Ronan Johnston profile picture

Ronan Johnston

ALBUM AVAILABLE TO BUY BELOW!

About Me

Rónán Johnston, also affectionately known as Rojo, has spent much of the past decade locked mole-like in studio producing and writing material for other artists, and for TV, Film and Theatre.Now, he turns his hand to his first solo album, a collection of finely honed accoustic songs of kitchen dramas, of love, loss and household chores!Twice nominated for IFTA’s (the Irish Oscars) for his soundtrack writing, Rónán has played piano, hammond B3 and Accordion with the “Black Velvet Band”, has been the main mover in 1990’s and 2000’s Gospel Act “Emmaus”, and has been the producer and cowriter of Zig and Zag’s “Never Mind the Zogabongs” and five “Dustin” albums, with whom he also recorded Bob Geldof, Ronan Keating and others. He has also worked with their natural successors, Podge and Rodge. In Ireland, between albums and singles he has produced and written, he has scored more than 33 platinum discs over the past decade, and been reponsible for over 15 number 1’s in the Irish territory. He composed the soundtrack for “Over Ireland” a PBS TV special with an hour’s worth of music put to footage of Ireland’s great sights and landmarks, all shot from the air. In Ireland he is well known as the musical director of hit TV shows “You’re a Star” (now in its fifth season) and Irish “Popstars” in addition to being a host on long-running TV hit show, “The Lyrics Board”.In recent times, he has returned to his first love, writing songs about the ordinary stuff of life. His wry sense of humour is still alive in tracks like “High” while there’s a natural exuberance just bursting forth in tracks like “Call My Name” and “Overnight Mechanic”. The forthcoming album is entitled “Songs of Consolation” as much of the album was written following the untimely death of his mother. Despite well over a decade in the business, this is his first solo offering.He is married to Joanne (also his beautiful backing vocalist on this album!) and they have two children Naoise (5) and Siún (2), and they live in County Wicklow, Ireland.
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/13/2007
Band Website: ronanjohnston.com
Influences: .. Seven Old Ladies at the church last night saying Rosary...

Sounds Like: The Feeling, Andrew Gold, Glenn Tilbrook, Bruce Hornsby, Crowded House, Elvis (Costello), early Elton, The Beatles, Lyle Lovett, Scullion, Gerry Rafferty, Stephen Bishop, ELO, Marc Cohn who knows?
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

We’re on the Ray Darcy show in the morning!

Hi all,Joanne and I are on Ray Darcy's show on Today FM at 11 tomorrow morning (that's 16th October BST if your'e wondering). We're doing an unplugged version of "Don't leave me this way" for their "E...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:57:00 PST

Rojo and Joanne on the wireless!

If you'd like to hear us in conversation on the wireless go tohttp://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index.htmlG o to Tues Oct 2nd And hit "Listen"Run the programme forward to 40:55and you can ...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:32:00 PST

Out at last!! Launch and we’re off....

Well it feels like we've been coming to this day for many many months. The album is officially released in Ireland. Last night we Launched "Songs of Consolation" at Odessa in Dublin. Larry Hogan and m...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:34:00 PST

Im in the Sunday Indo!!

After weeks of visiting local radio stations and having a good time chatting and shooting the breeze with local press, this is the first big national push. Tomorrow, my first full page interview about...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Sun, 23 Sep 2007 04:50:00 PST

Love, She, Lord, Party, Say, Like and Buy

Well, the publicity wheel trundles on. Last night I was on the Dave Fanning show discussing the seven most used words in the biggest pop hits ever in the UK (according to www.motleyfool.co.uk) Apparen...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:46:00 PST

Oh, I forgot!

Just one more thing!I've been feeling that although "Songs of Consolation" has been out for a good number of weeks on the internet now, that I really wanted to get a physical release somewhere. You kn...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:22:00 PST

A real fillip

Just got a phone call yesterday from and old friend, Gareth O' Callaghan, ex RTE DJ, who now has a very popular morning show on Galway Bay FM, in addition to continuing his prolific writing career. He...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:10:00 PST

Getting fairly funky now....

Rock Rivals is really getting up a gear with the recording, and I'm also now running around the country doing radio interviews (had a great time talking to my old friend Charlie McGettigan yesterday o...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:35:00 PST

11,000 hits in the first 6 months!

Thanks everyone,in two days time I'll be six months on myspace, and during that time the site has been visited 11,000 times, and the tunes have been listened to almost 12,500. So thanks for visitng, a...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:40:00 PST

Ropey city....

The family really have the lurgy this last few days!All feeling a bit under the weather. Going to take a lemsip and hit the bed for a while......And the sun was just starting to shine.... boo hoo!Rojo...
Posted by Ronan Johnston on Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:34:00 PST