playing guitar in high school after a childhood of piano lessons and playing in band at school, where I’d also learned to play drums. After a false start or two, Synthetic Reality was born among my friends and I - Damian Braun, Michael Bischoff, and Nick Stavros. We were together for well over a year, and re-grouped the summer after we went off to college for one last hurrah, with Gordon Heckaman joining us on drums.
From there, I started cutting my teeth with digital audio tools at my job in the Multimedia and Visualization Lab at the University of Arizona. I spent the better part of my college career learning how to record and mix audio as I produced some wonderfully awful music. It was then that SuperStarr Productions was born.
The Bands of Tucson
As I transitioned from my junior to senior year in college, I joined up with a band, along with long time friend and collaborator, David Gasper. This band would come to be known as Monster Zero One, along with Fred Baker and Jeff Friedl (who went on to play with A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Devo and the Beta Machine), with Chris Coppus eventually replacing Jeff as our drummer. For the better part of a year, we played shows throughout the Tucson area until the band broke up.
After that, David and I spent time trying to form a new band, now with me also singing, which culminated in a group we called Koyaanisqatsi, with drummer Michael Welch. This band never played a single show, but we recorded all of our rehearsals and got a lot of great material out of it. Many of the songs developed during this era would feed into the next. Koyaanisqatsi only lasted a few months until other priorities led me back to the Phoenix area for graduate school.
The Adam Black Era
Upon my return home, and a short lived attempt at a Synthetic Reality reunion, I forged ahead with a new band, called Adam Black, joined by Chad Seaverns (our bassist for the whole run of the band), and Nick Stavros.
Eventually, Michael Bischoff joined up as our other guitarist and John Marcus replaced Nick on the drums, who was also eventually replaced by Jason Pataska. During this time, I continued to develop and release music under my pseudonym, J-Sin Starr. Different iterations of the band recorded material.
Adam Black played shows for over 4 years, until again, priorities dictated the end of that group. Following that, my two daughters were born and I dedicated my time to them during their infancy and toddler-hood, along with other priorities in life for several years.
A Life Renewed
These days, we’re all a little older and I'm focusing more time on producing material again. I've been playing music my whole life in some form or fashion, and my passion has been renewed! I have spent the last few years playing lead guitar and singing some backup (with occasional leads) in a country rock (IKR?) cover band, called the North Stars. You can check them out on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/thenorthstarsband
I've also continued work on new material that I will begin releasing on streaming platforms. I've started moving my old catalogue there as well. Links are provided for albums that are now streaming. I hope you enjoy the music I’ve released.
In general, all MP3’s provided here are 128kb/sec, so if you’d like higher quality versions, please feel free to contact me. I do make these available only for personal use, so if there is a commercial application you’d be interested in using something for, please contact me!
Thank you for your interest!
- Jason Cox
