Jon Gomm Releases New Track, And It’s An 80s Pop Banger
UK acoustic guitar virtuoso Jon Gomm has released his first new track in 3 years, a cover of Erasure’s 1988 classic A Little Respect.
Why an instrumental guitar cover? “Back in the early days of the fingerstyle guitar explosion on Youtube, a lot of us were using famous tunes to showcase the possibilities of this way of playing,” Gomm explains. “These days, they’re everywhere, which made me not wanna do it for a long time. But I find some modern solo guitar covers can be just about impressing people. I wanted to try to make something beautiful.”
So, why A Little Respect in particular? “Firstly, I love it. Vince Clarke is an all-time songwriting great,” enthuses Gomm. “Secondly, it’s the ultimate anthem of pride. My hometown Blackpool is as queer as folk, as we say in the North of England, and so it’s always been very accepting in that sense. I have found that the more you accept others, the more accepting you make the world you live in, and the more you’ll be accepted yourself.”
You can watch Jon play the track on Youtube, and listen on all streaming platforms, and guitarists can have a go at learning the arrangement themselves, using the guitar tab and the instructional video, which are both ready and waiting on Jon’s website.
All music streaming and socials links:
https://jongomm.com/links
Jon Gomm announces reissue of 'Secrets Nobody Keeps' - Passionflower 10 year anniversary edition'
OUT NOW
Jon Gomm, the UK based acoustic guitar virtuoso, follows the recent release of his latest album‘The Faintest Idea’ with news on the reissue of his 2013 record ‘Secrets Nobody Keeps’. The ‘Passionflower 10 year anniversary edition’ marks a decade since the release of his single ‘Passionflower’ that went on to change everything for Jon. A live video of the single racked up millions of views on YouTube and other media platforms in 2012 – with British legend Stephen Fry describing him on mainstream television as someone “playing the guitar in a way I’d never seen it played before” and “an all-round genius”.
The release of “Secrets Nobody Keeps” further cemented his status as one of the driving forces behind an acoustic revolution. Jon comments,
“I remember recording Secrets Nobody Keeps, in my spare bedroom studio space in one of the most notorious inner city suburbs of Leeds - My home, familiar, every dog bark, every shout. The passionflower in the yard which had inspired the song, having long since won the battle with the concrete, was still tangling itself around my house. The tempest of the previous couple of years of my life, since my little zero-budget friend-made videos had gone viral (the secrets nobody kept), and sent me on tour all over the planet: It had somehow wrenched me from my home, my sense of safety, even after I went back. Everything the same, but unsteady now. Maybe it was me that had been altered.
Jon Gomm's latest album ‘The Faintest Idea’ is out now.
JON GOMM RELEASES VIDEO FOR ‘DEEP SEA FISHES’
Jon Gomm has released the video for 2nd single ‘Deep Sea Fishes’ taken from The Faintest Idea.
Once again teaming up with The Samsara Collective, the video was filmed in the stunning setting of Niamos Radical Arts Theatre, Manchester, to showcase the immersive and expressive emotional quality of Jon’s music.
Jon discusses the meaning behind the track, which may resonate with many people ‘I have many mental health diagnoses, worn like medals earned in a war against myself.
One is rapid cycling bipolar, which leaves me with frequent bouts of depression. When I'm depressed, I hide in worlds sheltered from human emotion. Like science, nature. And one time I was hunkered down watching a documentary about fish. This was new footage, of undiscovered creatures who live in the very deepest parts of the very deepest oceans. Down there it's cold, bleak, and there's almost no light, and almost no life. And these fish were hideous. Deformed beasts with terrifying fangs and luminescent lures.
And I thought about these tragic monsters living alone in this wasteland, and it left me pretty upset. For days. Until eventually I realised, they must come from somewhere. There must be a daddy hideous sea monster, and a mummy hideous sea monster, and despite the odds they must meet, and fall in love, and make little baby hideous sea monsters. And is that so very different from us? So I wrote this love song.’
The Faintest Idea is out now on CD, double LP, digital and as a stunning limited edition deluxe 3 disc hardback book edition which will feature – CD1 - The Faintest Idea album, CD 2 - The Naked Artist Mix – a stripped back version of the album; a DVD containing 6 exclusive performances filmed in a medieval church, guitar technique presentations, a 35 minute Jon Gomm interview, song description videos and The Faintest Idea in high resolution stereo audio. The beautiful book will feature Lee Zimmerman illustrations, song descriptions, hand written lyrics and full track tablature for the song “Check You’re Still Breathing”.
In January 2012 his song Passionflower went viral online, with the video passing 6 million hits at the time, resulting in national TV appearances in the UK, Portugal, Holland, Brazil and Turkey. Now in 2020 the video has passed 17,000,000 hits and for the first time as of today it is now available, newly recorded on Spotify. Commenting on the song that changed his life,
'Judging by what people tell me, it’s the song everyone wants to be able to stream. Living in the inner city in Leeds, your “garden” is a 12-foot square concrete yard glued to a million others. I once threw some passion fruit seeds in the dirt, almost as a joke. One day I came back from tour, and went out into the yard and there was green everywhere. I traced the vines back to this little pot where I’d thrown the seeds. It was like Roald Dahl had written this huge plant across my life. Then the first day of summer arrived, and this plant tasted sunlight, and buds all over it burst open into flowers pulsating with life. Thousands of miles from its tropical home, lost in the grey urban north, turning seemingly pointless struggle into vivid existence.
So I wrote this song for it, and my friends made a video of me playing it, and the song then started to live out its own meaning, as it went from nothing, just from people sharing it, into a this life-changing phenomenon, so that I ended up playing on TV shows and stages all over the world, touring Europe, Australia, North and South America, Africa, China. Famous people told me they were fans, my childhood music magazines sprung to life.'
Despite the success of the track Jon never recorded a version of Passionflower that he'd been happy with. So he called up an old friend, Australia based producer Andy Sorenson, who took Jon's raw, intimate solo acoustic performance, and placed it in an expanded landscape. This sound is also a reflection of the new music he will release on Kscope later this year,
'There's something about this reverberating stereo space that feels open, like lying beneath an enormous sky, but also the warmth just envelopes you at the same time, like being swaddled in some familiar, trusted place. It’s the sound I’m taking with me for the new music I’m creating now. This, now, is the Passionflower’s final form.'