We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason Andre. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason below.

Hi Jason, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’ve volunteered with Plastic Ocean Project, a local environmental non-profit for many years. Even before it was an official non-profit, the founder and I met and created their first PSA about wildlife entanglement, where I created a soundtrack playing didjeridoo, guitar and drums, and then edited together some photos into a little video while she was getting her feet wet while studying plastic pollution for her MFA. Fast Forward 15 years, and POP is now an internationally recognized organization with partnerships all over the world and I now sit on their Board of Directors.

I have been documenting their journey along the way through photography, video, and design work, while teaming up to produce a full length documentary that is still in the works called If the Ocean Could Talk. We also have a short film making the rounds on the international film festival circuit called 356 about the plight of our North Atlantic Right Whale population.

I grew up on the Outer Banks of NC surfing and fishing everyday in the shadow of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in a very tight-knit community that depends day-in and day-out on the health and state of the ocean. So working with this organization feels like an extension of myself and my love for the ocean, and how it sustains us. Their mission is aligned in every way with how I believe we can solve the issue through scientific research, art, education, outreach, and advocacy for mother ocean.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a marine biologist, filmmaker, and lifelong waterman who grew up on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, surrounded by a culture of surfing and fishing that fostered a deep respect for the ocean. I earned my B.S. in Marine Biology and a minor in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2002 and went on to volunteer in animal husbandry and serve as a senior diver at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. I later directed marine science camps for UNCW’s MarineQuest program, blending hands-on education with environmental stewardship to inspire the next generation of ocean advocates. As I was wrapping up my first stint in Wilmington, I knew I didn’t want to stay in formal education and spent some years trying to figure out what I wanted my career to look like. I think I’m still trying to figure it out…but I knew I wanted to exercise my creative storytelling muscles.

My passion for the sea has taken me around the world—surfing and exploring the waters of Hawaii, Fiji, Indonesia, Australia, France, Portugal, Peru, the Maldives, the Caribbean, and Central America exposing me to many cultures and music. I met POP founder Bonnie Monteleone early on and helped create imagery for her including expeditions from the Gulf Stream to the Baja California Peninsula, where I had the opportunities to encounter and film wildlife up close and personal. I’ve been able to swim with sperm whales, whale sharks, and sea lions. I’ve been able to witness blue whales, orcas, and many species of sharks in their natural habitat. I’ve been inspired to blend all of these things I’ve seen, people I’ve met, and music I’ve heard into a rich fulfilling life.

I think my diversity is what sets me apart and is both a strength and a weakness. I wouldn’t say I’m the best at anything I do, but I am self taught in nearly all of the creative fields that I work in…and I work in a lot of them depending on the day. From photography and videography to audio production and engineering. I’ve produced several podcasts including Death By Design, Ladies Knight, and Is My Board Ready Yet? I have been producing music as a solo musician and with my band The Midatlantic for over 20 years. I run sound for several festivals and events around town. I currently work full-time for a local insurance agency called Wells Insurance where I am their Production Designer. So I get to flex a lot different skills each day depending on the needs of the agency.
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Prior to that I was the owner of Seven Season Films, where I spent over a decade as a small business owner doing multimedia digital production, underwater and aerial cinematography, and creative storytelling. My band has also been an LLC since day one, and I have always tried to treat it with the same respect as any small business with a lot of moving parts. From touring, to album production, and running live production events there is a lot to manage and keep organized.

Although I shied away from formal education, I have leaned into a lot of other things as a life-long learner. The experiential education that keeps my brain interested and my body moving is what motivates me these days. Whether it’s getting my captains license, getting certified as a Freediver, Nitrox diver, or Big Wave Risk Assessment Group Surf Responder, training on jetski rescue with local first responders, or building my own instruments, I’m always yearning to create, learn, and be inspired by the world around me.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of the creative process are knowing you inspired someone else or that your work made some sort of difference in someone’s life. That has been everything from providing the spark to others, helping them with lessons I’ve learned along the way, or a “thank you” for documenting or creating something that was meaningful to another person.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I don’t think being creative is isolated to only “creatives”. Everyone has the capacity to create. I wasn’t sprinkled with some magic fairy dust, and not everything I create is good. Most of it is terrible the first time around. Just ask my wife. We are all born with the ability to create, to think, to imagine, to dream. Motivation and self-doubt, among other things, can eclipse the gift that I think we are all given to create. There’s definitely some resiliency that has to build up over time, and practice…lots of practice! To write a good song takes not just writing a song, but learning to write, learning to play an instrument, learning to sing, and then learning how to assemble all of that into something that works well together. I wrote a lot of not good songs, and even to this day, it’s all subjective. One person can love it and someone else could despise it. For me, I just have the tune or words in my head and feel the need to just materialize it. For me it’s like going to the beach as a kid and just feeling the need to build a sand castle.

I think creating just for the sake of creating is super important. Nothing we create will last forever. Nobody has to even like it. We all built sand castles as kids that we knew were going to get blown away by the wind or washed away by the sea. Yet, we kept building every time we went to the beach. Not for money and not for fame, but for fun because I think we all inherently have that built into our DNA. It doesn’t even have to be limited to art. We “create” a life for ourselves, we build a home around us. We create a community around ourselves that is carefully procured and sculpted over time. So I think everyone owes it to themselves to start by considering themselves “Creatives” and to scratch whatever that itch is. It fulfills something unexplainable, and if you remove your ego from the equation it just feels natural and right.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sevenseasonfilms.com www.themidatlanticband.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsunandre/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonandre/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jasonandre
• Other: https://themidatlantic.bandcamp.com/track/rollin-on

Image Credits

Headshot – Cody Mann
The Midatlantic band – Matt Ray
Surf shot – Robbie Johnson
Whale Spy Hopping – Cairstine Findlay
Sea Lion & Whale Shark – Jason Andre