Jon Lawton

Studio, guest musicians and co-writes..

Hello,

There are things bubbling under the surface at the moment that make me happy to be creative.

The main thing I’d like to talk about today is my studio session with Cello on 2 tracks for my currently-being-record album…

Last month I headed down to Crosstown Studios in Liverpool to work with Jon Lawton again. Love working with Jon, so chilled and interesting, great coffee and an ideal ear to bounce ideas off! This time it was with the company of Luke Moore. I’ve worked with Luke on a couple of occasions on Operation Lightfoot projects and he has many hats but in this situation it was as Cellist, Cellist to contribute and weave some dark, beautiful string tones to 2 of my songs. The songs most fitting for this – Riches to Rags and Say Everything Do Nothing. It’s exciting for me to hear an instrument I don’t play adding sprinklings to my songs. Strings have such a powerful sound and I came away from the studio very happy. So, amidst conversations about zombies, Crystal Maze, Obstacle Races and coffee we put melodies and rhythms down to enhance, enhance, enhance. I had lots of fun being objective about my music and I’m now able to stand back from these songs and enjoy the craft. Being in the studio has to be one of my favourite ways to spend time, especially building my own songs. Onwards!

NEXT UP NEWS!……. I have another fantastic guest musician to announce on another song in the coming week for the album…. I’m going to sit on the details of this a tad longer but this song is on repeat on my phone at the moment and makes me smile 🙂 There will be details of this to come.

On a slightly different note…I did my first ever 10k Obstacle race last month called Wolf Run. Loved it! So much fun, so much mud. More more more. This is my preferred way to defrag and get a body stretch and some fresh air, for this I’m grateful.

Stay creative

JO x

studio / album mixing pt. 1 / videos

The last few weeks have been inspiring…

Album recording/mixing pt. 1

There’s a lovely list of 12 songs all ready to make up my next album. I’ve been patient this time round and have opted for letting this music marinate, sitting with it, making tweaks. I now have 8 songs pretty much recorded with some sprinklings from other artists to add to the mix and so a couple of weeks ago I paid a visit to Jon Lawton at the new premises of Crosstown Studios in Liverpool for his expert ears and studio skills….

with Jon at Crosstown Studios, Liverpool

The feedback was great, the coffee was flowing and I came away feeling very excited and like I can move on to my next chapter… watch this space, this thing has wings!

Operation Lightfoot………….

Last year I recorded a song with Operation Lightfoot called Sharks, I love this song, it’s moody and dark and comforting. Lots of strings. Perfect. We wrote the song together and I’ve been excited for when we release it. This is now getting closer and we are currently story-boarding a video to go with it. This will hopefully be out by the end of the year 🙂

Keep an eye on my website / social media for updates!

Until then

Jo x

Operation Lightfoot: studio times & Bay TV

2 fab things to sing about today!

Amazing studio time was had last Friday with Luke Moore and Jon Lawton at Crosstown Studios Liverpool. We began the recording of our song ‘Sharks’ for the Operation Lightfoot project. For this we decided I would be kept away from the guitar, so, guitar skills are by Luke, my vocals and harmonica are currently in place in this dark little number. The thing that has MOST excited me about this is the strings. THE STRINGS. I can’t wait to share this with everyone once it’s finished!

AND

Last month I went along to visit Bay TV Liverpool and recorded a live session of 3 songs (Riches to Rags / Graze / Chopping Wood) in their TV studio. Really chilled experience and I’m really happy with the final outcome. The session was aired over the weekend and below is the vid for you to peruse at your leisure. You’ll find me on Episode 46 The first half is Daniel Saleh and at 11m34s you’ll find me ready to go… Enjoy! x

Riches to Rags FREE download..

Hey All!

I’m very excited about this whole experience of writing and winning the Judges Award for Liverpool Acoustic Songwriting Challenge (Nov 14) and so have decided that the new recording will be available as a free download to anyone who would like to enjoy it for a limited time.

As part of my prize I had the pleasure of recording Riches to Rags with Judge Jon Lawton at Crosstown Studios Liverpool. We had a chilled and enjoyable session and thus this recording was born.

Big thanks to Liverpool Acoustic and the 3 Judges (Kaya (Balance Vocal), Jon Lawton (Crosstown Studios) & Robert Vincent).

Big smiles from me!

You can download the song from Bandcamp (free or if you want to pay anything that’s up to your discretion) or Soundcloud.

I also played the fab Liverpool Acoustic live on Friday (27th Feb.) as part of an epic line-up (Cousin Jac & Roxanne De Bastion) and the lovely Graham Holland (1 half of Liverpool Acoustic) took this vid of me performing the song …

Enjoy

Jo Bywater