The Stage - Tomorrow's Music. Today.

Jared Campbell ,
by Melissa Evanko

If you are looking for mindless entertainment, another picture perfect package, musician marionette on a string, you have come to the wrong performer. If you are looking for insightfulness, faith, and posit, you have found the right musician in Jared Campbell.

Jared Campbell calls the Binghamton New York area home. His foray into music began in grade school when he wanted an electronic keyboard for Christmas. The keyboard wasn't the perfect fit, but the next holiday he got a guitar. Every day he would play and discovered this was "what he wanted to do" with his life.

The song that Campbell performed on The Stage was "Never Knew" from his debut CD "Where It All Begins." The song is about breaking up: the feeling of "not knowing what you've got till it's gone." Campbell harnessed "that emotion and put lyrics to it."

Where it All Begins includes the track "In Your Heart.' Campbell is proud of this song and the response it elicits. The track is about loosing somebody close to you. He wanted to remind the listener that "the person is gone but still with you." He feels if his songs can impact people, then he's doing his job.

Campbell found his CD producers, Saturation Acres, by chance. While a senior in High School, Campbell entered a radio contest where you had to impersonate a Saturday Night Live character. He chose Chris Farley and his motivational speaker character of Matt Foley. Campbell won the contest and kept in touch with the radio station's music director who has his demo. The demo landed in the hands of Badlees manager Chris Fetchko who showed it to the Saturation Acres crew (which is 2 members of the Badlees) and they decided to make an album.

When you go to a Campbell show, don’t expect to see any crude gestures or raunchy talk. This performer likes to keep his live shows clean, putting it in perspective as elementary school aged kids will come up to him and enjoy his music. He "doesn't want to loose that by becoming PG-13 or R rated."

A staple of the Campbell live show is the Men at Work song 'Land Down Under.' This is his favorite song and also the one he likes best playing live. Don’t expect to find this on a CD anytime soon, he likes to keep this gem for his live shows.

When it comes to songwriting, Campbell draws his inspiration from various outlets. He uses personal experience as well experience of those close to him. He sums it up as "if I only wrote about myself, I'd have a short song list." Campbell is currently in the process of recording a new CD.

Campbell also writes about his faith. He tries to make his lyrics open-ended, so as not to single anyone out. This way he can "share his music with everyone." An important part of a performer is to "write about what they love" and part of this is his "passion for God."

Campbell hopes that his music will "encourage people to not hide what they believe in." This is part of who he is and he wants other Christians to have that too. Campbell wants "people to feel good," when they listen to his music and see his live shows. And if you ask him nicely, he just might do his Chris Farley impersonation for you.