rock • blues • soul

from boulder, colorado

New album: continental sailor

Continental Sailor (2025), our first full-length album, took us about a year to finish. Recorded & mixed in Boulder by Ari Melinger-Cohen, owner of Tone Mountain Productions (who also appears on the record), & mastered by world-class engineer Brian Lucey (Lizzo, The Black Keys), we worked & played hard for a final product that slaps from the very first note. Check out featured solos by Dustin Schaefer, Caton Sollenberger, Joe Gallo, Wyatt Dubois, & Enion Pelta-Tiller, & performances by Radiance Bukari, Jay Elliott, Rowan Woodbury, & Walt Dawes. Click/Tap image to stream on your favorite platform or sample below!
Neighbor Called the Cops
Jason Brandt & the Build-Out

Sample Tracks

Payday
Jason Brandt & the Build-Out
Simone
Jason Brandt & the Build-Out

Est. september 2021

Like an angry shout from a freight train, Jason Brandt & the Build-Out delivers passionate, gritty, original roots rock — a blend of the old & the new, the rough & the refined. Jason’s snarky, bittersweet lyrics tell stories of yearning, heartbreak, regret & redemption from a life spent believing in second chances.

The band has played live in the greater Denver area & beyond since September 2021, performing their first live show in his back yard to a social-distanced audience of about forty during the height of the pandemic lockdown. Throughout its infancy, The Build-Out has included a variety of versatile vocalists & instrumentalists, but the group’s sound has always hearkened back to rock legends like Jimi Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, Lenny Kravitz, The Black Keys, & Gary Clark, Jr., with a nod to neo-soul & contemporary country like Lake Street Dive & Chris Stapleton. (Click/Tap image to stream.)

songs & stories: a history

Jason Brandt Schaefer leads the band on vocals, tenor saxophone, & guitar. Raised on an eight-acre ranchette near San Antonio, he has been playing music & writing stories & poetry since middle school. He studied jazz at the University of North Texas alongside Micheal League & other members of Snarky Puppy, shook Herbie Hancock’s hand, & earned a seat in the Nine O’Clock Lab Band. But with the power of words calling to him, he switched gears to pursue creative writing instead. He earned graduate degrees in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University & Vermont College of Fine Arts, & he now teaches literature & writing as an adjunct lecturer at University of Colorado-Boulder. You can find his creative writing in national magazines (tap any image for list of links).

Jason performed solo & as a sideman in rock, funk, jam, & jazz bands in Texas, Georgia, & Missouri until he made a home in Boulder, Colorado in 2018. Inspired by #vanlife and dirtbagging culture, the Build-Out was named to symbolize the values of independence, love for wild places, & tolerance to adversity. His music is for anyone who has suffered a sense of hopelessness, an empty bank account, a broken heart, for those who have lied or have been lied to, & for those whose only outlet is to shout at the top of their lungs from the peak of a mountain.

This tune, released July 2023, is dedicated to all the rare fixie-loving hipsters who, when they see a red light, “blow right through.” (Click/Tap image to stream.)

Single: Green Fixie

Jason Brandt released his first EP as “Jason Brandt & the Build-Out” in September of 2021, with performances by Joe Gallo, Xue Lionstone, Ari Melinger-Cohen, & Barry Eldridge. (Click/Tap image to stream.)

EP: Jason Brandt & the Build-Out

First Single: Cat’s Got My tongue

Jason Brandt’s first original cut that started it all, “Cat’s Got My Tongue,” was recorded in 2020 & released in January 2021. Featuring Dustin Schaefer of Shane Smith & the Saints on lead guitar. (Click/Tap image to stream.)