Jonny 8 Track

It’s pretty much a similar situation for musicians worldwide. Ideally, music would be their primary occupation, but many supplement their income with full-time employment to support their creative projects. It’s frustrating at times, but if you’re passionate about making music, you’ll do what it takes to keep it going. This is what Jonny Aitken is faced with, but he’s determined not to let the daily grind put a stop to what he loves.

The Brighton-based songwriter and musician, who previously played drummers with The IV Thieves, has been performing as a solo artist, Jonny 8 Track. His first full-length release, 8 Hours Work, 8 Hours Sleep, 8 Hours For What We Will, takes a shot at those frustrating moments of a nine-to-five worker, stifled by the boundaries of office walls. He’s poignantly described his latest work as music for anyone who’s ever had a day job.

Jonny 8 Track is currently in the U.S., and has a performance scheduled for 9 p.m. this Tuesday night Club DeVille, 900 Red River. He’s on the bill for local band English Teeth‘s residency, “Teef Tuesdays.” (Aitken finds the coincidence rather ironic – the whole English Teeth thing, but there you go.) Put your day-job woes out of your mind. Recommended - KUT Austin FM

It’s pretty much a similar situation for musicians worldwide. Ideally, music would be their primary occupation, but many supplement their income with full-time employment to support their creative projects. It’s frustrating at times, but if you’re passionate about making music, you’ll do what it takes to keep it going. This is what Jonny Aitken is faced with, but he’s determined not to let the daily grind put a stop to what he loves.

The Brighton-based songwriter and musician, who previously played drummers with The IV Thieves, has been performing as a solo artist, Jonny 8 Track. His first full-length release, 8 Hours Work, 8 Hours Sleep, 8 Hours For What We Will, takes a shot at those frustrating moments of a nine-to-five worker, stifled by the boundaries of office walls. He’s poignantly described his latest work as music for anyone who’s ever had a day job.

Jonny 8 Track is currently in the U.S., and has a performance scheduled for 9 p.m. this Tuesday night Club DeVille, 900 Red River. He’s on the bill for local band English Teeth‘s residency, “Teef Tuesdays.” (Aitken finds the coincidence rather ironic – the whole English Teeth thing, but there you go.) Put your day-job woes out of your mind. Recommended - KUT Austin FM

Jonny 8 Track describes himself as “a Sunday Gentleman who lives by the seaside, who writes songs about having a day job,” and you can certainly here that in his music. Originally from Nottingham and having previously lived in Austin Texas whilst working for New West Records, Jonny opted to have a “normal life” by the sea. However the town he chose to move to happened to be Brighton where any thing is possible on its local music Scene.

It can be a bit of a tedious cliché comparing acoustic performers to Dylan especially in a town like Brighton. With an extensive singer songwriter scene standing out in this town can be hard to do, however Jonny 8 Tracks latest single 33 rpm is certainly a worthwhile contribution. A nice simplistic guitar part, an upbeat vocal melody with a simple stomp to finish it off. The songs title and sound paints a picture of early 60's folk revival music which was taking off on campuses at the time. You can easily imagine the track pressed in a crate on a ship bound for Liverpool along with some Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan singles only later to be found by some art students. The lyrics feel like they are comparing the monotony of modern existence (“deselect deselect”) against the writers own experience of choosing a more retro outlook finding solace and beauty in music.

When asked about his inspiration for his music Jonny said “Music brightens up and enriches my life, gives it highs, gives it lows and has taken me more places than I could ever dreamed of going. It has helped me find love and break hearts, taste greatness and suffer crushing defeat, given me hope and made me want to weep… but its always there and I keep going back. I don’t want to live without it, and whatever I think about or do, its at the heart of everything.” I have quoted him directly because I really do not think I could put it better myself.

33 rpm will be available on line on 30th September 2013 for download on MP3 via band camp plus a limited edition vinyl pressing of ’33 rpm’ at the end of October. Available in some good record stores in Brighton - Rees Music

Jonny 8 Track describes himself as “a Sunday Gentleman who lives by the seaside, who writes songs about having a day job,” and you can certainly here that in his music. Originally from Nottingham and having previously lived in Austin Texas whilst working for New West Records, Jonny opted to have a “normal life” by the sea. However the town he chose to move to happened to be Brighton where any thing is possible on its local music Scene.

It can be a bit of a tedious cliché comparing acoustic performers to Dylan especially in a town like Brighton. With an extensive singer songwriter scene standing out in this town can be hard to do, however Jonny 8 Tracks latest single 33 rpm is certainly a worthwhile contribution. A nice simplistic guitar part, an upbeat vocal melody with a simple stomp to finish it off. The songs title and sound paints a picture of early 60's folk revival music which was taking off on campuses at the time. You can easily imagine the track pressed in a crate on a ship bound for Liverpool along with some Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan singles only later to be found by some art students. The lyrics feel like they are comparing the monotony of modern existence (“deselect deselect”) against the writers own experience of choosing a more retro outlook finding solace and beauty in music.

When asked about his inspiration for his music Jonny said “Music brightens up and enriches my life, gives it highs, gives it lows and has taken me more places than I could ever dreamed of going. It has helped me find love and break hearts, taste greatness and suffer crushing defeat, given me hope and made me want to weep… but its always there and I keep going back. I don’t want to live without it, and whatever I think about or do, its at the heart of everything.” I have quoted him directly because I really do not think I could put it better myself.

33 rpm will be available on line on 30th September 2013 for download on MP3 via band camp plus a limited edition vinyl pressing of ’33 rpm’ at the end of October. Available in some good record stores in Brighton - Rees Music