BIO
Jase Ess started out in the entertainment industry at age five, recording voice overs for a Farmers Union radio campaign, followed by TV commercials for the S.A. John Martins Christmas Pageant. After taking piano lessons, and having a fascination with his parent’s vinyl collection, Jase wrote his first song Take Me Back at age 9.
Jase then studied drama at Johnny Young Talent School (now Mighty Good Talent School), followed by performing in two musicals at the Arts Theatre, Adelaide as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes, and Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady, and Young Walsingham in Half a Sixpence.
Jase Ess and Jo Lawry in Anything Goes
It was during this time that Jase attended the N.I.D.A Winter School under the instruction of acting coaches including Mr. Tony Taylor and Francine Roche.
Jase started hosting radio at 88.5 Coast FM and later left to help start Adelaide's dance music radio station Fresh FM 92.7. After 6 years on air at Fresh and DJ’ing around Adelaide, Jase moved to Sydney in 2003. It was in Sydney that Jase met and worked with DJ Nick Jay on I Don't Give A Damn which reached #11 on the ARIA Dance Charts in 2006.
Jase Ess representing FreshFM at the Royal Adelaide Show
In 2014 while working for Optus under the leadership of Saskia Spaan, Jase won the AITD 'Best Implementation of a Blended Learning Solution' for My Plan Plus. This included eLearning, video scripting, leaders guides, PowerPoint pack's and huddle packs. This program was also a finalist in the 2014 Organisational Learning Effectiveness Award'.
In 2016, Jase was the Platinum winner for ‘Best eLearning Design – Audio’ from the LearnX Impact Awards for his work with NewsCorp Australia.
In 2020, Jase returned to full time study with SAE Institute studying the Dip. Music Industry, specialising in Electronic Music Production.
At the end of 2020, Jase played the 'Mysterious Man' in 'Into the Woods' by Elephant in the Room productions, held in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, sponsored by the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and the Government of South Australia as part of the Botanica Lumina Festival.
Jase Ess as Mysterious Man in Into the Woods
Between November 2021 to April 2022, Jase took part in an artistic collaboration by the Queensland Museum, as part of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT:10).
Working with Aotearoa (New Zealand) based artist Shannon Novak, Jase was commissioned to create a musical soundscape as a response to the visual artworks by Novak and the three humpback whale sculptures permanently suspended from the ceiling within 'The Whale Mall', a transitional space between the Gallery of Modern Art, and the Queensland Museum buildings.
With reference to the difficulty in determining the sex of humpback whales as something beautiful, Ess and Novak recount, merge, and celebrate their own experiences of ambiguity in gender identity through sound. Currents is a soundscape composition using industrial orchestral sounds containing whale calls, and was composed to compliment what the listener is seeing visually, and to induce a feeling of being on a magical underwater adventure.
Listen to Currents and see more photos via the Video menu.
The Modern Family by Shannon Novak and Jase Ess
In late 2022, Jase released Blurry - a soulful pop ballad with gritty beats blended with orchestral elements, and combined with deep suspended reverb vibes and melodic vocal harmonies.
In November 2022, the collaboration project Two Tone Heart with fellow SAE graduate and multi-instrumentalist Andrew D released their debut single Victory, followed by Rendezvous. March 2023 saw Jase release his EDM album Portals, and this was featured on radio stations across Australia.
2023 SA Music Award winners Jase Ess and Todd Pergallini
In November 2024, Jase released Liminal, a collection of 11 cinematic classical crossover compositions. Liminal was lovingly created over six years and draws inspiration from composers like Hans Zimmer, Blake Neely, John Williams, Danny Elfman and much more.
Next up, Jase will be releasing collaborative works under the brand of šókti. Pronounced 'shock-tea', this is a dance music project created for deep house and club-inspired sounds that move both body and soul. The project also collaborates with artists seeking to release fresh, innovative music while maintaining their personal brand identities.
The first single from šókti is 'Numb' and is out 25th October 2025, with another single to be released by years end, and an EP out early 2026.
Thanks for being on this journey with me, and always make sure you live life lovingly!
Music Artwork by Jase
With SAE Adelaide moving to a new campus, and offering the Bachelor of Audio, Jase returned to complete his studies as part of the inaugural cohort. Jase graduates valedictorian with a GPA of 6.94. During his time at SAE, Jase was a recipient of the ‘Neville Clark Award’ at the 2023 South Australian Music Awards. Jase was also nominated for two People’s Choice awards for his solo work on Blurry and Portals, and for his Two Tone Heart collaboration.
As an actor, Jase has worked on Home and Away, Cate Blanchett’s Stateless, the hit Chinese TV series If Time Flows Back, Bad Boy Bubby and shot scenes for the ABC comedy Aftertaste with Erik Thompson besides many others.
As a working Voice Over Artist, Jase has worked with brands including Optus, Uni of NSW, Rabobank, Fortescue, Vodafone, Toowoomba Council, NewsCorp Australia, BHP, Clipsal, Schneider Electric and the Leukaemia Foundation.
