Announcement! Live In The Acoustic Asylum video series and album
July 28th 2015 - first video and Pay What You Want* single, plus album pre-orders available
August 18th 2015 - second video and Pay What You Want* single
September 8th 2015 - third video and album release
Singles will be Pay What You Want, minimum £0.20 (that's about $0.30). The album will be £3.99 (about $6), but you can pay more if you want. Think of it this way: the minimum price covers the costs of making the video/album. Any more you pay goes towards supporting me as a musician so I don't have to quit and get a real job.
There's no record label or corporate sponsor. There's precisely two people in this relationship: me (the musician) and you (the listener).
All the singles are new and improved performances of tunes from my old albums.
So Jon, what's the idea behind Live In The Acoustic Asylum?
At most of my gigs you can kinda split the fans into two groups: the big group of new folks who've known about me since my online video stuff went nuts, and the small group who've been coming to see me for a decade. And the die-hards tend to request older songs which don't have videos online, and most of the audience have never seen me play, and they get really excited by that music, it's like new material for them. So I decided I better make some videos for those tunes!
So I picked a list of songs which are either the most requested, or are "hidden gems", that I have real love for but don't often play, or songs I wasn't truly happy with the album version of. And I practised the f*** out of them, and spent three days filming. In the end we got performances for 9 songs that I was really happy with.
I mixed the audio with my friend, producer Ed Heaton, in his basement, and when we finally finished and listened to it all through, we just looked at each other and without even saying anything we knew we were just thinking: "This has to be an album".
How is it different from your usual recordings?
Because these songs are a "performance" - I'm playing for cameras, knowing there's an audience on the other side of the lens. So I'm totally focussed on communicating the stories and emotions, not on getting the notes right. And the sound is all coming through the pedals I use live, rather than studio gear, so it has this more organic, warmer feel. It sounds like you're in the room with me.
Music in the end is just air set in motion, by my guitar and my voice. Air vibrating in patterns and pulses. I hope that listening to this recording feels like you are there, in the room, with me, feeling that air move against your skin.
What / where is The Acoustic Asylum?
It was a hot, dark room, at a secret location in Leeds, Great Britain. There was no audience, because I was playing the songs for YOU. Live albums are great until the audience start clapping, and you feel sad you weren't there. Think of the Acoustic Asylum as a tiny, intimate venue that exists in my head and in yours.
Pay What You Want singles and Guitar Tab will be available exclusively from jongomm.com
The album will be available on iTunes and the other usual outlets, but will be much cheaper from jongomm.com
The album will be available on iTunes and the other usual outlets, but will be much cheaper from jongomm.com