BIO ~up, CLOSE, & personal look~

 

          Jesse Breakspear was born March 19 1976 in Peterborough Ontario Canada. As a young child age 4 his nursery school teachers noticed he did not interact much with other children and it seemed all he wanted to do was draw pictures of skeletons and robots however the drawings (although cartoonish) displayed a level of detail that was far advanced for a four year old. In school Jesse barely got by in some subjects but excelled in others and was diagnosed with ADD at the age of 8.

            although not great at sports Jesse was great at track and field and was interested in martial arts, and set an Ontario record for running long jump at an Ontario wide track and field competition held at Trent university.

            As a youngster Jesse was a bit of a trouble maker but never a bully, clumsy, messy, disorganized, but nice easy going and talented in art, But most of all had a vast imagination.

            At the age of 8 Jesse was given a ukulele with two strings on it that he played left-handed. He quickly taught himself to play blues rhythm chops on it so his parents decided to get him guitar lessons.

            In 1985 Jesse began guitar lesson at the Continental Academy of Music on George street in Peterborough. Unfortunately his guitar teacher (Tom Barnes) was old-fashioned and forced Jesse to learn right-handed. Being that his first guitar was a rental Jesse chickened out on switching the strings around and the right-handed playing stuck, which slowed the learning process in the beginning, ironically his guitar teacher remarked he was a slow learner “like no duh you’ve got me playing the dam thing backward” being into bands like AC/DC and Iron Maiden Jesse's guitar teachers idea of rock and roll was Elvis. Then one day Jesse had a substitute teacher who was younger and cooler and taught him the power chord and the pentatonic minor scale. From there Jesse was able to teach himself all his favorite bands songs by ear and quit guitar lessons.

            Not having a lot of money as a preteen Jesse made homemade guitar amplifiers from old junk stereo equipment always looking for that badass distortion sound. As well as electric Jesse also played acoustic and tinkered around with Neo-classical tunes as young as 12 years old. By the time Jesse began high school he had a wide variety of influences too numerous to name. But classic rock, metal, punk, and blues were the main genres that influenced Jesse's guitar playing.

            By age 16 Jesse formed his first gig-capable band called “The Flow” in 1992 with schoolmates Richard Alvarez, Christian Cody, Ian Cody, and Jason Goudy.  The Flow’s music ranged from mellow Psychedelic. To punk/thrash and played several gigs in and around Peterborough, But sadly never recorded a full-length album. After a few years of making poor quality basement recordings and playing mostly non-paying gigs The Flow gradually fizzled out on friendly terms due to apathy and teenage punkish attitudes.

            By 1996 Jesse was getting really into bands like Metallica (classic Metallica from the 80s) and slayer and had written a number of original thrash metal songs.  Guitarist from the flow and good friend of Jesse’s Richard Alvarez managed to get a drum kit and Ian Cody former “The Flow” bassist

formed a mostly instrumental thrash/punk band called “Heretic”.

            Heretic's first big gig was at the legendary “Punkest” festival at “Spider-land Acres” in Marmora Ontario. Although Heretic was well received at punkfest, members of the audience began jumping on stage and gabbing the mostly unused vocal mic and began singing along to the mostly instrumental original thrash songs. At this point Jesse, Richard and Ian decided they needed some lyrics and a singer. Jesse wrote the lions share of lyrics and the remainder by Richard for the new singer Shawn Beriault who did a few gigs with Heretic then departed on friendly terms. Shortly after Ian Cody also Departed on friendly terms.

            By 1997 Jesse took up singing duties, Richard began writing a few riffs on guitar and drummer Adam Lunn joined as drummer and Richard returned to playing guitar like back in “The Flow” days to make Heretic a two guitar thrash band. Shortly after Adams friend Rob O’Reilly Joined on Bass guitar and Heretics name was changed to “Vicious Circle” but due to there already being a number of bands with the aforementioned moniker the name was changed to “Vicious System”

            After playing a few gigs, and although being well received the guys in Vicious System decided it would be a good idea to get a front man to take on the lions share of vocal duties, at which time Brent Wilson joined and took on lead vocals for the band. Vicious was then a full on five man death-thrash band playing mostly originals. They gigged around Ontario and released a full length studio album. But after a few years Vicious System lost momentum and broke up in 2002. a bummer but hardly a surprise.

            During the last few years of Vicious System. Members Jesse and Richard reunited with the former lead singer of “The Flow” Jason Goudy and began a sort of “Nu-metal” side project called Lychanthropy” Mean-while some musician friends from the neighborhood Brendan Connelly on bass and vocals and Paul Downer on drums. Teamed up with Jesse, Richard and Jason to form yet another side project. A classic rock cover band called “Ten Beers After” Meanwhile when all this was going on Jesse had his black/death metal solo recording project going, a one man band called “From Beyond The Grave”

            Although Vicious system splitting up was a drag, it was hardly a surprise and it allowed Jesse to  spend more time on his other projects and make Lychanthropy into a full gigging band. And shortly after recruited Shane Davey on bass.

            Lychanthropy went on to do several gigs in and around Peterborough and the GTA. Most notable of which was opening for “The Salads” and “Not by Choice” at the Trasheteria in Peterborough.

