Interview with Downtown

December 2004

Jon sizes up to solo challenge

It took a move from Bishopstown to east Cork for 21-year-old Jon Leahy to take up the guitar. Encouraged by his new neighbours, who wanted him to play with them, he bought an acoustic guitar and started teaching himself. He also took up the bass but preferred playing the guitar. At the time he was into Metallica but it was a trio from Seattle who really turned his head. "When I looked at Nirvana I saw three guys making music and making a racket and becoming really big. To me it was, if they can do it why can't I do it? That drove me then." By the time he was 17 he had played with two bands, jD and Kaleb.

Through Kaleb he came into contact with bass player Caroline McCarthy. After he finished with the band he'd still meet up with her to play music and exchange ideas. One day in 2001 he was hanging out with her when Pete from Paradox came over. Paradox were about to head on tour to the States and they were looking for a bass player. "Ever since he said it that day" recalls Jon, "I was thinking about it all night. He was asking her, he didn't know me at all. I just gave him a call the next day and said, "I'm your man, I'll go with you." So after learning the songs and jamming with the band they did a couple of all ages shows at the Half Moon before heading off.

"I was getting a good buzz playing with them over there because were doing big shows and there were people coming up to us asking for autographs." "We had the five minutes of fame thing and it would give you a great adrenaline rush so I was thinking, 'God, I want to be up there singing my songs in front of people and signing autographs as well'. So I made the decision to leave Las Vegas and come back to Cork. Which seems kind of crazy, but..."

He's been a solo artist for 14 months now and has played the Mor Festival in Offaly, as well as support slots to The Maladies in the Sugar Club in Dublin and The Marshal Stars in The Lobby. A fan of local music he listens to everything from Rest to Ian Whity and Niall Connolly. For the New Year he hopes to play guitar and write some songs with McCarthy on an electronic project which she is working on as well as planning to record a full band CD in January or February. An Irish tour will follow. Jon Leahy plays in Club One tonight and The Waterfront in east Cork on New Years Eve.

The Demo

"I play modern acoustic music," announces Jon Leahy. "That's my angle on it but when I go home I still listen to Metallica and Megadeth." Leahy says his song writing style is influenced by the fact that he still writes as if for a band and, because of that, he says that he plays them as if he is a full band. One thing for sure is the two songs on his demo Our Special and Still Rain have a very crisp, confident and dynamic style.

His experience in the United States seems to have rubbed off on him as there is a strong feeling of America in both his music and his voice, albeit not in the slavish approach of a mere mimic. The records that Bon Mould and Mark Lanegan release in the wake of Husker Du and Screaming Trees would, respectively, best illustrate this. Either way this is music best lsitend to with a fine malt close to hand.

By Don O' Mahony