Musician · Composer · Producer · Educator
Jason Zac
Some people discover music. Jason Zachariah was handed it at birth — grandson of two of India's classical pioneers, a death-metal kid who grew up to score a 119-million-view film.
Some people discover music. Jason Zachariah was handed it at birth — grandson of two of India's classical pioneers, a death-metal kid who grew up to score a 119-million-view film.
Music wasn't a choice in the Zachariah house. It was the air.
Jason's grandfather, Walter Nathaniel, was one of the first proponents of Western Classical music in India. On his father's side, his grandfather A.D. Zachariah was a Rajyotsava-awarded master of the Indian Classical violin. Two traditions — Western and Carnatic — met in one family, and Jason inherited both.
His first instrument was the church choir. Years of singing harmony lines trained the ear that everything since has been built on — the harmonic instinct behind the riffs, the arrangements, the reharmonizations he's now famous for teaching.
He is, by his own description, self-taught — a listener first. The teachers he names are records: Dire Straits, Deep Purple, The Beatles, Jordan Rudess, Steve Morse.
From death metal to Celtic folk to Malayalam cinema — a career that has never once sat still. A partial map:
College stages, all at once: keys for the death-metal outfit Extinct Reflections, prog-metal with Black Earth, funk with Caesar's Palace, glam rock with Parousia, plus Bhoomi, Mood Logic and Angel Dust. Acapella on the side with Whish and Reverb. This is where the composing and arranging began.
Watch — Recognize Analyse (Extinct Reflections) →Keys in Allegro Fudge — acoustic folk rock with Indian colours, a full album (Maximum City) and a Hard Rock Cafe headline. Blues and funk with Blues Before Sunrise. A TEDx talk on the melody of the piano. Scores for Anmol Vellani's stage productions, including Exit the King and Woyzeck.
Watch — Maximum City (Allegro Fudge) →Queen and Stevie Wonder tribute concerts with the Nathaniel band. The duo Keto & Jason. Session keys for Lagori, Peepal Tree, Thermal and a Quarter, The Raghu Dixit Project and Parvaaz. The Nathaniel Production House grows into a real studio — recording, arranging, mixing and mastering for artists, bands and brands.
Watch — Save Me, Queen tribute →Brass — trumpet and trombone — on Sushin Shyam's score for Aavesham (119M+ views), plus Sookshmadarshini and Mura. The Jason Zac Band's records keep coming. And a daily discipline that has now passed 3,800 original riffs, watched by an audience of 121,000.
Watch — Armadham, Aavesham →The Jason Zac Band is a one-man composition desk made loud by a remarkable group.
Mostly instrumental, it moves between rock, metal, Indian classical, jazz, blues and country — quiet, soulful pieces sitting beside dramatic ones with orchestral horns, screaming guitar and odd time signatures. Jason writes, arranges and produces it all; the band brings it to life.
Their debut, Back in Time, won him the Rolling Stone India award for Best Keyboardist — twice. Three studio albums follow the same restless instinct.
Hire him for the part you can't quite name — the horn line, the reharm, the arrangement that makes the song finally land.
Jason plays piano, keys, bass, assorted percussion and the brass family — trumpet, trombone, euphonium. He's a Pro Tools–certified engineer who runs the Nathaniel Production House, recording, arranging, mixing and mastering for artists, bands, corporates and ad agencies.
On record he's session brass for the Malayalam film industry; on stage he's scored theatre for director Anmol Vellani. Whatever the brief, the through-line is the same — a deep harmonic ear and twenty-five years of range.
Every single day, Jason writes and plays a new riff — piano, keyboard, composition — tagged by emotion, genre, scale, key and time feel. A decade-deep library that producers, singers and players raid for inspiration, complete with backing tracks, MIDI, chord charts and a story behind each one.
Music education is a Zachariah inheritance — and Jason co-directs the family school with his mother, Lillian Zachariah.
At the Nathaniel School of Music he teaches piano, bass, theory, ear training, composition and production. His method is built to fit the player in front of him — result-oriented, but with room to improvise beyond it. The same instinct powers a YouTube education channel watched by 121,000 students.
Two-time winner of Best Keyboardist — a rare double in the Indian music industry, first won for the album Back in Time.
Trumpet and trombone on Aavesham (2024), plus Sookshmadarshini and Mura — Malayalam cinema's go-to session brass.
Listen →A talk and performance on the melody of the piano at TEDxMSRIT, Bangalore — one of the city's earliest TEDx events.
Watch →© 2026 Jason Zachariah · Bangalore, India
jasonzacmusic.com