Jon Lindsay (musician)


Jon Lindsay is an American recording artist born in Portland, Oregon.
He is best known as the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer of his own solo albums, and for his work in film, television and theater as a writer and composer. Lindsay regularly collaborates with other artists - contributing performances and production - and has founded several groups, including the North Carolina Music Love Army, with Caitlin Cary of Whiskeytown.

Music career

Lindsay co-founded the band The Young Sons in June 2007 and produced its debut LP Hearts Inc. In 2008, Lindsay joined the band Benji Hughes on keyboards and vocals. In 2009, he independently released his debut as a solo artist, the EP Magic Winter & the Dirty South which showcased folk-tinged, literary pop songs, earning him positive notices in the indie press. Also in 2009, Lindsay co-founded Charlotte's Machine Theatre, serving as music director and company composer. He sound-designed an adaptation of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano and composed an original score for the company-created absurdist musical ThomThom; If That Bird Won't Sing.
Lindsay made his official debut on Chicago-based label Chocolate Lab Records, who released his 15-song solo LP, Escape From Plaza-Midwood on August 17, 2010. Concurrent with the album release was the 7" EP Coping Strategies, which features four songs from Escape From Plaza-Midwood. Three free-download singles debuted with the album launch: "Frequent Flyer" at Magnet Magazine, "My Blue Angels" at Fuse.TV, and "Futuretown" at AOL Spinner. The album received high critical marks, gaining Lindsay some attention in the US indie scene, bolstered by both solo and full-band tours, television appearances, Daytrotter and Ardent Studios sessions. The Independent Weekly wrote that the album is "a sprawling opus of pop rock splendor", and Charlotte Magazine, regarding Lindsay's album and title, wrote "What Sufjan Stevens did for Chicago, Lindsay might just pull off for Charlotte." In December 2010, Performer Magazine called Escape From Plaza-Midwood "One of the best records to come out of the Southeast over the course of the decade", Shuffle Magazine wrote, "comes as close as any regional record in recent memory to rendering what it means to be alive" and NPR praised the song "During The Beauty Shortage" as showing the mastery of composer Aaron Copland.
Following Escape, Lindsay toured the USA heavily for most of 2011, both solo and with his backing band. He also signed a music publishing deal with North Star Media, performed at several festivals, and began preparations for his next releases: the EP Could It Be Christmas?, which has a loose holiday theme ; Rumormill, the debut LP of Lindsay's side project The Catch Fire ; and Lindsay's second solo LP Summer Wilderness Program. Summer Wilderness Program featured three singles each accompanied by music videos from directors of note: Colin Rich, Michael Arthur and Mortimer Jones. Lindsay's 2011 and 2012 releases were largely met with critical praise for continued originality and imagination in American pop music.
On October 26, 2015, The Indy Weekly premiered "All Them Houses", the first single from Lindsay's forthcoming Cities & Schools LP, calling it "a sugar rush of infectious beats, gleaming keyboards and Lindsay’s bell-bright tenor vocals. It is catchy to the extreme". The track was released digitally on November 6, 2015. On November 24, 2015, Paste Magazine premiered "Lifer", the second single from the Cities LP, and wrote that the track is "smart, empathetic, and endlessly interesting...an excellent new single." On May 5, 2016 Paste Magazine debuted "When They Broke The World", the third single from the album, and also premiered the album trailer. They wrote "as usual, Jon Lindsay brings his impressive talent for melody and lyrics in his latest single, which only heightens anticipation for Cities & Schools, out June 10 on File 13 Records."
LP was released to a positive reception in the music press on June 10, 2016. The record received the support of both full-band and solo US and European tour dates.
On December 22, 2017, File 13 released "Zebulon", a single from Lindsay which features a horn arrangement written and performed by Matt Douglas of The Mountain Goats. The song's narrative is delivered from the point-of-view of a racist southern farmer. Lindsay described the song as "psychedelic gospel pop".
In 2018, Lindsay began work on his fourth LP, with recording sessions taking place in NC, NYC, and LA.

The NC Music Love Army

In July 2013, Lindsay and Caitlin Cary of Whiskeytown co-founded the North Carolina Music Love Army – a non-profit collective consisting of artists from or based in NC, conceived to oppose sweeping legislative actions by a GOP supermajority that emerged after Pat McCrory was elected Governor. The initial scope of the project included a 10-track album, released November 26, 2013 via Redeye Distribution, and several concert events in the Carolinas. Lindsay contributed original songs to the project, served as the group's music director, and produced the debut LP, We Are Not For Sale: Songs of Protest. Members of the NCMLA who perform on the album include Cary, The Love Language, Hiss Golden Messenger, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Django Haskins, The Old Ceremony, Snüzz, Audley Freed, American Aquarium, The Connells, Chris Stamey, Chatham County Line, Charly Lowry, Rhiannon Giddens and others. Members of the NCMLA performed at Moral Monday rallies at the North Carolina General Assembly and in Charlotte. The events, which at times drew up to 5000 participants, were part of the "Forward Together" Movement engineered by the NC chapter or the NAACP, under the leadership of Reverend William Barber II.
The NCMLA had 8 releases in 2014, the bulk of which arrived via Love Army Records - its own label founded in the same year. Much of the new material reflected efforts toward stylistic expansion thru a remix project, finding the group incorporating elements of EDM, Pop-Punk, Hip-Hop and other genres into its releases. Other 2014 highlights included a collaboration with Bloodshot Records on the single "Stick to The Plan", released on the commemorative triple LP, While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years of Bloodshot Records; and Lindsay's single "Dear Mr. McCrory", which compares the former governor to segregationist George Wallace.
In 2015, Lindsay was introduced to the case of Lennon Lacy, a seventeen-year-old African American youth from Bladenboro, NC, found dead by hanging in August 2014. The NC NAACP's independent investigation declared the death a lynching. Lindsay's "" arrived on Love Army Records via Redeye Distribution on August 21. Guesting on the track is Grammy award-winning solo artist Rhiannon Giddens, as well as many other members of the NCMLA.

TV and film work

In 2015 "Rumormill" by The Catch Fire was used for High Life TV commercials. In January 2014, "My Body Politic" was featured on MSNBC's the Melissa Harris-Perry show. Lindsay's song "New English Magazines" appears in season 4, episode 2 of the SyFy network show Haven, which aired in Fall, 2013. In 2012, Lindsay's song "Frequent Flyer" made regular appearances on MTV Cribs. Also in 2012 his song "Tiny Violins" was featured on Nylon TV in a profile of Glee star, Lea Michele. In 2009, Lindsay's partnership with former The Young Sons bassist and fellow member in The Catch Fire, Mike Mitschele resulted in the co-creation of compositions for Jeep and Sheetz commercials, Cree LED Lighting, Honda.

Personal life

Lindsay lives in Brooklyn. From 2005-2015, he was based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina from 2015-2017. He attended West Charlotte High School, then Queens University of Charlotte, earning a B.A. in English in 2003. In 2005, he received an MFA in fiction writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His father, Wendell Phillips, is a trained organist and Episcopalian minister, and his mother, Linda Vigen Phillips, is a retired teacher and children's book author. Lindsay has one sibling, a fraternal twin brother, Thomas, who is also an Episcopalian priest. Lindsay's childhood was spent between Oregon, Montana and North Carolina.

Awards/nominations

Solo

Magic Winter & the Dirty South EP
Escape From Plaza-Midwood LP
Coping Strategies 7-inch EP
Could It Be Christmas? EP
After Dark single
Summer Wilderness Program LP
Is This Here What Jesus Would Do? single
Dear Mr. McCrory single featuring American Aquarium & Caitlin Cary
Ballad of Lennon Lacy single with Rhiannon Giddens and NC Music Love Army
All Them Houses single
Lifer single
LP
Zebulon single

The Young Sons

Hearts Inc. LP

The Catch Fire

Rumormill LP

NC Music Love Army

We Are Not For Sale: Songs of Protest LP
We Rise: Remix Army Volume 1 EP
Dear Mr. McCrory single featuring American Aquarium & Caitlin Cary
You Can't Tear Us Down EP
My Body Politic EP
The Senator's Lament EP
Train Comin' EP
Stick To The Plan
Ballad of Lennon Lacy single
When You Were A Young Man single
NCGOP single

With

Raised By Wolves – Return to the House of Ill Repute LP
Stephen Warwick & the Secondhand Stories – Talking Machine LP
Twelve Thousand Armies – North Carolina LP
Twelve Thousand Armies – Tiger Beat LP
Old Milwaukee – Hide A Light EP
Eston and the Outs - AM Gold LP
Antique Hearts - Heartbreaks and Hangovers EP

Original musical theatre scores composed

Description Beggared: The Allegory of Whiteness – 2003

ThomThom – 2010