Jaret Campisi

Jaret Campisi may’ve been born in Pennsylvania, but his sound is firmly rooted in Santa Barbara. Playing deceptively simple melodies spiced with unconventional chords and frantic finger work, Campisi is a master at the kind of sweet, surf-inspired acoustic rock that made Santa Barbara’s music scene famous.
“My style is like Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, and John Mayer, kind of all combined,” Campisi said. “Ninety percent of the reason I moved out here was that Jack Johnson started here, which is a sad reason, but I was kind of obsessed with him.”
From the occasional breaking voice on “Pineapple Sunrise” to the pensive pauses on his track “I’ll Get Around,” Campisi injects an earnestness and expressiveness into all of his songs. And, according to the man himself, that’s what sets him apart from other area musicians. Campisi’s honesty extends to all aspects of his career. When asked whether he’s planning a follow up to his 2006 iTunes release “Pineapple Sunrise,” his answer was refreshingly candid.
“I moved from Pennsylvania, and I was playing music there for a living, and when I moved here I realized it’s kind of expensive, so I ended up getting a real job,” Campisi said. “Now I’m trying to work a real job and play music … I record all my stuff myself. I’ve been lazy lately, but normally I’m always recording new songs. In the past couple months, I’ve written 10 or 15 new songs; now, I just have to lay them down.”
In the meantime you can catch Campisi at a bunch of different venues in Santa Barbara and possibly coming to your town in the near future.
~Mollie Vandor The Santa Barbara Independent