"Working at a church really taught me to be a better leader."
Jason Dunn has been in the music industry for 20+ years, and is about to celebrate that with his new album "Formerly Known As" this May. We sat with Jason to discuss reflections on Hawk Nelson, as well as where God has been in his life today.
Interview by Cody Cooksey
March 3, 2026
Tell me about your upcoming album “Formerly Known As”?
This has been an album that I've been working on for close to 15 years. I haven't really done much musically in the eyes of the public in a long time. The majority of my songs I create happen right here where I am right now in my basement, in my little makeshift studio. I've got all my guitars here and all my mics. I've been doing it just for myself. I've been working at a church for the last eight years, and last summer, I came to the conclusion that I needed to do music again as a thing that I think I've been called to do. I've started taking all these songs and ideas that I already started recording anyways and just kind of put the magic touch on them, and so after this last year, I really went for it and recorded this album, Formerly Known As, which comes out on the 22nd of May.
You were just on the road with Seventh Day Slumber. What was that like?
So just to back it up a little bit, when I started diving into the idea of playing shows again and just making music publicly again, I flew to a festival in Minnesota last August, and when I got there, I ran into Joseph Rojas from Seventh Day Slumber. His band was there at the same festival that weekend. We just kind of hit it off again. I haven't seen Joe and the team for over 20 years, but when we ran into each other in the back catering area, it's like we hadn't skipped a beat. We just hit it off right from where we took off from 2008 or whatever it was when we hung out last. I announced him on stage and said "Hey, who thinks I should go on tour with Seventh Day Slumber?”, and of course the crowd went wild. The people have spoken. We're doing this. After the show, Joe was like "Dude, we really need to do this." As a guy that has many friends that say "Dude, we should grab coffee sometime.” I was like “Yeah, totally.” You're not actually going to grab coffee. So when he was like “Dude, we should go on the road.” I was like “Oh, yeah, totally.” I didn't think we were actually going to consider talking about going on tour together for real, you know? Then it wasn't more than a week later that I was back home and he texted me. He said “Dude, I'm serious, let's go on the road.” For me, well, I'm married with three kids, I'm at a church. Is me being on the road something I'm really thinking about? Honestly, I wasn't thinking about going on the road. I was just having fun on stage. I would just be the showman. Then he said I can use his band. I started to think having a band on the road would be a lot of fun, but it doesn't really make sense for my family. Then he offered us to ride on his bus, so he’s basically just giving me this tour option on a silver platter. So I started thinking “Is this a me thing? Is this a God thing? What is this? Why is this presenting itself as such a perfect opportunity?” At this point, I've been working for a church for almost eight years. My wife and I have been chatting about what it would look like for me to step away and play music again outside the walls of the church. Like I said, it didn't really make sense, financially, as a family guy. I do believe God always has a bigger plan than what we want. Not to say I didn't want to do this, but I think God does know the desires of our heart and He knows what's inside of me. I know for a fact what I was created to do, and I've said this time and time again, I believe I was created to make music outside the four walls of the church. Although I was in the church for so long, making music and leading the church in worship, those things I learned from that time in my life, I can bring with me into this. It just seemed like a perfect opportunity to step away for a little bit at least, and do this again. So we hit the road. I brought my son Ryan, who's eight years old, and he came on the road with me, and he got to see his dad in a whole different light. He'd never seen his dad as a band guy. He’s seen his dad as the guy from church. So that was a really, really cool experience. I loved it, and came home, and now we're getting ready to do it again. Knowing I played in Hawk Nelson for almost 15 years, I am approaching this way differently from how I did back then. I was a kid, literally a teenager when I was on the road with them, so I knew nothing, but I thought I knew everything, Just to come at this with a whole new perspective on touring, on music, on faith, on leadership, being the seasoned vet on this tour rather than being the new guy trying to prove myself, it's not that anymore. It's taking these people under you and bringing them up. Working at a church really taught me to be a better leader.
How would you compare your present time on the road to that of 20+ years ago?
