Jon Solo
Pop Alternative with some psychedelic flair!
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Here Close To Me Final
CBC April 2012 Challenge: The 80's. Very different from my usual stuff, but hopefully I have encapsulated every John Hughes film into a song that takes you back to Generation X's coming of age soundtrack!
Kill Shot to the Heart
CBC 007 Challenge. Instead of simply writing a James Bond inspired song, I decided to go for it and write the theme song of a potential movie...
The Eleventh Plague
CBC December 2013 Challenge...Egypt. I thought of Camel racing and then the music came!
Once Upon A Time Ago
The first released track of Head, Heart, & Hands. Moving, bouncy, with plenty of feeling and emotion that will hopefully take you back to a better time.
Show all (26)
Band/artist history
It sounds cliched, but music has always been a part of my life. This is mentioned only to clarify that there is no "starting point" when it comes to my music. Some people look to life changing events or a moment that sparked their creativity. And there are many moments...just no starting point.
For example, even though my career in recording is more than 20 years old or so, I remember back in the late 1970's as a kid using my dad's two Radio Shack tape recorders to dub piano and percussion (ok me banging on the furniture) back to back until there was what amounted to a multitrack recording. This went on for several years.
As a young teen I worked with a four piece jazz ensemble as a keyboardist and backing vocalist. Nothing ground breaking. But it lasted for four years and was a ton of fun.
In 1984 I got my first synthesizer (a Korg Poly800) and attempted to set up my first MIDI based studio. In a studio it was easy to create instrumental music and cassette after cassette of works began to flow. Some of those tracks might fall under the labels of EDM, Chill, Trance, Electronica, Dance, IDM, and Trip-Hop. It really never occurred to me that these blended musical styles would later emerge in mainstream so the ideas were shelved and focus was shifted to pop and rock. For the next 10 years I gigged with various bands. Again it was nothing ground breaking but it was a lot of fun.
In the meantime I was still recording off and on.
By 1998 it felt time to get serious about recording. That is when I started Solosounds (a label of sorts) and my studio mostly in response to a number of local bands and musical acts requesting a respectable musical outlet. The company was expanded immediately to include online resources which seemed to be the direction everything was heading in. As my production skills improved, and more groups came in, my catalog was growing by leaps. One huge result was a number of R&B/Hip-Hop tracks including Ringmaster:Jerry Springer which hit the Billboard Hot Climbers in 1999 with rap artist Marco Polo. This unexpected leap allowed me to expand the studio even more. This lead to some fantastic collaborations, some even over the Internet (pre-2000, wow)! Eventually I would be involved in more than 100 CD releases in a four year span.
All of this however enabled me to turn my attention back to my own music. In 2002 I released Solosphere which was my first electronica CD in more than a decade. In October 2013 I made much of my personal recordings available via iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. And December 31, 2014 marked the release of In a Far Away Place, my 10th personal commercial release (including EPs)!
Currently I am working on three projects- a new electronica album, a vocal album of duets, and a retooling of some of Solosounds' tracks from the late 90's. It should be a good year musically!Have you performed in front of an audience?The music you hear here is rarely performed live. I am primarily a music producer.
Your musical influences
Most obvious influences in my music would be Today-Smile era Brian Wilson and psychedelic-era Beatles. Other influences would include Queen, Supertramp, Pink Floyd and in more modern times Paisley Underground type of bands. Jellyfish, The Wondermints, The Grays, and post-80's Tears For Fears, just to mention a few, should also should be noted as inspirational.
I would add Radiohead, Carpark North, and Mew as great reference points I use to add a little edge to some of my tracks. Great arrangements those guys do!What equipment do you use?
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Comments (108)
I listen and enjoy this song all the time Jon! I just wanted to say I listen to your music all the time. My wife loves it all too!
Gary
Powerful, Jon. Great to hear something new (to me) from you. Cheers!
really enjoy listening to your music.
Cool entrancing instrumental. My kind of techno. Nice!
Hey Jon,
Long time-no see. I was just listening to my down load of this song right between my monitors and this sound so freaken sweet! What a great job and such a fantastic sound especially the layered vocals make me wet.
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