Who are you and what is your role in the band?
I’m Jason Scott and I do vocals and guitar with The Institution.
How did the band get started?
The band got started when Pete Markovina and John Dunlap and myself all met in the band room of a federal prison in 2006. We started playing cover songs then started writing our own material. First I got out and then the other guys got out and filled me home to San Francisco to continue playing music. We met Joel Gimbel later who came on as our multi instrumentalist. That’s also where we got out name from having met in a federal correctional institution hence The Institution.
Who are your influences and how do they play a role in your sound?
We have a wide variety of influences including The Doors and Zeppelin to Tool and Deftones. Also Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age, and Chevelle. There influence can be heard in our progressive music and mixed meters and also our heartfelt melodies. Though you can hear our influences we have just reached a place where we can discern ourselves and our own sound and we are feeling confident in it.
What has been your most meaningful experience being in this band so far?
Meeting the other band members inside the walls of prison and being able to take it to the real world with a newfound knowledge of what is real and what truly means something in this world; our relationships with others and ourselves being a couple of those things. Being true to one another and ourselves and standing strong. Also being able to come to realize, through the music and experience, what a hegemony this government has over us and the world as a whole. We have been programmed by the waking dream of the world.
Favorite memory from a show you’ve played or a place you’ve travelled?
My favorite memory and experience thus far would be our second tour to Hawaii where we met and played with my cousin’s band 82fifty from Oahu. If you haven’t heard of them please check them out they’re amazing! Also during this tour we got to catch The Quicksilver AKA The Eddie; a rare surf contest on the north shore of Oahu.
What do you hope to accomplish with your music?
I hope that we can move people and connect with them with our music and that they come to appreciate and relate to it as we do. These songs all mean very much to us and speak of real things in life and thus give us an emotional and mental release and closure to our hard and painful experiences. It’s like processing something then reminding yourself of how you came to that decision again when you write a song and then continue to perform it. We also want to give fans energy with the music and receive it back from them in that reciprocal exchange that you can get through music.
Something about you that no one knows?
We are about to start recording with producer Michael Rosen (Papa Roach, Joe Satriani, Testla, Rancid, Santana) which may result in an our second LP. The first one was a great learning experience but we did it ourselves and fell short without lack of proper guidance. We are excited of the possibilities of what we can do with Rosen on board.
What is next for the band?
Next for the band we are doing a lot of touring throughout the entire United States starting in May 2016 and limiting the shows we play around our home town of San Francisco Bay Area as well. Next year we are off to Europe.
Anything else you want to add?
The Huffington post did an article on us this past February and you can find that here!
