Cross—When Rock ’N Roll Collides with the Supernatural

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1994, an area rich in American Roots music, Jason Damico’s (founder of Cross) fascination with sound became apparent as a toddler with his ability to discern individual instruments in a piece of music. Raised in a family that valued music, he began formal piano lessons at 3, drums at 4, guitar at 9 (self-taught) and writing originals at 10. At 13 he started performing professionally in local coffee shops, private parties, weddings and church where he was affectionately known as “Drummin' Damico.”

The contemporary rock/blues music artist, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter at the age of fifteen became the youngest member of the Duke University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of John V. Brown, Jr. Winner of the 2015 Carolina Music Awards Rock Male Artist of the Year and 2015 Video of the Year Hold Me A Little Closer nomineee, 2014 Carolina Music Awards Rock Male Artist of the Year nominee, 2014 Triangle Blues Society Blues Challenge Solo Winner, a recipient of the 2010 Best Overall Musician Award from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Music, winner of the Carolina Music Awards 2011 Youth Artist of the Year and Song of the Year Semi-finalist Winner. Damico has shared the stage with jazz, blues and Broadway greats such as: Vincent Gardner (trombone), Ray Codrington (trumpet), Kevin Mahogany (vocals), Jason Marsalis (drums), Joe Chambers (drums), Monty Alexander (piano), Trae Pierce (bass/vocals/lead guitar/piano), Big Daddy Wilson (vocals/guitar), Claudette King (vocals), Lucky Peterson (piano/guitar/vocals), Slam Allen (guitar/vocals), Joe Louis Walker (Blues Hall of Fame, Grammy Award Winner), and John Arthur Greene (NBC's Peter Pan, West Side Story, Matilda, and School of Rock).

Music has always been Damico’s first love, aside from his faith which he adamantly pursues. Perhaps the main reasoning behind this resides in the fact that Damico underwent a series illness at the age of 17—leaving him to question existentially why he was alive and ultimately what was the ultimate meaning to life. With possible death imminent, he was however overwhelmed by the power of God accessible through faith and grace in Christ and in this he began seeing small measures of incremental healing—eventually being completely restored of what turned out to be a rare intestinal parasitic disease. These few years of adversity were life changing for Damico, as he then decided to combine his faith with his music, doing so on a canvas covered by a contemporary rock/metal soundscape format, otherwise known as “Cross.”

Founded by Damico in 2017, Cross became a side project that quickly burgeoned-forth into a full-time pursuit after being accept onto the roster of the 30+ year held international faith-based tour—The Extreme Tour. Cross was chosen for the tour after a representative of the tour stumbled upon Cross’ rendition of Tod Agnew’s Grace Like Rain, where Damico played all the instruments on the recording/music video and was accompanied by faith-based spoken word artist Cross+Words (Nate Hughes). For the tour, Damico released Cross’ debut EP entitled “The Extreme Tour” (2018)—containing the 2017/2018 singles “Grace Like Rain,” “Calling Out Your Name,” “Dying To Live,” “Ain’t Gonna Live For You,” and “Road To Righteousness.”

After completion of the tour, Cross won a Peak City International Film Festival award for best music video with “Calling Out Your Name.” As of current day, Cross remains still a passionate pursuit of Damico’s creative and faith-based endeavors. Damico’s vision of the project transcends just the idea of having music and performing it live—it’s more than just about the music, as he more commonly refers to it as “a ministry.” Supplementary to the music, Damico began to capture the stories of others’ testimonies on film, creating a platform online where believers can have an opportunity to share their personal stories of supernatural occurrences with an online Cross community as well as general viewers who are perhaps in search for spiritual guidance on social media outlets. Be on the lookout for more releases from Cross, as Damico continues to cover testimonies within the platform’s network as well as write, record, and perform more original material.

Though the Cross was featured in recently released Lifoti's January/February 2020 issue 11, you can check it from below link's for your country: