Collie recording artist Jayson Harms aka Jays Held Under is launching his music career to new heights.
Mr Harms has been signed to a 2-year contract with United States’ distribution label CO//AMG Distribution.
Mr Harms has begun studying at South Regional TAFE’s Busselton campus to become a qualified youth worker.
He has planned to set up all-ages, drug and alcohol free youth community projects including an event at Collie Central Park’s proposed amphitheatre.
He also travelled to Sydney to compete in the Coast 2 Coast hip-hop competition on August 31.
Mr Harms played music throughout his life before making the leap on stage in 2010.
“Honestly, it took probably took three or four years to actually be able to walk out on stage and not have anything to worry about, it took a long, long time to be 100 per cent comfortable because every crowd is different, there’s different critics and that kind of thing and you’re always thinking about it,” he said.
The self-taught musician has since unofficially released four tracks onto Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
He said he enjoys music of a variety of genres, playing acoustic and hip-hop gigs throughout his career.
Mr Harms said he has noticed the comparisons and contrasts between life in and out of Collie.
“Well being a small town it’s been very hard to establish myself as a musician here but since then I guess it’s made me, I don’t know it’s hard to explain, I guess it’s drawn a clear line between small time and big time,” he said.
“I realise that being here and doing what I’m doing here is different to what I could be doing in a city or something like that so I’ve wanted to take the small-town route and stay local as long as I can.”
Mr Harms said artistic expression is worth striving towards.
“I would just say keep doing what you are doing, no matter how many times you get told that what you are doing is crap that’s another person looking at you, that’s another person’s attention,” he said.
He is looking into electronic music, hoping to become a DJ to further expand his musical repertoire.
Mr Harms is pushing to launch his first release for CO//AMG Distribution in January 2017.
