he was born in barrie, ontario and was raised for a time in camrose, alberta before his family settled in anten mills, ontario. at around the age of 5, his family moved to camrose, alberta, returning three years later. "the cowboy culture really stuck with me. i just fell in love with the music. for some reason, as a little kid, i had some sort of connection with these guys who were singing about these depressing things," mccoy said, citing merle haggard and johnny cash to lesser known artists like ed bruce and wynn stewart. "i just didn't have a voice for rock 'n' roll." jason started playing guitar at age 7 and wrote his first song when he was 12.