Moosic Entertainment: Do you have a story behind your artist name?
Jon Chesbro: The story behind my artist name is that… well it’s my name. Sorry that’s boring [laughs].
Tell us a bit about your music journey. How has it shaped you?
My music journey started like many others – in the church. Singing hymns and listening to my mother and grandmother play together on the keyboard and organ. I remember sitting in the living room listening to them play hymns. I sang in the choir, as well. I ventured off on guitar but my mother really pushed me to do it. I had zero direction in life and when my mother convinced me to stick with it I did exactly that – shaping my whole personality and career around it.
How would you describe your sound to someone unfamiliar with it?
My sound has modern production techniques and sounds but with Chili Peppers and Hendrix influence. Very blues and jazz heavy but I love a good bass line and beat.
What drew you to the genre /instruments you’re playing right now?
What drew me to what I do now is ease of access. I haven’t always had a great big studio or cool gear. I had a laptop. A guitar and a mic and I had to get good with what little I had.
What inspires you to write music?
What inspires me to write music is the feeling I get when the song starts to come out. Music is very physiological to me. It’s like therapy to work out a song. It’s an extension of me that I can tend to describe with a taste or a feeling. It’s like when people see colors when they hear sound I do that sometimes but it’s mostly a feeling on my skin or a taste in my mouth. I love textures in music and you’ll find A LOT of that in this new record, Dryas, coming out February 23.
Would you tell us about your current project, album/EP, or song you’re promoting?
This album to me is the end of being self-conscious about my art. I am always scared about releasing music but I have so much of it on the shelf I need to look past the fear and move on. That’s why I like the name Dryas because to me it represents the chaos and turmoil in my head and pushing that aside to create something beautiful.
What do you want listeners to take away from listening to your music?
I want listeners to interpret however they want. Maybe it makes them sad or angry or happy. I don’t care which emotion. My job as an artist is to make people feel something not just go “eh cool.”
Who are your top three artists right now? If that’s not a fair question, what’s your favorite song right now?
My favorite artists right now are. My Morning Jacket, Emilíana Torrini, and FKJ.
What’s the easiest way for fans to connect with you?
My fans can connect with me by just chatting with me. I like learning from new people and listening to people’s stories.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jon_chesbro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonchezdude
Homepage: https://ebbnflowrecording.com/
Bandcamp: https://jonchesbro.bandcamp.com/
What’s next for you?
What’s next for me is I’ll absolutely keep releasing music. I don’t believe in sticking to a sound. Music is emotion. If I’m singing or just playing guitar, the music is an extension of me. I plan to make this a spiritual experience for me and my listeners.
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
Something I wanna add is that I just want people to take something from this music and make it positive. There’s so much bullshit in the world already so being positive in a world of darkness is something I wanna try and convince my listeners to follow along with. It’s hard. Trust me, I struggle every day with it but enough is enough with the bullshit. I wanna be different from everyone else and be positive.
BIO:
Whether on stage or behind the mixing desk, Jon Chesbro invites audiences into a world where every note is a brushstroke on the canvas of emotion. The Massachusetts multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer releases his new album ‘Dryas’ on February 23, and the experimental, electronic, and mostly instrumental record is a departure from his work as Cosmic Vultures guitarist, showcasing a new complexity and depth in his solo musical compositions. ‘Dryas’ can be consumed as a whole or in chapters, and a pair of visualizers, ‘MarchToVictory’ (featuring Derek Smith) and ‘Into The Mirror’, precede the album.
