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New Jon Gomm album backed by Leeds Met team
Jon's new album, 'Secrets Nobody Keeps', was produced by Whiskas, also known as Samuel Nicholls, a Senior Lecturer in Music and graduate of the MA Music Production course at Leeds Met. Meanwhile, the video for the first single from the album, 'Telepathy', has been produced by Senior Learning Officers in Film & Performing Arts at Leeds Met, Owen Plummer and Danielle Millea, who also made Jon's previous videos, 'Passionflower' and 'Ain't Nobody'.
Alongside his teaching role at Leeds Met, Whiskas is well-known in the Leeds music scene as being the founder of legendary DIY record label, Dance to the Radio, and guitarist in the band, ¡Forward, Russia! Danielle is also a gig photographer and music writer; and Owen produces videos for a variety of local musicians.
'Secrets Nobody Keeps' was 100% crowd-funded in only three weeks in a PledgeMusic campaign which was given a helping hand by Samuel's academic research into the use of the PledgeMusic platform.
Instead of putting on a traditional gig, Jon launched the album live on the internet, playing in a studio, filmed by Owen and Danielle on three cameras, with viewers being able to pay any amount they wanted to and all money raised going to ChapELFM, a project to build the first ever arts and music venue in East Leeds where Jon lives.
Samuel said: "Ever since I graduated from the MA here at Leeds Met in winter 2009 I've been working as a freelance music producer. In early 2013, Jon approached me about producing his album and we came up with a very specific way of working, where we consulted on approach and he did most of the recording himself before I mixed the record in June / July this year."
Jon added: "Whiskas's expertise at painting sonic landscapes in the studio and his background (as founder of Dance to the Radio and ¡Forward Russia!), made him the perfect fit musically and business-ethic-wise for the project."
Owen commented: "The 'Passionflower' video that Danielle and I produced has had over five million views and we followed up with four more videos in August and the online charity gig to support the album. We don't really have a process since what Jon does is so intricate, anything else would distract from that, so we just try to keep it simple and straight forward."