“I came in contact with music almost as soon as I was born. My family loves music. Both my grandmother and great aunt were in a church choir in Campbellton, New Brunswick where I was born.

My first real concert was blink 182. It was also the concert that opened my eyes to how amazing instrumentals could be. One of the opening acts, a local ska band was missing their lead singer at show time so they opened with a soft little number that blew my mind. On that day, music was forever changed for me.

I was a little frightened the first time I attended a DOG & PONY Sound show. But then again, I think almost everyone is their first time. The first venue I went to was Swizzles where my uncle Terry (Coyote) was hosting with Dog. Being a regular at Swizzles, he knew all the regulars, the inside jokes, the pal names and so on. So, when he was "snow-belly posse'd" he was already used to it, I on the other hand was in tears with both laughter and terror.

It took another two months before I had the courage to get up on stage, grab a microphone and sing. I still remember my first song, "Particle Man" by They Would Be Giants. I totally tanked on the song but had such a great time that I put up another song and have been ever since.

One day Christopher (Dog) noticed I was watching closely as he ran the shows. I asked questions and he answered them while I pulled disks and watched him work the sound board. I wanted to learn enough to ensure that if a host ever dropped dead while I was at their show the karaoke would continue while the paramedics took the corpse away. Christopher on the other hand thought it might be better to give me proper training and make me an official host. Who am I to argue with a good idea?

~ Jason (warthog)