Interview :Young Sun – Revolushn By Rock Star Journalist Eileen Shapiro

Interview :Young Sun – Revolushn By Rock Star Journalist Eileen Shapiro

The psych protest band Revolushn introduces yet another member of their tight musical family. Guitarist, vocalist, and mandolin master, who also plays drums, Young Sun, more formally known as Jason Young. He is based in the San Francisco area and involved in many projects. He began his career in musical theater, commercials and film. 

He and Revolushn guitarist “No” take turns playing lead, while he also plays drums in several other bands. I spoke with Young Sun who was incredibly personable, and affectionately into his music, valuing everyone of his The psych protest band Revolushn introduces yet another member of their tight musical family. Guitarist, vocalist, and mandolin master, who also plays drums, Young Sun, more formally known as Jason Young. He is based in the San Francisco area and involved in many projects. He began his career in musical theater, commercials and film. 

He and Revolushn guitarist “No” take turns playing lead, while he also plays drums in several other bands. I spoke with Young Sun who was incredibly personable, and affectionately into his music, valuing everyone of his . He’s preparing as is the rest of Revolushn to come to New York for a mini tour in the city and surrounding areas. The band is beginning to make some real noise, especially since the release and debut of their creative new video, “Dinosaurs”. 

What is your Revolushn role?

What I do is I’m guitarist, I’m also singer. Mostly backup but I do lead parts. Basically No and I trade off between rhythm and lead. I’m excited to experiment with sound, try different stuff, and write some new stuff as well. Everything has been basically No and David thus far. So it’s a lot of fun. 

I love your wife,  Guinevere Q.

She’s awesome. We are in a bunch of different groups so we are always making music together. I’m definitely excited to go to New York, never been. 

Never, ever?

I’ve never been so it will be interesting the first time going there on tour playing several shows in all different areas. I’m normally a drummer, but I grew up as a guitar player. My lifelong dreams are to play shows playing guitar and drums at the same time.

Which do you like playing better?

To be honest I like them both pretty close to the same. I have to say I need to catch up on Guitar because I feel like I’m a better drummer now. I didn’t always feel that way, I used to be more of a better guitar player. Now they’re just competing with each other. Now I’m working on playing guitar and drums at the same time. I did that in a show recently. It went over alright, but I feel like it’s going to take some time to master.

You just need a couple more hands.

I think so. I think I just have to figure out how to grow hands and practice some more, and then I’ll be all right.

What kind of music did you grow up listening to.

I grew up listening originally to show tunes, and what my folks listened to, which would be the Beatles, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and a lot of show tunes. I was in the theater at the age of six. The first play I was in was, “Into The Woods”. It was a weird show for a little kid. I played Jack and sang, “There are Giants in the Sky”… and that really got me into weird music. I didn’t realize until a little later how odd Stephen Sondheim’s music was and how brilliant it was. It was a lot of emphasis on dissonance and very influenced by jazz. So that really effected me later on when I got into alternative music in high school and I realized that it was very similar. So I think that really helped me with vocal singing with harmonies and interesting choices of melody. 

Do you have a musical hero?

I do. Actually a person that really got me into wanting to write music, I was a singer in bands when I was in high school, but when I started writing my own music it was because of John Frusciante. He was long time guitarist of the Red Hot Chilly Peppers. He’s been in and out of the band. When he left the band first he went on this adventure, he also was strung out on heroin but, he wrote some of the most beautiful music. It’s definitely not the most commercially type of music but what I really liked about it is he explored so many different genres of music. He made this brilliant album in his own apartment, and I heard that. A friend showed me that. At that point I started writing songs. From then on I wanted to be a guitarist, I wanted to be a musician and be a composer. He’s a big hero of mine.

Revolushn seems to be a very close band.

When we first met No and Olga, it was really cool. I remember when I first met No, I was playing a show with our band Dr. STRYKER on drums in some random place on tour. He heard about it, and he came all the way out there. I was like, Is that the guy from the open mic’? We talked for hours after the show and he was telling me about his studio and how he recorded his music. Then I was really surprised that he asked me to play guitar. He never actually heard me play guitar. He said he had a feeling that he knew I could play guitar. I did play guitar but he had actually just watched me play drums. So he started coming to our open mic often and we would have jam sessions before the open mic actually started. We would just do whatever we wanted. That really helped us get into that groove. Then he invited me to do a show with him on Halloween. He had this awesome party. It was in this weird place that I can barely describe. It was his old office building that he basically played his music at, that’s where he rehearses and records. The rest of it is basically abandoned. It’s something out of a horror movie, and he had a Halloween party there. So we definitely had some adventures.

It is exciting that you guys are coming to New York.

I’m excited to meet everybody out there. I have some friends out there and I’m looking forward to seeing them and I’ll tell them to come. I have to give them incentive, make them believe that something is going to happen at the show. You have to be there if you want to see it. 

I have a feeling that something is going to happen at those shows anyway.

You know what? That’s a promise I have for every show I do no matter what show. Something weird is going to happen at the show. If you miss it you will miss it forever and you’ll never get it back, so you have to go to that show. So if Young Sun ever plays a show, something crazy is going to happen, and you don’t want to miss it. That’s my spiel for all time, but definitely in New York.

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