Birth name Jett Craze Name Jett Craze Website www.jetcraze.com | Years active 2004–present Origin London, England Role Singer | |
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Occupation(s) Composer, Producer, Musician Instruments Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, Drums Genres Indie rock, Electronic rock, Britpop | ||
Happy Being Me
Jett Craze (born 23 March 1974) is a New York-based, indie rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music composer. Born in London, England, and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, he attended the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and Hunter College in New York, NY. He moved back east to New York City in 1994, where he immersed himself in songwriting and learning to play the guitar. He formed several rock bands beginning in 1996, playing gigs throughout New York City. His bands' two albums, Jett Craze and With Friends garnered attention for the groups with music featured in a multitude of Sender Film's award-winning rock climbing documentaries. Additionally, Craze's solo work has won him individual recognition and commercial success as not only a singer/songwriter, but as a producer and composer. He has worked on projects for clients including The North Face, Cliff, Garmin and NBC Sports.
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Craze began his career performing mainly indie rock, but gradually began incorporating more of an electronic sound in 2006 when he began delving into his solo ventures and his side project So Deadly. His first solo album Strategy for Sleeping was released in 2008. Craze continues to compose and produce commercially and is set to release his next album in the winter of 2012.
Early life
Jett Craze was born on 23 March 1974 in London, England, to Edward Craze, entrepreneur and Sophia Craze, writer. The inspiration for his name came from the Paul McCartney and Wings song, "Jet" which peaked at No. 7 on the charts 30 March 1974. The second "t” in his name was added because his parents thought it was distinctive and if nothing else, simply looked better. He moved with his mother and sister Galaxy Craze, writer and author of By The Shore and Tiger, Tiger, to the United States at the age of 2 where they explored California, Florida and New York City before settling down in Amherst, MA.
Jett attended Amherst Regional Public schools for 6th through 9th grades, finishing high school at Northfield Mt. Hermon. Early on, Jett explored his passion for music, taking percussion lessons at age 12 and singing in his schools' church choirs. In college, Craze studied architecture at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR and returned to the east coast, finishing his studies in industrial design at the Rochester Institute of Technology for Industrial Design and Hunter College in New York City.
Career
During the summer of 1994, Craze began to have ideas for original songs. Reflecting on that period in time, Craze recalls, "I became so obsessed and stoned that I forgot to stop writing lyrics down before I actually started driving." He got into a car crash and escaped unscathed, but not without destroying his "really cool" 1970 VW Bus which was also his home at the time. The incident was a definitive turning point at which Craze decided to drive less and write more.
In 1996, Jett moved to New York City (where he wouldn't need a car) to finish school at Hunter College and continue to write songs. He immersed himself in songwriting while also learning to play guitar. Shortly after relocating, Craze formed his first of several bands, aptly named Jett Craze. The indie rock trio, composed of bass player Veronica Vasicka and drummer Emiel Pijnaker, played various shows around New York City, including venues such as The Mercury Lounge, Galapagos, The Luna Lounge, Brownies and Continental. Emiel was later replaced by new drummer Andrei Zakow. In 2004, Jett Craze put out their debut CD Jett Craze, which provided several tracks for the 2005 film Return2Sender, a rock-climbing documentary produced by Jett's friends, filmmakers Nick Rosen and Peter Mortimer of Sender Films.
Along with the trio's album, Craze sent along some of his own self-written, performed and produced material including a song called "Story," which was used in the same film and garnered him attention as a solo artist. Given the success of the song and positive feedback, Craze went on to complete the project, finishing Strategy for Sleeping in 2008. Several songs off of his album were used in another of Sender Film's docs, First Ascent along with tracks from Local Beauty, an EP released in 2008 by So Deadly, Craze's electronic rock side project with singer/songwriter Moana McReynolds. The successful relationship with Sender Films and success of his music in the projects led to more work with the production company. In 2007, three of his songs were used in the feature film, King Lines, as well as in 2008’s The Sharp End and in the 2010 TV series First Ascent.
Craze has also scored and produced music for many of Sender Film and Camp 4Collective's major commercial clients, including The North Face, Cliff and Garmin. Additionally, Craze has produced music for the 2008 NBC Sports Jeep World of Adventure segment on freebase climber Dean Potter, NYMag.com's 2008 online web series Where's Rogan and the documentary film Bi The Way, released in 2008, as well.
During the summer of 2011, Craze continued to work on his next solo album with producer Stella Heine and manager Kristin Frost and will begin to promote and release songs off his new album beginning in February 2012.