One of the things Jason hasn't figured out is how Lifehouse - which also includes bassist Sergio Andrade and drummer Rick Woolstenhulme (self-described "guitar guy" Stuart Mathis, who played on Lifehouse's early demos, joins the band onstage) - went from playing a few college shows to sharing the road with Pearl Jam, Fuel, Everclear and matchbox twenty.

Perhaps even more incomprehensible is how this recently obscure Los Angles band scored a #1hit on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, with "Hanging By A Moment," only ten weeks after the release of their debut album, No Name Face (issued Oct. 31, 2000, on DreamWorks Records). Jason, Sergio and Rick were equally incredulous at the appearance of their song "Everything" on the popular TV show "Roswell."

"It's all been unbelievable," Jason says of Lifehouse's success thus far. "We didn't expect any of this, but we're so grateful to have so many people hearing our songs. I really can't explain how it's happened."

In fact, the trio's frontman is hard-pressed to explain most of the unexpected twists his life has taken. His early years in Camarillo, Calif., for instance, would suggest an all-American boyhood, but then his family began touring the Far East, visiting Japan, Thailand and Singapore before moving to Hong Kong. Moreover, he admits to having little interest in music until his parents split up and the songs just started pouring out of him.

"This record deals a lot with self-discovery and breaking out of whatever your parents or your boss or whoever thinks you should be, says Jason of No Name Face. "It's about trying to find out for yourself who you're supposed to be - your purpose, your destiny in the world."

Reluctant to discuss his lyrics in detail, Jason feels they are infinitely open to interpretation . "That's the great thing about a song - a lyric may mean something totally different for someone else than it does for me and still be just as valid," he insists. A case in point is album closer "Everything": "We've been playing it on tour and when kids come up after the show, it seems like they always tell us how much they love that song. They don't really know what it's about, but they hear something in it that connects to them personally. That's why you don't have to tell the whole picture in the lyrics; you give a road to start on that people can relate to."