I didn't realize how successful Hawk Nelson was until I was actually out of the band. We were always just trying to make it. You always set little goals for yourself, and we kept kind of getting there. It’s like “Okay, sweet, we made it this far. Now let's get this far." Then we’d get there and say “Okay, we got there, now let's go here." I just kept setting a goal that was unattainable because at the end of the day, I was doing it for the wrong reasons, without realizing it. I was always trying to go for something that was bigger than us. We were always put on a pedestal, and the expectation was to reach something, and we just wanted to keep getting better and better and better. When you're chasing something that isn't God-lead, you're never going to get there. Starting Hawk Nelson, we were in the church youth band. We led our youth and worship every Friday night, and before youth, we would play our own original songs before the service started. That was kind of our thing. Then we'd get invited across Ontario to lead worship. We were like "Man, we don't want to be the worship band. We want to be Good Charlotte, we want to be Blink-182. We kept getting caught up being the worship band, and I think that really bothered us. So we drew a line in the sand. We were 19 year old kids saying “This is who we are. We're not a worship band anymore. We're a pop punk band, and this is what we want to do”. That's how Hawk Nelson got their start. Then, as we started playing shows, we started playing the border to the United States. We were that fun, loving Canadian band. As we started playing, we started getting more successful without realizing it. We started achieving a fan base, and people started coming to our shows, and we had fans. As we were playing, people start asking questions towards me, the front man of the band, and they're asking questions about God and faith and mental health and things that they're struggling with, and at the end of the day, I'm like, "I'm just a kid that wants to play punk rock". I didn't have all the answers for them. As time went on, I think I just got scared and tired, and didn't know how to answer these serious questions, because I wasn't equipped theologically, I wasn't equipped for any of it. I think I just got tired of being a spokesperson for the Kingdom of God. I just kind of clocked out because I wasn't really sure what the answers were. I started tossing out cliché Sunday school answers to appease a crowd of people that were just looking for anything from me. As time went on, twelve or thirteen years in the band, I had questions of my own, about God and faith and religion and spirituality, and why we do music anyways, and I wasn't getting the answers that I think I needed to hear. Rather than seeking counsel or therapy or anything like that, I just became cynical and kind of just deconstructed before deconstruction was even a thing or trend. My theory is that we don't have the accountability, or we're not rooted with the equipment and the tools needed for ourselves to grow for ourselves to stay accountable. People are seeking us for the answers, the answers that we don't have ourselves. Rather than looking and searching for the answers, we just clock out, tap out, and quit. Unfortunately, it happened to me. At the end of the day, Christian bands are just guys in bands that want to play music. There's nothing wrong with that. If you believe in Jesus, if you're a Christ follower, which I claim to be, you should be readily equipped with some sort of answer. You can't just throw away some Sunday school answers. If you're not growing in your faith, then that's the scary place to be in. Coming from a church background where I've been the last seven or eight years, I feel like I'm way more equipped today than I was while I was in Hawk Nelson. Being on the road today is a lot different than it was while I was in Hawk Nelson. In the Hawk Nelson days, what we were called to do was to reach people outside of the church, which is awesome. People outside of the church just as much as people inside the church. What I've realized working in the church is there are so many people with questions that already have faith in the church. They often get neglected because we're always so busy looking for the people to get them in the walls of the church so we can lead them to Jesus. What about the people that are just kind of floating in? I do feel like I see both sides now, and there are people like myself who have questions, people in music, and in leadership, that have questions. I want to use what I've learned recently to help guide them as well.
Where have you seen God in your life lately?
Right there. That's where I've been, I'll just say it again. There are hurting people in the church. They need as much, if not more attention, than the people we feel like we've always been called to reach, and that starts with ourselves. That starts with our own hearts. If our hearts aren't in alignment with where God is leading us or calling us, or just staying in the Word, it's just so important to do that. That's such a cliché thing. We would say time and time again, we would just give it to God, just get in the Word. But legitimately, get in the Word, just stay grounded in His Word, in His promises.
If you were to suggest one piece of Scripture to someone, what would that be?
This simplest piece of advice I can give, and it's something I've tried to do for the last ten years, since I've given my life to Christ again in the last 15 years, is just read a Proverb a day. Just start there. There's 31 proverbs in the Bible. There's usually 30 to 31 days in a month. Just do one a day. There's something every day. On the 1st of every month, you read Proverbs 1. Something will jump out at you every single time, and it's different usually, every time. It's amazing what God will do through His words. It speaks to you differently, every time, and it's not magic, but it's a really, really cool thing.
You're celebrating the 20th anniversary of Smile, It's The End Of The World. What is that like?
It's so crazy. I went from doing nothing publicly with music to suddenly having my album “Formally Known As” coming out on the 22nd of May. I also have a little Irish band with my wife, who's from Ireland, so I have an album with some others coming out on the 13th of March. It's called Dunner. We play one to two shows a year, and so we have a show coming up in the next few weeks for St. Patrick's Day, which we do every year. I've started just kind of messing around with songs, and I'm going out in April with my guitar, and I'm going to play a few Smile songs and just kind of give the give the people what they want, you know? Now that I'm kind of getting that planned out, people are gonna be like “Can you play this one?” I'm like, well, that's from Letters, and this is from Crazy Love. A lot of Smiles songs for sure. That's all I'm doing right now. I have this idea, I don't know how far I'll get with it. I'm a creative mind, so I've always got a million and one ideas in my brain all the time. A few weeks ago, I just started doing a bunch of acoustic versions of songs, and I thought I should reach out to some old friends and have a tour like back in the day, like during the Smile era. So I reached out to a few of them, and two of them got back to me and said they'll do something. I don't know what will come of that. Maybe we'll do something nice together with some friends.