ABOUT ME

I am originally from Wales, but somehow I always knew I would end up in California. I started playing the saxophone when I was 11 years of age because I thought it might get me girls and as a bonus, I ended up really loving it. I got involved with Jazz early on and found that this was a solid foundation for understanding many more genres of music. I went to Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts to get my music degree and after college I toured Europe, the US and Japan. I played nearly every major festival in the UK as well as opening for people such as GOLDIE, THE EGG, BREAKBEAT ERA and GIL SCOTT HERON. I was also part of the bands for PART TIME HEROES and THE NEXTMEN (with whom I wrote and sang the tune ROCKETS which has now had over 6 million streams on Spotify at time of writing) I was one of the first people in Europe to play saxophone with House music DJs and found that I was mostly interested in music that made people dance. This was the music I wanted to create. With the realization that the saxophone is not really a songwriting tool, I taught myself guitar and piano and I used my understanding of music theory to help me form bands and a unique solo show where I can pretty much incorporate all of my skills at once. I now consider myself a singer/songwriter and producer first and foremost, but I am consistently involved with a wide range of projects as well as my own band - THE JONNY TARR SITUATION. Since moving to the United States in 2011, I have been lucky enough to open for such legendary acts as THE VICTOR WOOTEN TRIO, OZOMATLI and THE FAMILY STONE (plus sharing a stage with Billy Gibbons of ZZ TOP, a particular highlight……) I have worked with multi grammy award winning BEBE WINANS and I have written and recorded with MARIO CALDATTO JNR. the legendary producer of The Beastie Boys. I even got to be part of the opening act, THE PINK FLOYD EXPERIENCE for FOREIGNER’s Cold As Ice tour in 2019. I also recently won my third and fourth SAN DIEGO MUSIC AWARDs for BEST POP ALBUM and ALBUM OF THE YEAR. I recently released my second studio album for San Diego’s PACIFIC RECORDS titled THE RULES and was just named as an OFFICIAL TAYLOR GUTARS ARTIST.