Jason Suwito

Jason Suwito (recorded in publishing databases as Jason Alexander Suwito) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Orange County indie-pop trio Sir Sly and as an in-demand outside producer whose credits include Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone, Martin Garrix, JVKE, K.Flay and COIN. Since 2020 he has also recorded as one half of two duo projects, Best Frenz with Joywave's Daniel Armbruster and, since 2026, 2XT with K.Flay.

Sir Sly and the Orange County Beginning

Jason Suwito came up as one third of Sir Sly, an indie-pop trio formed in Orange County, California, alongside vocalist Landon Jacobs and instrumentalist Hayden Coplen. The band built an anonymous online following, reportedly topping The Hype Machine's charts before publicly revealing who its members were, then signed to Interscope Records ahead of its September 2014 debut album, You Haunt Me. A profile in Atwood Magazine published just before that album's release described the trio's roles plainly: Jacobs as frontman, Coplen as songwriter and instrumentalist, and Suwito as producer, noting that the three recorded, mixed and mastered You Haunt Me themselves. That detail matters for understanding Suwito's later career. From the start of Sir Sly he was the band's in-house producer rather than only a touring musician, a role that appears to have set the template for his eventual move into production work for other artists.

Sir Sly continued through the 2010s with Don't You Worry, Honey during its Interscope years, then left the major-label system. The band described itself in 2021 as newly independent after roughly a decade on a major label, releasing The Rise & Fall of Loverboy independently that April, followed by Change in 2023. Across the catalog, two Sir Sly songs stand as Suwito's biggest streaming numbers from his time in the band: “High,” with roughly 93.8 million Spotify streams, and “&Run,” at roughly 71 million. “High” was also used in the 2017 film Happy Death Day, and another Sir Sly song, “Trippin',” appeared in a 2017 episode of the Hulu series Runaways.

Best Frenz: The Joywave Side Project

The pivot from band member to hired producer traces most clearly to a 2018 co-headlining tour that paired Sir Sly with the Rochester band Joywave, a run fans nicknamed “Slywave.” On that tour Suwito met Joywave frontman Daniel Armbruster. The two stayed in touch, and Armbruster has said that not long after the tour, the pair found themselves in the studio together working on a project for another artist, indicating Suwito was already taking outside session work before the collaboration the two would eventually build together had a name. By the pandemic year of 2020, Suwito and Armbruster were trading song ideas remotely, and the collaboration became Best Frenz, releasing the EP 30% Off! in July 2020, led by the single “Ugly Ending.” The project's name reportedly began as an inside joke: Armbruster would introduce Suwito as his “best friend” during on-stage banter on the 2018 tour, a bit that, in Armbruster's words, sparked a true friendship and became the project's name only after the pair's first five suggested names were rejected by their labels' legal teams.

Best Frenz released a run of standalone singles, including “Get Strong” and “Better Moments,” before the full-length The Mall arrived in August 2023, mastered by Joe LaPorta and led by the single “Flatline.” The project has been described in artist-platform editorial copy as a merger of two indie-electronic talents, pairing Armbruster's vocals against Suwito's atmospheric electronic production. The Mall is a concept record built around a fictional, idealized shopping mall as a stand-in for nostalgia, with Armbruster describing the songs as being more about things he wished he had done than things he actually had.

Outside Production and Songwriting

Alongside his band and side-project work, Suwito built a parallel career as a hired producer and songwriter across pop, alt-rock and dance. His Spotify for Artists songwriter page, managed by Warner Chappell Music, credits him with writing on 171 songs. His highest-streaming individual writing credit is “Before You” for Benson Boone, at more than 213 million Spotify streams, followed by “Heart Like Yours” for Willamette Stone, used on the If I Stay film soundtrack, at roughly 137 million.

Suwito's most visible recent placement came via Boone: he is one of four credited producers, alongside Jason Evigan, Malay and Evan Blair, on Boone's second studio album American Heart, released in June 2025 on Night Street/Warner Records. A GRAMMY Museum event description of the album lists Suwito by name among that production team. On the album track “Wanted Man,” which he co-wrote with Boone and Jack LaFrantz, Suwito is credited with background vocals, bass, drums, guitar, piano, programming and synthesizer in addition to production, a multi-instrumentalist credit rather than a purely programming one. He had already worked with Boone the year before, co-writing and producing five songs on 2024's Fireworks & Rollerblades.

Other outside credits include two songs for Imagine Dragons, “No Time for Toxic People” and “Peace of Mind,” from Mercury – Act 1; “Hero” for Martin Garrix and JVKE; “Raw Raw” and the Nimona soundtrack cut “T-Rex” for K.Flay; “Getting Older” for COIN's Uncanny Valley; the full Weathers album Are We Having Fun?, released in May 2023 and including the singles “All Caps,” “She Hates Me” and “Where Do I Sign?”; “If I Didn't Have You” for Banners; “Autopilot” for Allison Ponthier, on which he is the sole credited producer; and songs for Fitz and the Tantrums, MisterWives, Robert DeLong, Dreamers, Elijah Woods, Chloe George, Poutyface, Stephanie Poetri and Jenna Raine. In October 2024 he produced, mixed, composed and co-wrote Neoni's “Groundhog Day,” working with mastering engineer David Spencer, and is separately credited as a writer on that song's music video.

Sonic Identity and Studio

Suwito's sonic fingerprint, based on the pattern of artists and songs he has worked on, sits at the intersection of atmospheric indie-electronic production and emotionally direct songwriting. Editorial descriptions of Best Frenz characterize the project as merging two indie-electronic talents, crediting Armbruster's vocals against Suwito's atmospheric electronic production, a description that lines up with the arc of his outside catalog. That catalog spans arena-scale pop acts such as Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone and Martin Garrix and moodier alternative and indie acts such as Sir Sly, Allison Ponthier, MisterWives and Dreamers, suggesting a producer comfortable moving between polished commercial pop and rougher alt-rock and indie textures.

