Funkadelphia: "When did you realize your passion for music, what initiated your journey on the music path, and what did you first start out doing musically?"

Jason Hann: "Some great questions and I have plenty of great stories for them. I probably started getting serious about music when I was 11, my dad was a guitar player and singer and was able to get a gig close to where I was living, and I could take my homework over there and see his band play. It was pretty cool being around adults and hanging out in the club at that age.I was loving watching these guys play music every night. At first, I just sort of absorbed it but I wouldn’t call it a passion yet. Little by little the drummer would show me something on there instrument during set breaks, and I seem to pick it up pretty easily. Within a year and a half I knew just about all the band’s songs and could sit in and perform them. That’s when I started making money doing it and the passion came once I got into it. I was finding out about these limitless things you could study like rhythm on the drum set, or when I started playing percussion I would visit different countries and learn different traditional rhythms from the indigenous people and explore the world and the universe that way. There is still an endless amount of learning to be done. It’s both humbling and exciting and gives me a reason to dive into studying anything I can about music."

Funkadelphia: "What does music do you for as an individual- artistic expression, internal reflection, mental or emotional release?"

Jason Hann: "It’s the whole gambit. When I think about getting good at something or trying to understand something, there’s this skill that I’ve learned through music and I can reflect on that, and say to myself,  Well I got pretty good on that, what were some of the methods I used to do that and how can I use them to get good at something else, like experiencing things spiritually, or what does it take to put the time and effort into being proficient at something else. Before I dive into or try to learn something else I try to measure how much time i’m going to invest in it to really feel dedicated to it and use it as a tool in a proficient way. 
So some of the things that I’ve learned from music that cross over into spirituality, is the idea that you’re doing something  to the point where your mind zones out or zones in, either way, to the state where you’re letting things go and there’s no sense of any thoughts that hold you back from anything.  In your mind, It feels like you’ve opened yourself up to any kind of world to drift through. Whether its something you’re making up or some thought process that you’re thinking about something else in a different way. In that sense, it allows you to go where you cant go by doing other things. Everyone has their different methods to get into that state of being, like meditation or yoga. With music, it’s really easy to get into that state, If I’m not practicing at home trying to workout something with my muscles, I can sit behind my drums, any percussion really, and feel like I can just play very freely without thinking about technique or what I’m playing and at that moment I can take my mind to that space where its just drifting through and letting any types of thoughts to drift in. 
There are all these barriers set up and walls of what you learned and where you’re at and what you’re going to its nice to have a vehicle with zero walls now what’re you gonna do, now what happens? Its not scary at all the curtain pulls away and you have a lot to choose from whats behind them."

Funkadelphia: "Who are some of your general artistic influences; do you pull any specific influences for each individual project (i.e. SCI, EOTO, Prophet Massive)?"

Jason Hann: "I’m all over in tastes of music, but if I’m doing a studio session or playing a specific project, ill try to listen to music that I think will enhance my performance. For example if I’m doing a studio session with a brazilian percussion influence like from Brazil: Gilberto Gil, Hermeto Pascoal,  or from Africa Salis Keita, Lets Ballets Africans. As far as electronic goes these days, there are just so many, but as of lately I’ve been listening to Youngsta, Trashbat. I pull some Jazz influence from Joe Zawinul. Also, definitely Tipper."

Funkadelphia: "What clicked between you and Michael

that prompted the creation of EOTO?"

Jason Hann: "When I got into String Cheese I would stay mostly over at [Michael] Travis’ place. He was one guy who didn’t necessarily have a family in the form of kids, so we could hang out all night. We listened to all kinds of music. We looked for music to help make the next step creatively for String Cheese. He’s always played bass and guitar and keyboard as long as he’s played drums just for himself, not necessarily for bands. He had a set up in his room with a six string bass and drum set up. We would play from ten at night to four or five in the morning just making stuff up and taking little breaks. Listening to internet radio, we listened to Groove Salad, all this downtempo stuff. We would come off these little breaks and go lets do that kind of a groove, that sounds fun. That kept clicking, we added more equipment around us to make the jams more fun and started recording ourselves. Then, when Jamie Janover was doing the first Sonic Bloom, he was like, 'hey I’ve heard about you guys are doing that stuff why don't you play a show?'- so that became our first gig and the first opportunity to do something with it."

Funkadelphia: "With the pretty radical difference, stylistically, between SCI and EOTO-

what prompted that move into electronic music?"

Jason Hann: "Well we headed out to Shambhala in Canada, and its about 80 percent Djs but everyone really brings their A games, they play music there you might not hear for another two years, people are just starting to release it. Now with Djs touring more the cycle might be smaller. But, back in 2008, we saw Skreams set. You know, dubstep used to be the most mellow of all the electronic music. If you were at a rave and wanted to chill out you went over to the dubstep tent where they had couches where everyone was comatose and the music had slow wobbles and everyones like woah this is really mellow and chill. Skream being one of those dubstep originators broke out with some really aggressive laser wobble sounds and he did that back in 2008 at Shambhala and the whole place fell apart, everyone was like woah what is this. Travis and I weren’t in the same spot but talked about that same moment later on and were like lets do this. I  happened to have a dubstep mixtape that I hadn’t listened to yet. So we listened to it in the car and it was all that aggressive stuff that we decided to go with right at the next gig. This was a couple years before it go down to the states so we felt we were ahead of he game. We felt like we had it figured out  and nobody else really knew what we were playing. Now with dubstep you never really know what you’re gonna get, you might go see a dubstep dj and it could be really played out. But we feel the way we play now is more aggressive but doesn’t sound like the same sounds those other guys use."

Funkadelphia: "What’s it like juggling SCI, EOTO, and your Prophet Massive project, what is your mind set like going into each different performance?"

Jason Hann: "It's pretty easy, actually, to switch things up in the head. Im a little bit ADD about things in the first place, so its great to get to work with different people and do different styles of music. In all three situations I’m very in the moment. In String Cheese world theres song that we play and we take the jams to those songs and try to make something really original with it and it comes from a world of six guys playing together and feeding off each other and when I play percussion with Cheese its very much I have my range of sounds that I use I’m not necessarily trying to do anything other than serve the song we a re playing at that moment. In EOTO world we are just making stuff up, so the styles of music are varied but in an electronic way, dubstep or trap or a hybrid of both or drum n bass. We’ve been doing a lot of funk stuff sort of like electro with more organic instruments. It stays in that [electronic] zone but within that zone goes anywhere we want it to go. I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my DJ sets, I’ve done enough sets where people are digging it but I do wanna change the style up some. Just because the style I’m doing now is great but I’m feeling like I wanna do some other things but its a little bit tricky when you’re audience is expecting a certain thing that I’ve had up on Soundcloud for a year and a half. That might be the trickiest maneuver it will involve me reinventing myself every few years. With EOTO its really easy because we are playing it all live. In Prophet Massive world its always trying to check out different music and also be fresh at the same time. I don’t wanna play what everyone else is playing but what I do play I want you to be familiar with but theres a little twist that makes you go hmm and get into it in a different way."

Complete Interview: