All Photos: Alan Mercer
Born and raised in Anderson, Indiana, singer/songwriter Jon McLaughlin began taking classical piano lessons at an early age. Though he lost interest in the instrument during high school and was side-lined by an accident that injured both wrists; he rediscovered his talent during senior year and began incorporating his piano skills into soulful pop music. Jon enrolled in the music program at Anderson University, where he studied piano and spent his free time writing songs. Eventually, he won a school competition that allowed him to release his self-titled debut album in 2004.
‘Indiana’ a follow-up EP, ‘Songs I Wrote and Later Recorded,’ came out the following year, and Jon was soon given the opportunity to audition for three major labels. One such label, Island, signed him to its roster, which led to the nationwide release of ‘Indiana’ an album that included re-recorded versions of two songs from his first effort in 2007. Later that year, McLaughlin's profile received an extra boost when he contributed an Oscar-nominated song, "So Close," to the Disney film ‘Enchanted.’ He also performed the song during the 2008 Academy Awards Ceremony and used the resulting momentum to drum up support for his third studio album, ‘OK Now.’
Since signing with Island Records, Jon increased his public image by providing music for the NBC comedy Scrubs, episode "My Conventional Wisdom," on May 10, 2007. Jon McLaughlin's song, "Human" was included in the episode. The same song appeared at the end of the episode "The Walk-In" of Ghost Whisperer. "Beautiful Disaster" can also be heard in the hit TV series, ‘A Little Thing Called Life’ in the season two episode titled "The Greatest and Worst Halloween Ever.""Beautiful Disaster" sold over 420,000 digital copies.
To date, three Hollywood-released films have included songs from Jon. The song "Another Layer" appeared on the soundtrack for the Motion Picture ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ and "Beautiful Disaster" is used in the 2007 film ‘Georgia Rule.’ Jon McLaughlin also made an on-screen appearance and performance of the song, "So Close" (written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) in the Oscar-nominated Disney film ‘Enchanted.’ The song received an Oscar nomination. This led to Jon performing at the 80th Academy Awards, which he attended with his wife Amy.
Jon parted ways with Island after the release of ‘OK Now.’ In 2011, he rallied with the self-released ‘Forever If Ever.’ The album gained enough good word of mouth that he wound up with a contract with Razor & Tie, who added a couple of tunes to ‘Forever If Ever’ and released it under the title ‘Promising Promises.’ Two years later, the all-new ‘Holding My Breath’ appeared on Razor & Tie.
In 2015, he announced a new album ‘Like Us’ with the premiere of his single "Before You" in July. A follow-up single "I Want You Anyway" was released in September. The album ‘Like Us’ was released on October 9, 2015.
Jon lives in Nashville with his wife Amy and two daughters. I met with him at Poor David’s Pub in Dallas right before the opening night of his tour.
AM: Jon, I have to tell you the new album is so amazing. I absolutely love it. What was your inspiration?
JM: It’s supposed to be a relationship album. Writing songs about relationships is not groundbreaking but I wanted to write a whole album of songs that covered ‘not just love at first sight songs.’ Amy and I have been together for twelve years so I wanted it to be the kinds of songs I can write now. These are songs that you can’t write after twelve weeks.
AM: I know you are inspired by your daughters now. Did you write anything for them?
JM: I’m in a house of girls so I did write ‘Don’t Mess with My Girl’ for them. I don’t write many songs like that but I grew up listening to Ben Folds. I like those nerdy, ironic lyrics.
AM: All of your music has a theme that is you. How do you describe it?
JM: I don’t know. I’m terrible at that question. People often ask me how do I describe myself as an artist. It’s so easy to be a fan of somebody and say they are like this and their artistry is about that, but for me I’m right in the middle of it all the time. I do feel like I am changing all the time so the further away I get from my past projects, I can then see the continuity of it. Sometimes I think I’m doing a jazz record!
AM: I can hear the jazz influence and even some classical influence.
JM: I grew up studying classical music. As far as jazz goes, that comes out with me trying to do the thing I never did. I never played jazz although I grew up listening to Harry Connick Jr., Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson. The jazz scene in Anderson, Indiana is not too big!
AM: Do you still live in Anderson?
JM: No, I live in Nashville now.
AM: But you did live in Indiana for a long time?
JM: Yes for thirty years.
AM: How do like living in Nashville?
JM: I love Nashville. It’s everything it’s supposed to be. It’s not just a bunch of hype. There are so many insanely talented artists in general. I’ve never been to a place like it. It feels small in the way it’s not an LA or a New York City where everything is bursting at the seams.
AM: It’s the perfect place for you.
JM: I really love it and wish I had made the move earlier than I did.
AM: This is the first night of your current tour. Is there anything different about this one?
JM: For me the biggest difference is using these great musicians. On the record it’s a lot of me playing bass on a moog. There’s not a lot of real bass on there. I wanted it to be real instruments. Having the real musicians there is a night and day difference.
AM: You’ve been in the business about ten years now haven’t you?
JM: Yes I guess so. I made my first album in college in 2003, but my first record deal is ten years ago. I cannot believe that.
AM: Is this record considered a concept album?
JM: I feel like this one is the first concept album. Whenever you put a record out you are supposed to have some reason for the album as a whole, especially when people ask what the meaning of the title is. I always answer I don’t know. There is no big congruent idea in any of my other albums. This one was the first. There were some songs that I really liked that conceptually I didn’t go on this one.
AM: Will they go on another album?
JM: Yes I still love them and they will go on another album because I really wanted to stay true to doing the concept album.
To learn more about Jon visit his web site http://www.jonmcl.com/