Interview with Ron E Jones

Ron E Jones is an artist/songwriter from Sydney, Australia. In his hometown, he has established himself as one of the country’s premier pop music songwriters, working behind the scenes writing for many of Australia’s top pop stars.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, he is more recognized as the artist from the breakthrough number one single Tear Us Apart, with Malaysian songstress Nadhira. With his own debut solo single, Time Machine hitting radio in Malaysia in the coming weeks, the question many may be pondering is “how did he end up in Malaysia?”

Well the answer is a lot simpler than one would expect.

At the start of 2011 he was invited by Whats Up Entertainment to contribute to Siti Nurhaliza’s English album ‘All Your Love’. After writing the song ‘Stand up’ for Siti, whilst in Kuala Lumpur, Jones was impressed by local act Nadhira who was enjoying some radio success at the time.

After tracking Nadhira down through his management, they met up and literally wrote ‘Tear Us Apart’ on the spot (along with Jones’ producer and songwriting partner Tom Diesel). The song became her lead single and the rest as they say is history…

So fast forward a year, after ‘Tear Us Apart’ took the #1 spot on all major Malaysian English radio stations, won Best Pop Song at the VIMA Music Awards 2012, various promo trips to KL, Siti’s album launch, tv/ radio appearances and a mini feature with rapper Caprice, Ron E Jones is finally ready to release his debut solo single ‘Time Machine’.

How would you best describe your music?

My music is a bit eclectic. I do R&B, Pop, dance. Its spread over a couple of genres, but best word for my music would be honest. I try tell a story, sometime too much hahah.

Tell us a dirty secret about yourself (or the band)

Like I said most of my music is pretty personal sometimes. If you a looking for a secret or story about me you can usually find it in a song somewhere. One of mine or one I have written.

If you had a chance to perform any where in the world, where would that be and why?

Oh like on the MTV awards or American music awards… Just for the exposure and production value. Make some big epic performance with all these special effects… you know you would have millions of viewers.

If you were a superhero, what sort of super powers would you have and what would you champion or fight for?

Haha.. um maybe something like iron man. Have an amazing suit that I could save the world with or generally just fight evil with. He seems to get the girls also.. that’s def a plus.

If you had a chance to collaborate with any musician on the planet, who would it be and why?

At the moment probably Justin Bieber or One Direction. So that their ridiculous amount of fans start following me haha… that or Drake as I am in awe of his talent.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Making people feel love. Like when they listen to my music or what I had to say or even just thought of me that they were able to open their heart.

You win a chance to open for your favourite act – what song would you perform and what would you do on stage?

Wow this is a hard question… this would be such a hard thing to do. I think I would open for Drake and sing my new single ‘Time Machine’… I would stand on a grand piano and have the stage on fire… then disappear into a ‘Time Machine’ and do it again.

Which local musicians in your country do you most admire and why?

In Australia at the moment would have to def be Gotye. He went number one internationally as an independent artist. He went against the grain of the labels and all the current pop trends and made it after so many years of being a virtual no-one but still working hard for years. What’s not to admire?

You’ve been asked to pose nude for a magazine and this is your best chance to gain publicity… would you do it?

Hahahaha I would def think about it. But not all publicity is good publicity.

You look into the crystal ball and see your future? What does it say?

Time Machine

Share with us two of your favourite quotes

‘Make your certainty be greater than anyone else’s doubt…’

‘You Can’t Connect the Dots Looking Forward; You Can Only Connect Them Looking Backwards’ – Steve Jobs.

What is your biggest achievement to date?

As an artist having my collab ‘Tear Us Apart’ with Nadhira do so much in Malaysia was definitely a big achievement for me. Signing my first publishing deal and getting recognized as a legitimate songwriter meant a lot to me also.

What are your thoughts on music piracy? Would you give your music away for FREE?

Music piracy is just one of those things that you just have to deal with. It can’t be stopped so there is no use in being upset about it. The positive side of it is that as an artist your music is already readily available for anyone with the internet for free… so in essence i’m cool with giving away music for free hahah BUT there is still a large amount of people that understand and respect that buying music off artists is cool. So pls buy my music hahah.

www.ronejones.com

www.facebook.com/ronejonesmusic

www.twitter.com/ron_ejones

www.youtube.com/ronejonesmusic

Contact

Australia

ron@ronejones.com
Malaysia: Jason ‘Vandal’ Schadt
The MoveMint
vandigital@gmail.com
tel: +6016 9851981 (Malaysia)
BB Pin – 22EA1DFC

Interview courtesy of:

Bite My Music, the organizer of the Bite My Music Global awards, the world’s biggest independent music awards and FMT.com, a news web site providing independent and original perspectives of Malaysian current affairs.

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