Jason Paul is a performer and songwriter whose current work centers on embodying timeless songs for modern ears.
Born into a musical family, the son of a pianist, great-grandson of a violinist, and great-grandmother who authored piano instruction books, Jason was raised between the Jewish traditions of the Lower East Side and a Dominican family in exile.
He began writing and performing music as a teenager in New Jersey, forging a deep creative bond with his longtime friend Steven Esteves (1978 to 2021), known as sRe. Together they created several albums’ worth of original material spanning decades. In the early 2000s, Jason re-emerged as guitarist and co-writer for the punk-influenced NYC band Music for Girls, whose self-titled 2006 album was produced by Travis Harrison (Guided by Voices).
In 2006, Jason stepped into the lead vocal role with Japan Seoul, a one-off supergroup featuring NYC’s Vitamen and local legend Tris McCall. Their album Soul Food was released in 2007. That project laid the foundation for his next chapter, the formation of Japan Soul in 2012. A synth-pop group inspired by themes of human dignity, surveillance, and technocracy, Japan Soul released Plastic Utopia in 2014, a politically charged record written and produced with bandmates David Rozner, Dave Lipp and engineer extraordinaire Craig Levy of Little Pioneer Studios. Japan Soul performed around NYC for several years with new talent Matt McMurry on keys and production, Tyler Graham on drums and Dave Lipp staying on for bass and saxophone. The band went into a natural and permanent hiatus as the members started families and had ceased to perform and release new material shortly before the pandemic.
Jason now records and performs as Jason Paul, immersing himself in the American songbook while continuing to develop his own songwriting catalog. His project bridges eras, presenting great and often complex songs through an unschooled and cavalier folk expression, sometimes with modern production and fresh arrangements, and other times intimately with just a microphone, guitar, and ukulele.
His 2025 album Come Explore With Me invites listeners into his personal journey of rediscovering the richness of American music. He reconnects with Craig Levy who brings the same special production magic to the new collection as he did with Plastic Utopia.
A husband, father of three and longtime New Yorker, Jason’s work is rooted in reverence, curiosity, and the belief that extraordinary music, whether homage or original, deserves a fair hearing.