[ACC 2019] Singing maestro Jason Paige belts it out in this interview!

Most people would need no introduction to Jason Paige. Even if you aren’t sure of him, he comes in like a storm, and with the iconic notes of the original English Pokemon theme song, you’d be able to recognize him at once. Without further ado, let’s learn a little more about the man and the voice.

His start in singing doesn’t have much fanfare. “I started singing the ABCs when I was 2 years old,” he says, simply, and evidently, he hasn’t stopped since. Paige has kept up with the Pokemon ecosystem with his own Pokemon Go song, following that up with a Detective Pikachu song. It’s meant to line up perfectly with the original Pokemon theme song, a duet if you will. He also has a hand in the Japanese theme song translation! As his work evolves, he jokes that he too, will evolve into Super Jason Paige.

Paige relays the story of the original Pokemon job. He’d begun with his impressive voice range in various projects, and got to work for the company hired to do the Pokemon music, one of his roughly 60 to hundreds of jobs a year. They get shown the Japanese Pokemon show and they’re to create the song. The show becomes popular, and that initial demo became a 3 minute version and a CD that got to the top of the Billboard for Children’s albums. The Pokemon ecosystem just grew on out from there.

Truly, it’s an iconic song, and Paige certainly cherishes the fan reactions, talking about how people have told him of the song’s impact in their lives. He talks about how he’s paid in these reactions, and he’s only just getting started knowing the hours of happiness the song has brought to people.

It would seem he hadn’t really gotten to know much of Pokemon until recently, with Pokemon Go. Paige describes it as popping out of his own Pokeball, learning about the world through the game. He enthuses about the many unique ways people play and catch Pokemon, and then them sharing their discovery with others. After all, with the way Pokemon Go works, each region has different Pokemon appearances, and it’s a way to get so many cultures to come together. Incidentally, Paige says Mr Mime is his favourite Pokemon, with a great performance in the movie. He, unfortunately, did not manage to get one at the Pokemon Center in Singapore.

He’s last sat in on a tournament session for Pokemon games which he considers fascinating, but does not seem to have played much else. He’s watched some of the older Pokemon TV episodes as a refresher, along with Detective Pikachu and some of the 20th anniversary movie.

As for what keeps him singing? “The love and joy I experience, and also other people,” as easy as that.

Parting words? Gotta catch ’em all!

Check him out in his Facebook and Twitter. He even runs his own website! Remember to check out the other stuff that we covered from Asia Comic Con 2019 as well.

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