Jason Maynard writes songs with serious pop smarts and a little country soul: reflective, sometimes gloomy, sometimes anthemic and joyous. Split Enz, The Beatles, The Moody Blues and Crowded House are all in there somewhere.

He cut his teeth in the Canberra bands The Martins and Griffin. Griffin’s singles This World and Perfect Nightmare picked up high-rotation commercial airplay across Canberra and NSW, with both clips on ABC TV’s Rage. The band played NEMO in Boston and FUSE in Adelaide, and supported Pete Murray, Evermore, Dave Graney and The Androids.

As a songwriter he’s been a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and the Q Music Song Awards.

His new single, Spider, is out Friday 4 December, the first from his forthcoming album, Hereafter, recorded with ARIA-nominated producer Anthony Lycenko.