hi there

My name is Jason.

I live in Dublin, Ireland, and have spent my career trying to more fully understand the human urge toward creativity.

I began my career in the magazine industry, covering music, film and video games as an editor at Paste. For a person who enjoys 1) asking questions, and 2) captive audiences with fascinating people, there’s no better job. I got to spend an afternoon with Scarlett Johansson in a film-editing bay in Manhattan interviewing her about her Tom Waits cover album. I got to write the first cover story in the mainstream press about The National, still one of my favourite bands. A blizzard stranded me in the Westfjords of Iceland while I was there profiling the genre-defying singer/songwriter Mugison. So many adventures.

Chasing my fascination with the expansion of video games as a storytelling medium, I relocated to the UK for several years to work as an editor at Edge, arguably the most prestigious games magazine in print. The Games Media Awards honoured me with the recognition of Best Specialist Writer (Print) in 2013 for my work covering the launch of PlayStation 4. I profiled game studios such as Bandai-Namco, Naughty Dog, Ubisoft Montreal, Guerrilla Games, PlayDead, FromSoftware and many more.

I’ve contributed on-air commentary on arts and culture to BBC Radio 1, CNN, NPR and RTÉ.

I’ve spent the past six years in the marketing department at Riot Games, managing creative teams and producing content about League of Legends, the most-played PC game in the world. I’ve scripted teaser spots, directed voice actors, designed in-game events, staged live broadcasts and created digital marketing campaigns.

Though ‘marketing’ is considered a dirty word in many quarters, the role helped me delve into the psychology of how art pulls our strings and can be used to manipulate audiences. All art does this, not just marketing creative. We enjoy being toyed with. In fact, the less we understand about how the trick is performed, the more potent its spell.

I am the co-author of You Died: The Dark Souls Companion and founder of the publishing company Tune & Fairweather. We raised over €120K on Kickstarter to fund a hardcover edition of the book. Our most recent project is a novel about a cannibal supper club of wealthy elites entitled The Epicureans.