The Jesus Rehab

Jared Cortese grew up in a small town in the great state of Michigan.  He was introduced to music by his parents who played music at their church.  At age 11 he began taking piano lessons where he showed a knack for the instrument, but often was distracted by his desire to play outside with his friends.  Jared quit his lessons a year and a half later, and other than a casual interest in trombone which he played throughout middle school and high school, did not seriously pick up an instrument until he got his first electric guitar three years later.  Motivated by jealousy of a friends skills and his discovery of Grunge Rock, Cortese persevered through the finger scarring process and his journey along the fretboard had begun.  

After two years of studying classical piano and guitar at a local junior college, he transferred to Columbia College in Chicago in 2001 where he directed all of his attention to guitar.  In 2004 he graduated with a bachelors degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in Jazz guitar.

In 2004 Cortese left Chicago for a new start in Seattle, WA.  He soon met musician Pete Kingham and the two began playing music immediately initiating a project they dubbed "Scatterbrain" which later evolved into the Jesus Rehab. Cortese has been acting as frontman ever since, although Kingham left the band in 2008. The Jesus Rehab released their first full length album in 2010 called "The Highest Highs and The Lowest Lows," which is a semi-auto biographical account of a mental condition Cortese refers to as "youth." The band is currently finishing up the recording of their next record and plan to release it in April of 2012.