Jay McCarrol (born August 9, 1983) is a Canadian musician, composer, screenwriter and actor. He co-created and starred in the independent web series Nirvana the Band the Show (2007–2009), its television adaptation Nirvanna the Band the Show (2017–2018), and feature film continuation Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025), with Matt Johnson. He has scored all five of Johnson's films, as well as the films The Kid Detective (2020) and Hell of a Summer (2023).
McCarrol has won three Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Original Score for BlackBerry and Best Lead Performance in a Comedy Film and Best Original Song for his work on Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.
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Early life and education
Jay McCarrol was born in Mississauga, Canada, on August 9, 1983. He has a sister, Stefanie.
While attending Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga, McCarrol became acquainted with Matt Johnson, who attended nearby John Fraser Secondary School. The two became friends and creative collaborators, producing many student films together. McCarrol attended Berklee College of Music, where one of his classmates was American comedian Eric André.
Career
2006–2015
After leaving Berklee, McCarrol returned to Toronto and in 2006 he began working as a musical director at The Second City's Toronto location, providing live soundtracks to real-time improvisation.
McCarrol and Johnson co-created and co-wrote the independent docufiction sitcom web series Nirvana the Band the Show, which ran from 2007 to 2009. McCarrol and Johnson star as fictionalised versions of themselves in a musical duo who attempt to book a gig at the Rivoli in Toronto.
McCarrol acted in and composed the score for Captain Coulier (Space Explorer), a short film which played at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He also composed the score for Johnson's 2013 feature film The Dirties, and also played the character Mr. Bird.
McCarrol and his sister, Stefanie, formed the synth pop duo Brave Shores, whose debut album, the EP Brave Shores, was released in 2014. The duo toured Canada and internationally. A single from the EP, "Never Come Down", led to Brave Shores being nominated for Best New Group or Solo Artist in the Modern Rock category at the 2016 Canadian Radio Music Awards; they lost to Coleman Hell for his song "2 Heads".
2016–present
McCarrol scored Johnson's 2016 film Operation Avalanche. McCarrol and Johnson adapted Nirvana the Band the Show into a television series, Nirvanna the Band the Show, which premiered on Viceland in 2017. Two seasons aired across 2017 and 2018. A third season was partially produced but not released due to Viceland's discontinuation.
In April 2016, during the 2016 United States presidential election, a supporter of Donald Trump uploaded a video featuring clips of Trump, with "Never Come Down" as a backing track, to YouTube. The clip ended up going viral, leading to the song becoming "a victory anthem of sorts" for Trump's supporters after he won the election.
In 2018, Brave Shores released La Hoo La La, their full-length debut album. In a press release for the album, McCarrol wrote:
"Never Come Down" was a song I wrote for a cell phone commercial, but it quickly went from television jingle to radio hit. What happened after, however, was even stranger — the song was adopted by online troll types as a sort of Donald Trump victory meme. It inspired the theme of the LHLL. Group mentality, division, indoctrination, power. The world is at once more connected and more divided than ever before. This album is an empathetic exploration of escape, apostasy, and self-discovery – it was a journey from beginning to end.
Johnson and McCarrol co-created and starred in the 2021 animated children's show Matt & Bird Break Loose, a spiritual successor to Nirvanna the Band the Show.
McCarrol scored Evan Morgan's 2020 film The Kid Detective, earning a nomination for Best Original Score at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards. McCarrol later won the award for Johnson's film BlackBerry (2023) at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards. He also scored Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard's 2023 film Hell of a Summer. McCarrol has recorded with and toured with Hayden. He wrote with Amy Millan on her 2025 album I Went To Find You, which he also produced.
Following the success of BlackBerry, McCarrol and Johnson received funding from Telefilm Canada to develop a feature film adaptation of Nirvanna the Band the Show—a project they had been workshopping as early as 2009. The film, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, was filmed throughout 2024; it was directed by Johnson and scored by McCarrol. The film makes use of "Never Come Down" as the signature song of McCarrol's character, who becomes a successful musical artist in an alternate timeline. It premiered on March 9, 2025 at South by Southwest, to what was described as "rapturous reception".
