biography
Music to escape by...
The name deep sky divers
came to be in march 2000. Jon uploaded some
music he had composed with David in the
early 1990s to an internet site called mp3.com.
And a suitable name was needed. Between
1990-94, Jon and David had worked together
on a remarkable body of music initially
intended to be demos for film and TV soundtrack
opportunities that ultimately never came
along. These music sessions were a form
of therapy - an escape from hectic workloads
and family lives. And in these precious
moments of escapism, they conceived music
to escape by...
1980s
Jon and David met in 1979.
Both played a part in the vibrant music
hothouse that was early 80s Sheffield, England.
Jon played fretless bass and cello - David,
guitar and keyboards. Jon played with an
early incarnation of Pulp and with
Tom Bailey - later of Thompson Twins.
David formed an early alliance with Martin
Ware - soon to be a founder member of Human
League and Heaven 17. After several
failed attempts to get something going together,
Jon and David formed the "accomplished
funky pop" outfit March The Third
in 1982 with Pete Morton (guitar) and Nigel
Pease (drums). They gigged around the north
of England for 2 years, came close to landing
a deal with Carrere Records, but then Pete
left the band which split shortly after.
In 1984 they teamed up with ex-Typhoon
Saturday guitarist Nick Robinson and
18 year old singer/songwriter Harriet
Roberts - this shone brightly for a
while fizzled out a year later and Harriet
went on to write songs for Quincy Jones
and Tina Turner...!
David then took some time
out from music developing a successful career
in the travel industry. Meanwhile, Jon became
a pro bassist in bands like Neecha
(with the phenomenal Paul Miro - later AP&S)
and Floy Joy (with Sheffield based
songwriters Mike Ward and Cary Baylis).
He was also a founder member of the glam-cabaret-spoof
act The Gutterband. Having grown
up with bands like Slade, Sweet and The
Glitter Band, the opportunity to play this
music, make money and have fun all at the
same time was too much to miss.
How many bands in the history
of rock & roll have included a fire-eater
who learned his craft from a cassette-tape
called "How to Eat Fire"...?
The act featured innovative
on-stage hydraulic equipment such as the
Spinning Man, a unique and ungainly
contraption (conceptualized by Jon) that
allowed the guitarist to spin laterally
through 360 degrees whilst soloing to "Life
on Mars" - an awesome feat famously
lampooned by UK comedian Peter Kay in series
1 of Phoenix Nights. The Gutterband
performed live throughout Europe, performed
live on UK TV, set fire to clubs and to
people everywhere they went and had a complete
ball until a serious car crash (in which
Jon was fortunate not to be involved) hospitalised
most of the band and brought the fun to
a premature end.
1990s
1990 saw David keen to get
back involved with music. He bought some
new keyboards (initially a Korg M1 and a
Korg Wavestation), called Jon and the partnership
began to produce music again. By 1991 they
were writing tracks such as natural power,
stride for stride and raging calm,
all of which were to become popular tracks
when released on CD over 10 years later.
Liberated from commercial
constrictions and genre boundaries, their
music was allowed to evolve in its own time
and space, away from the pressures of the
marketplace - they were writing the music
of their dreams.
They were also struggling
to get up-to-speed with new technologies.
They invested in an 8-track studio and Jon
worked hard to become an accomplished Cubase
programmer and producer.
1992-94 produced a fair share
of obstacles. First, Jon moved house which
meant up-rooting their studio and a massive
renovation job was required at the new house
before music production could once more
commence. Spring-summer 1992 became their
most productive period to-date with most
of the music that ultimately featured on
NATURAL POWER being recorded during this
time. Then, work circumstances meant David
had to relocate to Peterborough (100 miles
away). Then it was time for them both to
get married and start families - Frankie
Short arrived in may 1993 followed by Harry
Jones in february 1994. Another distraction
was a song-wrting project they embarked
on with singer Rosaline Frew - producing
a 5 song demo under the name of Golden
Mile.
The duo finally managed to
put a demo of their film/tv music out in
summer 1994. But the response was disappointing.
Faced with an uphill battle to get their
music heard and increasing work/family commitments,
the music stopped for a while. Once more,
Jon focussed on his bass playing career
with Jon Strong, Patsy Matheson,
The Italians, Blue the Fuse, Doofer
etc... And David had another career
move - this time to Scotland - over 300
miles away...!
Momentum
That, it appeared, was that.
Until march 2000 when Jon doodled the words
deep sky divers on a notepad and
uploaded some music to mp3.com. The
new age track raging calm and the
strident power-electronica of eternia
instantly became very popular. Within a
month, the NATURAL POWER CD was available
featuring ambient/electronic/new age music
for films that never happened - music written
between 1991-94.
For a while in summer 2000,
NATURAL POWER was the best selling CD by
a UK artist on mp3.com.
All of which was a bit of
a revelation. By june 2000, Jon and David
were writing together again for the first
time in 6 years. momentum and deep
sky meditation were products of this
period - the latter became the duo's biggest
"hit" on mp3.com earning
them even greater and hitherto undreamed-of
exposure. It also propelled them into the
top revenue earnings bracket on mp3.coms
Payback4Playback scheme.
Life and geographical challenges
meant that music writing opportunities were
at a premium. New music did not come along
as quick as they would have liked. So when
the time came to release their first "proper"
CD, they chose to combine new music with
material from NATURAL POWER and other
unreleased 1990s music. MOMENTUM
(arh0003) was released in 2001 to a mixed
bag of reviews - in fairness it was a mixed
bag of music which in hindsight tried to
cover too many genres. Still, it started
to gain the duo recognition in terms of
press exposure and radio play.
Dig deep - dive sky high...!
The demise of mp3.com
in september 2001 was a bitter pill and
left the pair bereft of ideas as to what
to do next. Oddly enough, another altogether
more significant event happened on the 11th
of the same month triggering a massive knee-jerk
reaction in the travel industry that ultimately
left David with a hefty redundancy pay-off
and time on his hands. How weird was that...
In late 2000, in one inspired
afternoon, the duo had composed lake
of menteith after a visit to this beautiful
and intoxicating place. David had the idea
of doing a whole CD project based on music
inspired by the Scottish highland landscapes
in which the pair were increasingly spending
more and more time living and working. HIGHLANDS
& SKYLANDS (arh0006) was the result.
Released in may 2002, the CD combined new
tunes like beyond the hills and when
heaven freezes over with a few older
but highlands/landscape inspired tracks
like raging calm and timeloch.
HIGHLANDS & SKYLANDS
attracted rave reviews, particularly in
the USA.
Bill Binkelman of Wind
& Wire described the HIGHLANDS &
SKYLANDS as "about as near perfect
as an album can be" and described
the track LAKE OF MENTEITH as "simply
the best new age track I've heard in years".
The CD attracted radio play
(significantly from Echoes), made
the New Age Voice top 20 in august
2002, and was selected as #1 Instrumental
Music release of 2002 by California based
Backroads Music. But - it became
apparent to both Jon and David that neither
of them would make a living solely out of
deep sky diving. Jon had his other music
projects to fall back on and began to take
a more pragmatic approach to his involvement
with deep sky divers. David, though,
had to look elsewhere. He formed another
business which began to absorb all his time.
Before long, Jon was on his own again.
North Country Space Music
HIGHLANDS & SKYLANDS stimulated
significant interest in the UKs new age
and holistic circles. Demand for a pure
relaxation CD sowed the seed for may 2003
release THE NEW FAST LANE (arh0011).
Though this was the the first release Jon
had put out without David, most of the tracks
were joint-compositions - including a 20-minute
version of raging calm cunningly
re-titled at the heart of the cyclone.
Jon spent summer 2003 appearing and performing
at various holistic festivals throughout
the UK.
Once again, the new CD was
featured regularly by US radio show ECHOES.
And, in october 2003, ECHOES host John Diliberto
offered Jon the opportunity to record a
prestigious ECHOES "Living Room Concert"
in London. Jon hastily put a band together
(featuring David on keyboards and Pete Morton
on guitar) and arranged to borrow his uncle's
London home for the weekend. The LRC was
probably not the best (not enough preparation
time and too many nerves...!) but it was
more great exposure for deep sky divers
music. The North Country Space Music
feature, which ECHOES produced from interview
footage with the band and broadcast in january
and march 2004, introduced their music to
an even wider audience.
Jon also completed soundtracks
for two Yorkshire TV programmes in 2003.
GIRLSNATCHER (part of the ITV "Real
Crimes" series) was completed first
followed by THE MANDY ALLWOOD STORY. The
latter was broadcast ITV network-wide in
december 2003 - the former in april 2004
and again in december.
2004 continued to see Jon
and David extremely busy with other projects
- Jon with his bass playing (Kirsty
Crawford, Waking
the Witch etc...) and David with
his business to the complete exclusion of
deep sky divers. The somewhat low-key release
of INCANDESCENT (arh0012) in june
2004 did CD sales no favours. However, the
CD made the ECHOES top 25 in september 2004
- playlisting, reviews and fan-feedback
suggesting that this is the best deep sky
divers release yet...!
INCANDESCENT was selected
as the #2 Electronic/Contemporary Instrumental
release of 2004 by Backroads Music - deep
sky divers are the only artists to have
made the Backroads top 3 for 3 consecutive
years (2002-04).
Once again, Jon spent the
summer performing deep sky divers
music at festivals around the UK and played
keyboards with Tim
Wheater at the Summer Solstice festival,
Glastonbury - a wonderful event...!
2005 promises much. New music
is on the way slowly but surely - including
a collaboration between Jon and San Francisco
based Michael Allison (aka Darshan
Ambient). Plus an imminent CD release
by Orange
Music in the Far East...
And the rest is mystery.............................................
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