Jont - Story Behind The Song 1: "Unless" (Official Audio)

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• published: 14 May 2013
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THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG 1 - Unless I was living on Healey St., in Kentish Town, having been a keen poet from my teens til the end of my time at University in Manchester, the guitar and writing and singing songs had now taken over. Something about playing to 20 people in a room and having to get something across that they felt in 4 minutes....the real-ness of that attracted me more than writing these tiny blocks of abstract words down on a page that nobody understood, or read. Went through a couple of bands quickly: my first, Your Baby, was a bass player and drummer I met through an advert for a singer in a music shop in Manchester...for our first gig I got 120 people to come to a ramshackle old pub in Chorlton-on-Medlock (where Myra Hindley had murdered some of her prey back in the day and the landlord kept half a pool cue under the counter to whack people with if they got out of line). There was a glitter ball. I'd only been to a few gigs before, yep I was really green, and Dylan and Springsteen who I'd both seen had both had intervals....so I figured I would have one too! for my first gig, I played 14 song - all the songs I had, with an interval in the middle....at the end i was sweaty and jubilant, throwing my shirt in to the cold orange manchester sky, my body steaming, a couple of friends outside with me smoking, laughing, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Then it was down to London, making a band called Funnybone....(more about them later), then finally starting solo. I started a night called UNLIT at a place called The Twelve Bar Club in central London, down a little alleyway, tiny classic venue with a stage that when you stood on it put your head in the rafters staring at the knees of the people on the balcony - and gradually formed a group of friends who would play with me at these nights.....a double bass player (andy lewis), a percussionist (andy paget), a cellist (jenny adejayan) and the newly arrived kiwi Hamish Clark scratching on a turntable....I would compere the nights too and organise the whole evening so that there would be three music acts playing a half hour each interspersed by a poet and a classical musician. I was trying to make the ultimate night that I would want to go to. And also a residency for myself. It worked. People loved the night. Packed it out every month. Fiver to get in. The vibe was amazing. An artist from Camden called Sam Cadman painted these backdrop boards. after a year or so of doing Unlit I started work on my first album with these players and ended up with Life Is Fine, a record some people are really fond of but just sounds so young and flawed in so many ways that I've never re-released it as a download. This is the first track I've made public. I find the opening lines a little cringe-worthy, but there's a lot of inventiveness there too.....I hope you like it, at least as a little glimpse of how I started.....back in 1998...... X Jont Hello and a little info about my music from Jont... Inspired by my Vipassana experience, the album Hello Halifax is available to download - for free - here: http://jontnet.com/lists/?p=subscribe. If you would like to show your appreciation for my recordings and the costs involved in making them, you can donate a tiny or large amount using the Paypal widget on that page OR - buy a cd / t-shirt or download for you or a friend from jontnet.com. I have 5 previous albums available to buy there. If you prefer to buy your music on iTunes or Bandcamp - they are there too...just look up Jont. If you would like to see me play a show, I play live every Tuesday at 5pm EST for an hour on my live streamed show "Halifax On Tuesday" or as we call it, H.O.T. TV. - find out where I am currently streaming it from by going to the front page of jontnet.com. The show can be watched live or in retrospect. Find where I am playing concerts in venues or homes by looking at the front page of my website. Best of all contact me (jont@jontnet.com) and depending on where you are maybe we can arrange for me to come and play to your friends in your house. I love doing that. And if you would like to be kept up to date, of course please join the mailing list (go to jontnet.com and click on "mailing list") and also like my Facebook page ("Jont") and add it to your favourites. Then we can be in touch! And I can keep playing you my songs....til we meet again! We are one X Jont FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD - HTTP://WWW.JONTNET.COM SIGNED ALBUMS / DOWNLOADS / MERCH AVAILABLE AT HTTP://WWW.JONTNET.COM/SHOP.PHP Also available on itunes / bandcamp JOIN THE CONVERSATION www.facebook.com/jontmusic www.twitter.com/jontnet