            During the 2000s Jesse met up with drummer Dean Medland and recorded numerous psychedelic rock tunes (mostly instrumental) and dubbed they're  recording project “Blackwood Ridge”

Dean was a friend from his day job at the then called “Marol”(now called “Posislope”) in Peterborough. Another fellow employee of “Marol” was musician Raymond Lunn (uncle of Adam Lunn coincidentally) Raymond Lunn hired Jesse and Dean to record his solo rock’n’roll full-length album “The Blue River Band” (One Step at a Time)” 

             by 2006 Jesse met up with singer and artisan extraordinaire, Ay Ses Dunya and joined the band “The Cover-ups” no, not an original act singing songs about biblical proof of aliens, but a cheekily named band performing pop and classic rock cover songs from the 70s through to (the then) present.

            Although the music scene in Peterborough was very vibrant for a city of 80,000, a town that small just is not an ideal environment for a young up and coming musician, factor into that, the day job options were very limited and Jesse was quite unhappy in his then day job of 10 + years at the Marol company (a roof insulation custom cutting and packaging plant) Jesse along with Ay Ses Dunya decided to relocate to Toronto.

            Upon relocating to Toronto (Jesse in September 2007 Ay Ses a few months earlier) continued to perform, sometimes as a duo with Ay Ses playing rhythm guitar and Jesse on Lead. Other times other Musicians sat in on bass, drums and keys. Also at this time originals began to become the main focus and the band name was changed to MSCHV.

            MSCHV performed several gigs in and around Toronto many of which were at very notorious, trendy and sought-after locations.  MSCHV also made a number of home recordings. Although MSCHV was very well received, monetary success was limited and conflicts of day job schedules caused MSCHV to fizzle out on friendly terms after a couple years. 

            During the MSCHV years Jesse was as always, working on numerous solo recording projects. Including Neo-classical metal, various other subgenres of metal, retro/stoner rock blues, experimental psychedelic, and most notably, Neo classical nylon string acoustic arrangements for four or more guitars, and bass guitar. This acoustic project could best be described as Bach-esque, polyphonic, medieval, renascence flavored Spanish guitar music.   

            By 2009 Jesse was living in Parkdale, (southwest Toronto) and joined indie rock band “Octobers Ending” consisting of Gerald Fratzle: Guitar. Jeff Hanes bass, Elaine Shields, vocals and Don Zalikas on drums. At the time Jesse was in Octobers Ending, it was an all original act performing song written primarily by Elaine.

             Octobers Ending performed several gigs in and around Toronto many of which were at very notorious, trendy and sought after locations.

            Also in 2009 Jesse met up with fitness instructor, actor, and singer extraordinaire Claudine Neysmith and was hired to play gigs with Claudine singing blues R&B Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae and original Soul songs written by Claudine. Jesse also auditioned with Claudine as a duo for the Toronto subway musicians program and got his first ever license to play in Toronto’s subway system and began a serious busking career.

            Around this time Jesse and Claudine made plans to travel to China with a couple of other musicians to gig the casino circuit, and sadly notified October's ending he would be leaving the band. But being a good sport he stayed on with “OE” till he could be replaced, rehearsing gigging and finishing up OE’s first studio album. After having been replaced the plans to go to China fell through. Perhaps it was fate that Jesse was meant to leave OE.

            Also Around this time Jesse began a Volunteer position with “Extend a Family” performing pop cover songs by artists such as Roy Orbison and Louis Armstrong. after rehearsing, generally hanging out with Julian Diaz and occasionally performing live for a few years Julian mysteriously passed away in his 20s due to an enlarged heart. “without a doubt the saddest thing to happen in my music career, Julian was a perfect gentleman and never had a bad thing to say about anyone in my experience”

            From 2010-2013 Jesse was busy busking in the TTC and on the streets of Toronto and at this time he teamed up with Jason Beniot, (banjo, guitar, and vocals) and Chris M arr (drums) to form an experimental indie rock band H.H. Neptune which played a hand-full of gigs nice home recordings. However Jason relocated to Hamilton thereby ending the project on friendly terms.

            During the parkdale years 2009-2019 Jesse also met up with singer/guitarist Frank Barbario and drummer Sean Brock and formed a blues and classic rock cover band called “The Bootlegger Band” featuring numerous other guest musicians, The Bootlegger Band performed several gigs in and around Toronto many of which were at very notorious, trendy and sought after locations. 

            In September 2019 Jesse returned to Peterborough due to health and personal reasons. And reunited with his old band mates from Lychanthropy, with Richard on guitar and new drummer Chris O’Connor, to form rock and metal cover band “Noise Grinder” also at this time, Jesse was working more prolifically than ever on his solo projects mostly his “From Beyond the Grave” project.

            By September 2020 Jesse grew weary of playing covers, and due to health, covid lock down, and personal reasons was left unable to play in live bands. and left Noise Grinder on friendly terms.

Around this time Jesse reunited with Ay Ses Dunya. And began studio work via online collaboration site “Kompoz” and to present day continues to work as a studio musician on numerous projects.

            In may 2021 Jesse was diagnosed with mild autism at age 45 and has decided to take a break from live performing and focus on studio/recording work.