I’m a songwriter, classically trained pianist, music producer, painter, graphic artist, web designer and business owner. This site, especially this page, will be forever evolving. As those around me and myself grow and evolve through life’s experiences you can expect to see an impact here, as well as, in my art, music and writing. I created American Heathen as a reflection of our communal consciousness, a manifesto of sorts for those like myself. We “Millennials” as they call us (anyone born after 1984), live at a time, unlike any decade that came before us. We’ve elected a glorified internet troll as the president. The internet and social media have simultaneously impacted us in the most beneficial and harmful ways possible. So, in many ways I’m using my life as a social experiment; a testament to what works and what might not work to help my peers move faster and more efficiently through this new age. Society has helped create a group of oxymorons. As a whole, we are a collective of cynical dreamers, young visionaries with a long list of desires and no patience for seeing it through. Our temperament tends to be self-destructive in nature resulting in many of us being our own worst enemy. The older generations complain and take no responsibility for creating us. Now that we’ve reached adulthood, our predecessors berate us for the shortcomings they irresponsibly instilled within us. They told us all we were special, rewarded everyone equally in fear of alienating a few and hid life’s harsh reality from us during an era of overt and heavy-handed political correctness. The result up to this point has been a mix of triumph and tragedy. Desire and despair. Ambition and hopelessness. My hope is that we can all work together to overcome the madness. On the upside, we have the advantage of being alive during an era of globalization and smart technology. If we continue to dream big and learn from our collective mistakes, in addition to fusing the more progressive ideas of past generations with the advances of the new millennia, I have no doubt we’ll be able to make the greatest social and technological impact in modern history.

-Jase Harley