His documented studio gear skews toward vintage and boutique analog and digital synthesizers and drum machines: a Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 12, a Moog Minimoog Voyager and Matriarch, a Roland Juno-60, a Korg MS-20 and MS-20 Mini, a Teenage Engineering OP-1, an Arturia DrumBrute and a Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage 73, run through an Aurora Audio GTQ2 mic preamp. That equipment list points to a production style rooted in tactile synthesis rather than purely in-the-box work. One studio photo places the Korg MS-20 and Minimoog Voyager in the background of a session with Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, though no further detail about that session, including its date or purpose, has surfaced. No commercially named or branded studio facility has been documented under Suwito's name, suggesting his primary workspace is a private production space rather than a public-facing commercial studio.

The Christian Gates Sessions

Among Suwito's outside credits is a recurring collaboration with the singer-songwriter Christian Gates. The two worked together on at least two songs: an earlier, less widely documented session called “Liar Liar,” and “Traumatized,” a single Gates released on September 30, 2022 through his own imprint. The official audio credits for “Traumatized” list four producers: Gates himself, Suwito, Elation and Grant Sayler. In a Good Noise Podcast interview, Gates described the session with “my friend Jason” as one where the two began, as they often did, from what he called “some weird stuff,” in this case an 80s-style instrument that had earlier anchored “Liar Liar,” then built most of the beat together before Gates left to write lyrics alone in his car and returned with a finished song. Gates has described “Traumatized” as the second song he wrote following a breakup, after an initial acoustic version. Elation, an EDM producer who worked with Gates as far back as his first album in 2019, and Grant Sayler, who produced Gates's 2021 breakout single “Numb,” round out the credit block, though Gates's own account of the “Traumatized” session centers specifically on his work with Suwito.

2XT and the K.Flay Partnership

Suwito's most significant recent artistic partnership, as opposed to work-for-hire production, is 2XT, a duo project with K.Flay (Kristine Flaherty), with whom he had already collaborated on the songs “Raw Raw” and “T-Rex.” K.Flay announced the project on her Discord server on February 4, 2026, describing Suwito as a fellow musician from Sir Sly and naming him as her creative partner. The project released the single “Angel” on February 25, 2026, followed by “All In” on April 8, an album announcement for the debut LP Special Feelings on April 16, and the single “Ringing In My Head” on May 13, ahead of the album's release on May 15, 2026, with vinyl pre-orders offered through Bandcamp.

A review of the reveal described an Instagram account teasing the lead single's pulsing EDM synths before unveiling K.Flay and Suwito as the act behind it, calling the record K.Flay's first EDM-focused album and the duo's first full-length collaboration. The album has been described as fully electronic music with influences from house and dubstep, a stated departure for both artists and Suwito's first overtly dance-genre release. He is credited as producer and co-writer across the tracklist alongside Flaherty.

Publishing, Team and Recognition

Suwito's Spotify for Artists songwriter page is managed by Warner Chappell Music, indicating the company administers his publishing. He is also listed on the roster of Reynolds Management, a producer and songwriter management firm that hosts a selected-cuts page of his outside credits. His recurring collaborators include Daniel Armbruster in Best Frenz since 2018-2020; K.Flay across multiple placements and now the full 2XT partnership; Jason Evigan, Malay and Evan Blair, his co-producers on Benson Boone's American Heart, placing him inside an established pop-production room alongside more widely known hitmakers; mastering engineer Joe LaPorta on Best Frenz's The Mall; and mastering engineer David Spencer on Neoni's “Groundhog Day.”

No RIAA certifications, Grammy nominations or formal songwriting awards have been documented under Suwito's name specifically. The clearest institutional recognition of his work is a GRAMMY Museum event description of Benson Boone's American Heart, which names Suwito among the album's producers as part of “a powerful set of music.” Given how commercially large several of his placements are, individual songs may carry certifications not tied to his name in public databases, though this has not been documented directly.

Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jason Suwito?

Jason Suwito is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the indie-pop trio Sir Sly and as an outside producer for artists including Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone, Martin Garrix and K.Flay.

What band is Jason Suwito in?

He is one of three members of Sir Sly, formed in Orange County, California, alongside vocalist Landon Jacobs and instrumentalist Hayden Coplen, and has served as the band's producer since its 2014 debut album You Haunt Me.

What is Best Frenz?

Best Frenz is a duo project Suwito formed with Joywave frontman Daniel Armbruster after the two met on a 2018 co-headlining tour. The project has released the EP 30% Off! (2020) and the full-length concept album The Mall (2023).

Did Jason Suwito produce a song for Christian Gates?

Yes. Suwito co-produced Christian Gates's 2022 single “Traumatized” alongside Elation and Grant Sayler, following an earlier collaboration on a song called “Liar Liar.” Gates has described building “most of the beat” for “Traumatized” directly with Suwito before writing the song's lyrics alone.

What is 2XT?

2XT is a fully electronic duo project Suwito formed with K.Flay (Kristine Flaherty) in 2026, marking a pivot toward house- and dubstep-influenced dance music for both artists. Their debut album, Special Feelings, was released May 15, 2026.

What is Jason Suwito's highest-streaming song?

“Before You,” which he co-wrote for Benson Boone, is his highest-streaming writing credit, with more than 213 million Spotify streams as of mid-2026.

Discography

Further reading: Suwito's own catalog connects outward across several corners of pop and alternative music covered elsewhere on this wiki, including his co-production credit on Christian Gates's “Traumatized,” alongside fellow Gates collaborators Elation and Grant Sayler, and his “Hero” credit with JVKE.