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Jason Nokes
12
|
OCTOBER 2016
|
INNOVATE
T
he next time you’re watching
your favorite TV show on the
Discovery Channel, the History
Channel, theWeather Channel
or ESPN, listen carefully to the
music accompanying the dramatic
moments in the show, or themusic
behind the dialogue as a show
goes to commercial. Somebody
has to create that music. And that
somebody just might be Jason
Nokes, the guy youmay know
as president of Gardner, Kansas-
based business services company
DistributorCentral (UPIC: DC).
“I’vemademusic for most of my
life,” Nokes says. “Growing up, I was
forced to take piano lessons and I
hated it. But whenMTV came out
in the early ’80s, it made a lasting
impression. I thought guitar was
really cool. So I taught myself how
to play guitar and played in bands.
But I always liked the writingmusic
portion of that the best, rather than
the performing.”
Even when he was taking piano
lessons, it was the creativity of
writingmusic that spoke to him.
“I playedmy ownmusic at piano
recitals when I was seven or eight,”
he says, adding with a laugh, “I
don’t think they weremasterpieces.”
But the experience fueled his desire
tomake his ownmusic.
Nokes had a four-track recorder
growing up so he could record
his own overdub and be his own
band. “And that’s what I do now.
All themusic inTV shows, it’s all
me. I play all the instruments,
except the drums, which are all
loops that I piece together,” he says.
“So it helped having a piano and
guitar background.”
Nokes’ setup isn’t glamorous—
it’s in his basement next to the sump
pump and the air conditioning
unit—but it’s functional and
doesn’t necessarily look like a
music studio. If you didn’t know
better, you’d just think he had a
regular basement home office.
“Everything is software-based
these days. Besides bigger speakers
and a keyboard, my computer looks
like every other computer.The
keyboard doesn’tmake any sounds
itself.The synthesizer is actually
software you download, so that’s how
you can get any instrument in the
world,” Nokes explains. “It’smade
things accessible to everyone. Now I
can compete. Maybe not full-blown
albums, but anything that goes inTV
shows, I canmatch that quality.”
With his full-time job at
DistributorCentral and his role
as a business owner (he and
his wife, Aleksandra, own two
Fantastic Sams hair salons in their
community) he doesn’t have too
much extra time on his hands.
Throw in the couple’s two active
boys, Loudon, 12, a drummer and
competitive baseball player, and
Rocklan, 10, who plays the cello,
and his wife’s photography studio
DistributorCentral’s
Jason Nokes
creates dynamic
background
tracks for TV
shows—some
of which you’ve
probably heard.
by
Julie Richie
Music Man