Introducing | CJ Reardon

cj reardonIt was on hearing Led Zeppelin’s second studio album that ignited a musical spark in CJ Reardon.

From listening to Led Zeppelin II, the singer has grown through his musical career, from playing gigs throughout school in a variety of bands to stepping on to the stage with artists alike Bastille and Maverick Sabre.

Now, the singer has decided to take the solo route to unleash his own sound.

We caught up with CJ to find out more about his music.

Can you tell us more about how your music career began?

Well my passion for music began really early on, I always knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. I remember hearing Led Zeppelin II when I was about 11 years old, that record changed my life. It made me want to play guitar, it made me fall in love with rock music and made me fall in love with the sound of the 60’s and 70’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love all music from any era but the 60’s and 70’s I really fell in love with first. I’ve always been in bands and started writing original material from an early age. After playing gigs at school and local venues with various bands, I went to university down in Bournemouth where I met my last band. We were very fortunate and had some luck along the way, playing with some awesome artists like Bastille and Maverick Sabre and had some airplay on things like BBC Introducing. After touring the UK and releasing our first EP I decided to leave. I knew it wasn’t right and I needed to do something on my own. It was a very weird feeling. I knew I had a lot of music inside me, but I had no idea what they were or what my sound was going to be. My mate describes it as a champagne bottle about to burst! Ha! I think that’s a pretty good analogy. I moved back to my folks for two months and pretty much wrote an album’s worth of material, then moved to London.

How would you describe your sound to those who might not have heard your tracks?

Zero 7 on too many urban folk pills…

You’ve just released your debut single ‘Acid Rain’, did you expect it to receive such a fantastic response?

No, not really. It’s been lovely. It’s pretty overwhelming to have such an amazing response to such a personal song. It’s not your typical first single, it’s pretty much a ballad. It’s great that people are enjoying the tune and are connecting with it.

Can you tell us more about your debut EP release?

Yeah absolutely, as I mentioned earlier, the writing process was pretty organic and very free-flowing. Loads of songs came out in a short amount of time. I think the EP is a good representation of where I am at the moment and shows the variety in my writing. ‘Song for the People’ is probably the fastest song I’ve ever written! I wrote ‘Tale of Two Crimes’ very early on; it was actually a very old song that I forgot about and came back to. Bit of a weird one, I wrote it about a drug dealer and a policeman.

Out of all the gigs you’ve played to-date, which has been your favourite?

Haha! Well as a solo artist my first ‘official’ show is actually in a couple of weeks, but from previous experience maybe playing the Water Rats in London. That was just such a great show!

If you had to pick one gig venue in the UK to headline, where would it be and why?

That’s really hard. Not sure, maybe Bush Hall. It’s just such a beautiful venue. I’m seeing Gregory Alan Isakov there in a few weeks, absolutely buzzing about that!

What are your aims by the end of 2014?

Just get my name out there. Play lots of shows and meet some great people!

Anything else you wish to add?

Head over to my website (www.cjreardon.com) and sign up to my mailing list, you’ll receive an exclusive track that isn’t on the EP.

Keep up-to-date with CJ Reardon:
Website
Facebook
Twitter




%d bloggers like this: