Jon Cotton makes up 1/3 of the UK band Gramophone, who will see their self-titled debut released in February. Cotton also is the producer and engineer on the album, which savvy Stateside fans can already pick up at CD Baby ( http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gramophone ). For Adam's review of the album, hop over to http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1198...
ADAM: Thanks for doing this interview, Jon. How's life treating you these days?
JON: Very well at the moment. It's a lovely, crisp cold English winter day. I feel I've done enough this year though - I'm pretty exhausted - so I'm 'on holiday' already.
As for Gramophone, I'm very happy to reach the end of this year knowing that this album is finally being released. We had some serious political trouble with the major label that was initially going to release it for us and it looked for a while like this record we were so proud of would end up being shelved. But I was adamant that this music wouldn't be just another casualty of 'the world's most amateurly-run industry'- it didn't deserve to be so. Licensing it to smaller independent labels as we've ultimately done has been a breath of fresh air and feels much healthier. Penny and I have just finished preparing a lyric booklet for the French release, which is quite lovely, so things are ready to go and I'm generally a happy chap.ADAM: You and David had been collaborating before Gramophone officially began. At what point did the collaborations evolve into Gramophone, and how did you go about bringing Penny on board?
JON: I met David back in 1990 and we have collaborated on-and-off since then. At the time of Gramophone's birth we were in the middle of an 'off' period however. I was going through some personal trauma at the time and I wanted to start something new as a kind of catharsis. I'd met Penny briefly through an ex-girlfriend of mine who used to give her vocal lessons, and looked her up to see if she would be interested in collaborating on something. We met and spent a day playing with ideas, at which point it became obvious to me that although it was promising there was something missing - and David was the missing piece. The first thing the three of us wrote together was "Motel Lullaby."ADAM: So why the apparent aversion to live shows? You're not planning some big coming-out party on NBC like Jennifer Lopez, I hope.
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