At the age of 11 Jon became interested in the electric guitar techniques and music of Edddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page. When he was 18 he swapped his electric for an acoustic and moved towards the playing styles of guitarists such as Roy Harper and John Renbourn. At this time Jon moved to Durham, England to study horticulture and became influenced by North Eastern folk music. Here, he developed his singing and percussion skills (playing tabla, congas and djembe) and at 22 joined the young borders band Tarras, who shortly after signed a record deal with Topic Records. Over the next 5 years Tarras released 2 albums and toured extensively in Europe and the U.S. The band shared their song writing and singing duties giving Jon a chance to find his own unique voice, and to develop his arrangement skills. After Tarras disbanded, Jon moved between Manchester and the North East where he worked as a croupier. This gave him time to explore his solo songwriting, drawing from personal experience whilst broadening his use of musical influences to include: Steve Reich, Steely Dan, John Coltrane and Pink Floyd. In 2004 Jon decided to start a solo career and moved to London to start work on his self-funded debut album. Once there he teamed up with multi instrumentalist and arranger, Patrick Durkan and together they worked on the concept and arrangements for the album. ‘May Be Some Time’ was recorded in September and October 2005, produced by Real World’s engineer Ben Findlay and completed in January 2006. The album distils Jon’s experience and skill as a musician, songwriter, arranger and vocalist. The result is an album of intelligence and emotional depth, which repays repeated listening. |
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