Who & what?: My name is Jason McIver, I am a 32 year old musician based in Taupo NZ. Since being featured on Music Talks last (for my solo album) The Jason McIver Collective have played shows around the North Island of NZ including performing at Ted X Tauranga to around 1000 people and have also released a 5 track E.P titled Failure & Sacrifice with my metal act, Primacy.
Primacy, a 5 piece alternative metal band influenced by bands like Alice In Chains, Deftones, A Perfect Circle & Lynch Mob. The band is based out of Auckland and have almost completed their tour of the North Island; NZ tour promoting the E.P which has peaked at #13 in the Official NZ Charts and #5 in the Official NZ Indy Charts. A stand out moment for us in Primacy was finishing the tracking of our E.P and finding out that we could get it mastered and tweaked by Jens Bogren in Sweden. Jens had worked with some of our favorite acts such as Opeth, Amon Amarth, Devon Townsend and Sepultura, he worked some serious magic on the tracks and tied them all together really nicely! Both Primacy & my bluesy, folk rock act The Jason McIver Collective are signed with Southern Collective Music for digital distribution which has been a great help with getting our music out to the people and has helped with the legal/business side of the industry too. Being in 2 bands kind of happened by circumstance, I had just left my previous heavy band and I decided I needed a rest from “riff writing” so I decided to concentrate on my acoustic music for once, in that time I started recording tracks for my first solo E.P, The Big Blue (2014). A couple of days after I had made that decision I got the call asking if I would be keen on auditioning as the vocalist in Primacy and I was pretty keen so long as I didn't have to play guitar at all. It appealed because without guitar I had a lot more freedom as a vocalist and frontman while also appealing to my lazier side..... a microphone is easier to lug than a 100w guitar head, speaker cabinet and 2 guitars ;) Currently with Primacy we are saving for more studio time in the coming summer with live dates to be booked everywhere possible, The JMC is focusing on getting into the festival circuit but has no current plans to record until my new material is up to scratch. When being asked why I play with 2 acts that are polar opposites I don't really have much of an answer except that I enjoy music on the whole and I get bored really easily....my partner thinks I have A.D.D which might be to blame for this haha! Having a band that lets me get out my frustrations and another that allows me to approach creativity from another angle is pretty important to me. Being limited by genre has never been something I have cared much for, I think it shows narrow mindedness and as I said, music gets boring if it doesn't evolve and change eventually. I kind of float between wanting to do really heavy and riff based stuff to wearing my heart on my sleeve with the acoustic Jason McIver Collective material. It's all been very healing in their own separate ways and has helped me to cope better with depression and anxiety as Primacy shares the work load a lot more than my previous bands ever did. It really goes a long way when you are used to being lumped with all of the behind the scenes stuff and can now finally allocate jobs to willing band mates. In the coming months The Jason McIver Collective will have a new music video and single to release, Primacy will be entering the studio again with Zorran Mendonsa Productions and both bands will be gigging everywhere that is possible for us to get to. Hold on tight!
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/primacybandnz
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/primacy-nz