Jason McNamara profile picture

Jason McNamara

If we were all John Petrucci, Mozart, Jesus Christ, John Lennon or Gary Oldman... they wouldn't be.

About Me


I'm an Aussie who's been lucky enough to have traveled a lot.
I'm also a Musician and have been for around 23 years. Well, I actually started playing Keyboards when I was 8, but then gave up on the lessons not long after. However, I always had music in my veins. I picked up the Guitar a month before my 13th birthday and I'm still playing it along with Keys again ever since.
I'm playing with a few different bands these days around Melbourne. I was jamming with PTB for a while, but unfortunately that didn't work out. They are a great band, but not for me personally to play in. Check out PTB at.... http://www.myspace.com/ptbmetal
Mostly I play with cover bands. I mostly work with Paul, Enzo and Dave (screen name: Burchie) who can all be found in my top friends list here on my myspace page. Together we're doing a Queensryche tribute show called Oz:Ryche with Cam a Bass Player friend of ours as well. Paul, Enzo and myself are also doing a Sammy Hagar side of Van Halen show we're calling Van Hagar along with a couple of other guys as well.
I used to play Guitar, Keyboards and sing backing vocals for Justin Murphy. Check out some of his stuff that I played Guitar on at....
http://www.myspace.com/justinmurphymusic
or you can go to his official webpage at.....
www.justinmurphy.com.au
Unfortunately there's not really any impressive lead playing on Justin's material as he aimed it for radio, but I'm proud of the conviction I play with in my rhythm playing. I co-wrote played and "Golden Shake" & "Generator" plus I also played on the song "Summer" as well.
I've had a great life so far and I've been lucky enough to make some great friends. I've lived and worked in Osaka - Japan, China, Dubai and have visited and worked/played in Kazakhstan, Kuala Lumpar, Hong Kong and Las Angeles. Now days I live in Melbourne, Australia with my fiancee. She's a Japarean goddess, (Japarean = A mixture of Japanese/Korean blood, but born and raised totally in Japan).
The other love of my life is my 7 string Universe. I wanted it for 10 years before I finally got it. Of course I have a few other guitars which are standard 6 strings as well. Did I mention that I'm a Keybaord player as well. I've taken the whole sampling thing to the extreme. I've now found a way to triggers samples from both my keyboard and also from my midi footboard and you have to know I'm loving that!!!!
Of course there's a lot more to my story, but all in good time my friends, all in good time.

My Interests

Music, Movies & Languages.
Other than English I can also speak, (in order of ability)....
Japanese
Chinese
German
& Spanish

I'd like to meet:

I love being a musician so love meeting other real musicians too. People who not only are good at what they do, but also have the fire and the passion for it too. That's what makes true musicians worth their salt.

Three chord wonders, brain dead wankers, life haters and negative knob jockeys who think that anyone who has practiced their ass off at their chosen craft and then turn around and call us, "Self indulgent" can all go fuck themselves and drop dead. I'm far from an angry person. I live my life as best I can and I love it.

"Shred is far from dead my friends. If anything, it's matured and is really starting to get interesting".

Jason.

Music:


Queensryche Live in Melbourne at The Palace.
Friday July 14th, 2006.
It was so good to finally see these guys live and the fact that they brought Pamela Moore out here with them as well was absolutely incredible. Everyone, the crowd and the band had a great night. They were very nice people too. I was lucky enough to get some after show Meet & Greet passes. It was a night to remember, that's for sure.
Note: Any of these photos can be clicked on to go to the band/artist's offical webpage.

They are a fantastic Japanese group.
Tak Matsumoto, (the Guitarist from B’z) had a great side project in 2004 called TMG.

Check these guys, "Vanishing Point" out. They are a fantastic Aussie band from Melbourne.
This is their official webpage.

The list just goes on and on and on. I mostly love music that rocks and not just the dead head type. I like rock music that moves my soul. It might sound stupid to some, but to those who know what I'm saying it makes perfect sense.

Golden Shake by Justin Murphy.
I'm in this video. I played guitar on the recording as well. Yes, that's actually me playing Guitar. People keep asking to hear something of me. The solo is VERY simple, but it's a nice melody. I also wrote the music to this one.

By the way, don't blink while watching because you'll miss me.

Generator also by Justin Murphy.
Yep, I playing all the Electric Guitars on this song too.

This video is actually entitled, "Generator extreme accidents". It's very funny.


This is, PTB: Powers That Be. I mentioned in my "about me" section.

Here's one of their songs. It's called, "Resistance". If you don't love this video there's definitely something wrong with you.

Movies:

Highlander (1986)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Jack Skellington RULES. Plus, Danny Elfman and Tim Burton are brilliant men).
Dream A Little Dream (1989).
Fifth Element (1997)
Heat (1995, DeNiro VS Pacino, OH MY GOD. And don't even get me started on how awesome Micheal Mann is).
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Jerry MacGuire (1996)
Say Anything (1989)
Almost Famous (2000)
Singles (1992)
Elizabethtown (2005)
Basically anything, (sorry but short of Vanilla Sky) that Cameron Crowe touches is pure gold to me. He's got a the most amazing ability to write and direct in a way that makes it easy to feel what he's talking about. Cameron Crowe to me makes some of the most emotionally satisfying moves ever made.

Above and beyond all that the list just goes on and on and on and on.

Television:

HEROES

The Amazing Race is the only show I catch as often as I can. I'm still very happy to see that BJ & Tyler walked away with the million bucks. Good on 'em!!!!

Heroes:

My hero Mum. It might sound cliche, but it's true. She's one hell of a Mum and one hell of a person.

Paul Gilbert!
What a great night this was. For the first time ever Paul Gilbert finally came over here to Australia. He did a guitar clinic on Feb 28th, 2007 and it was fantastic. I know I tend to say this a lot about the musicians that I admire so much, but Paul really was the nicest guy. I asked him about the possibility of getting a photo simply next to his classic RG570 and he said, "Sure. You can even pick it up and have a play if you like". It was a very memorable night.

My Blog

Check out the new Dream Theater video

Hey there fellow Dream Theater fans,I have a video shot in the studio of one of the new Dream Theater songs on my myspace page. Just click on my photo above to get there. It's under the "Music" part o...
Posted by Jason McNamara on Sat, 19 May 2007 07:53:00 PST