Vancouver Island-based guitarist Jason Morley has managed to turn a life threatening negative into a positive, with the newly launched Metaspherical. After recovering from a head injury that subsequently required seven brain surgeries (!), Morley invited a few friends to lay down some tracks - Kelly Shaefer (Atheist/Neurotica), Gene Hoglan (Testament/Dethklok/Dark Angel), Travis Morgan (ex-Atheist), and Andy LaRocque (King Diamond), among others. The end result is a track titled 'Cloth of Out To' (with more music to be released over the coming months), while the project has partnered with a very good cause - Sweet Relief. Both Morley and Shaefer spoke with BraveWords correspondent Greg Prato about how the project came about and future plans.

BraveWords: How did the project come together?

Jason Morley: "A few years ago, I had a very severe head injury - which required me to go through seven brain surgeries. I was really wanting to get back to metal. And I live in a pretty small city, and couldn’t find the kind of musicians that could play to the caliber level of music I was envisioning. Gene Hoglan is an old friend of mine since I was in my mid-teens, and just as a shot in the dark I thought, 'Why don't I ask him if he has some time to record some tracks?' And from there, it sort of took on its own destiny. It wasn't really like I was chasing things, I just walked into a lot of situations and met a lot of really great musicians, like the Atheist guys, for example - we met up a few weeks after this in Edmonton, and developed a really great friendship. To sum it up, that's sort of how it started, and then snowballed from there."

Kelly Shaefer: "We met Jason in Edmonton, and it was really cool the way it came together, which is the way I prefer to be involved with a project, rather than having to go through the labels or anything like that. It just seemed like it was a great conversation between two metal lovers, and he explained the project that he had. And while it took us a little while to actually get to do it, he came down to Florida, and we just happened to be doing the first Atheist show for the Jupiter album, so being able to work together in the studio and see it come to fruition for him has been really rewarding for us to be involved. I'm really glad that he pulled it together."

BraveWords: How would you describe the music and is it comparable to any other artists?

Jason Morley: "Well, the first track that we released, I like to think you can really hear the influences of the background of the musicians. With having Gene Hoglan on drums, there's a lot of relevance in sounds that recall Testament, and then there's a melodic feel, bringing in Andy LaRocque from King Diamond. The overall idea with the project has really been to bring players together from different subgenres of metal, and different ethnic backgrounds from around the world. Like, this first track ['Cloth of Out To'], I'd say is more in the melodic thrash area. But the other tracks that we are working on that will be released in the future, there's aspects of power metal, death metal, some progressive stuff going on. The whole goal has been to really blend and fuse the different subgenres of metal from around the world."

BraveWords: Jason, you mentioned earlier that you suffered a serious head injury a while back. What happened?

Jason Morley: "I had lost my dad. He died of a brain tumor - irony or whatever. And I had been in a pretty bad state, partying a lot. To make a long story short, no one actually saw me, I was found at the bottom of a concrete flight of stairs, in a pool of blood. So we basically assume that I tripped and fell. The next thing I remember was coming to in a hospital about a week and a half later, being explained I had been in a state of oblivion. And then really the reason why it trailed out into so many surgeries was due to medical negligence. I went in, I had the first one, they removed a very large portion of the left side of my skull plate - there were hemorrhaging blood clots, and they needed to allow it to swell and come down. It was three weeks I was in the hospital, and they put the plate back in, I went home, was starting to get a lot better, and then about three weeks later, I wake up and my girlfriend is screaming, because there is a bunch of pus coming out of my head. Basically, there had been three infections inside of my head - one was a staph infection, which is quite common as they just float around in the air at hospitals, and another one was a urinary infection. I had to go back in, remove the plate, and have long sessions of eight hours of cauterizing blood cells in my head. There were a few stays, and then due to this infection, I had to live my life for about a year and a half with no skull plate in my head, because they couldn't risk doing anything. I was kind of a danger to myself. But at the same time, it gave me time to focus on my music and get something together."

BraveWords: The project has partnered with Sweet Relief.

Jason Morley: "Sweet Relief is a charity from California that aids working musicians who have been struck down with either physical or mental disabilities. And when I heard about them a few years ago, with everything I've been through and all the help I've received from the musicians, it wasn't necessarily that I was ashamed of the injury, but I didn't go about it playing the pity card with the musicians. Like, I'd known Kelly for a couple of years before I even brought it up. But it made perfect sense for me to partner with an organization, where we can give back to the metal community."

Kelly Shaefer: "It carries a huge importance, because when you're a professional musician, you don't get the 401k, you don't get health insurance, you don't get all these things that come with a normal corporate job or living a life with a 9-5 type job. So if you find yourself 20 years into the music business, and something tragic happens to you and you can't afford it, Sweet Relief has spearheaded a movement to try to create an avenue for lifelong musicians - with or without record deals - to be able to take care of themselves, and take care of medical costs. It's a tremendous organization and a great idea, and something that is sorely needed for the music industry. We're talking about times where money is just being taken from musicians left and right - with people stealing music. So if you find yourself in a medical condition that's well over a couple of hundred thousand dollars, there needs to be something in place to help. So having a portion of the proceeds go to that definitely makes it a super positive project for everybody to support."

BraveWords: Any plans for the band to play live?

Jason Morley: "The plan is definitely to take it on the road. Obviously, having so many people involved, you're not going to do that [with all the members], but we're talking about showcase performances down the road. I would like to take this on the road, and it's amazing how many musicians have said, 'Hey, if you're coming through Montreal, I'll jump up on stage and play some music with you!' It will be very interesting if it is able to get into the touring stage."