As a teenager who couldn't really play the guitar, Jont rode a Greyhound bus across America, interviewing 20 of America's most famous poets – finishing the trip having dinner with Allen Ginsberg in his Lower East Side apartment. After his return to the UK, his interests in poetry quickly switched to music, and he started hosting his own monthly event called "UNLIT" at the 12 Bar Club in London. Jont moved to LA to complete his musical and songwriting education working with manager Tony Dimitriades (Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac) and a variety of producers – Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliot Smith), Mushroom (Massive Attack), Bill Laswell and Jesse Rogg (Sam Sparro) among them.
It was while in LA that his night "UNLIT" metamorphosed in to the nomadic hybrid of party and gig that it is now – a celebration of generation of openness where the host and Jont take a leap of faith that creating this gift for strangers and friends alike (a gig by three or four acts of Jont's choosing, in someone's house, free and open to anyone) can only bring good things.
Those leaps of faith have been rewarded. In the four years since returning to the UK, UNLIT has become "an underground internet phenomenon" (The Guardian), a truly ground-breaking event and online tv show, with one tour across Myspace friends' homes in the US and two tours across homes in the UK, the most recent sponsored by Orange in the summer of 2008 and gaining millions of viewers on Youtube. Hundreds of artists have performed at this ongoing series of travelling house-gigs including critically acclaimed and celebrated performers such as Joanaspolicewoman, Lou Rhodes, Josh Weller, Charlie Winston, Newton Faulkner, The Duke Spirit, Tom Baxter, Sam Sparro, Michelle Shocked, Kathryn Williams, Derek Meins and many, many more.
However, though UNLIT reflects a similar philosophy, it is Jont's poetic and emotive songwriting that is at the heart of his life. He received critical acclaim with his mini-album One Long Song (****Q "so gorgeous it makes you want to hug strangers in the street") and last year's full-length album "Supernatural" (****Uncut "wonderfully understated") put out on his own Unlit Records saw him find new fans in Dermot O'Leary, Johnnie Walker and Jonathan Ross at Radio Two not to mention getting 2 songs synch'd on Grey's Anatomy, and one a piece in Without A Trace and Hollywood blockbuster Wedding Crashers.
With the ensuing momentum, Jont has recorded a new more upbeat, rocking and as yet unreleased record – "Set It Free" - that has already received play on Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 Show. Produced by Nigel Of Bermondsey and mastered by the legendary Howie Weinberg (Grace, Nevermind) it is the sound of an artist who has genuinely found their voice. Release is planned on Unlit Records in early 2010, and the end of this year will see Jont doing weekly Unlits in London homes and doing a venue tour of the UK with Michelle Shocked. Not bad for someone so far doing it all himself...
www.jontnet.com
www.myspace.com/jontmusic
www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/orangeunlit/
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