Jon Autry profile picture

Jon Autry

Sounds for a Usonian Landscape

About Me


Jon Autry first began the process of writing and recording his own music alone, in the middle of the night, during down time at a Chicago recording studio where he worked as a recording engineer (and had just begun living at, against the wisdom of Chicago building codes).
Although he had previously made music in bands of various types, from punk to jazz, he'd never written anything on his own. However, faced with a life that needed rebuilding, a windowless cinder-block room upstairs and a cycle of insomnia and excessive sleep, writing music became his only way to make it through to the next day. At this point it became a strictly solitary pursuit.
Being a band of one, writing, performing, producing and recording everything himself was an absolute necessity. Turning to the musical approaches he grew up listening to as inspiration, he began making music steeped in synthesizers and inhumanly quantized drum patterns mixed with acoustic and electric guitars and other flawed human elements such as his own voice.
After completing his first album ("...desolation began...") the time came to recreate this music outside of a studio in the real world. Since that time his music has been performed as a five-piece band, a solo acoustic act and a solo vocal/electronic act in a variety of venues and situations ranging from the 2004 through 2006 Winter Music Conferences in Miami to performing at Frank Lloyd Wright's estate, Taliesin, in Wisconsin. He also played South By Southwest for the first time in 2006.
Jon spent most of his formative years in the Midwest. Namely, Indianapolis and Chicago. However, in 2005 Jon finally made good on 10 years of threats and moved to New York City. He currently lives in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Jon's newest full-length record "Cutting Exercises" will soon be released as a CD Digipak and Digital Download. Accompanying this release is the remix single for "Filling In The Blanks" featuring remixes by Mark Verbos, Gabe Catanzaro and Jon himself. Check this space for a release date to be announced soon!

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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/25/2004
Band Website: jonautry.com
Band Members: Jon Autry

Special thanks to the talented people who have brought this music to life live:

Rob Guernsey -Drums (studio and live)
Joan Hutcheson -Synths and iBook
Pat Richardson-Bass
Kevin Toole -Guitar
Mark Verbos -Synths and Powerbook
Influences: Brian Wilson, Miles Davis, Frank Lloyd Wright, John and Dan Fante, Bill Laswell, Stan Brakhage, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Matthew Sweet, Trent Reznor, John Frusciante, Frank Black, Roland Orzabal, Christine McVie, Kevin Toole, Joan Hutcheson, Mark Verbos
Sounds Like: closed eye vision
Record Label: Usonian
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

WMC blog Pt.2

Day three...we are dangerously low on supplies...if help does not arrive soon, I shudder to think what may happen to us...May god have mercy on our souls...DJed for Igor & crew last night...had a blas...
Posted by Jon Autry on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:49:00 PST

WMC blog Pt.1

Yesterday, Verbos and I arrived in South Beach after driving for about 24hours. We checked into our wonderful hotel (great water pressure!), parked the trusty Chevrolet Cavalier and began drinking for...
Posted by Jon Autry on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:08:00 PST

Their prose, my music...

Hi All,2007 has been a year of wonderful collaborations for me. I've been very fortunate to have been asked to lend my music to some wonderful productions that have made me very proud.Well, the year i...
Posted by Jon Autry on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:26:00 PST

Why Jesus Is Better Than Santa

...
Posted by Jon Autry on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:19:00 PST

Catch my work on VIMBY.com

Hey everyone,Just wanted to give you a heads up that some of my music has been licensed for use on a brand new website that just launched in October called VIMBY.com (Video In My Back Yard).I'm honore...
Posted by Jon Autry on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:45:00 PST

Is my face red!?

So, I'm reeling from a great review that was posted today by one Mr. James R. Spring, writing talent extraordinaire...It goes like this:"Is Jon Autry the Frank Lloyd Wright of musical composition?Is i...
Posted by Jon Autry on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:40:00 PST

Hey, nice sack...

I thought I'd post a few links here to a great new project that my close friend (and brilliant artist) Joan Hutcheson is working on. (Click on her name and check out some of her music too!)She's bring...
Posted by Jon Autry on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 04:53:00 PST

Jut saw this online...

"A note on MD 20-20 (aka Mad Dog 20-20) - Years ago, a woman in a town just north of here sued a liquor store, the distributor, and Mogen David itself. Her statement was that her husband 'ain't been t...
Posted by Jon Autry on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:57:00 PST

Happy Birthday, America!!!

Given the current state of our nation, I think today is a good time to reflect on some beautiful poetry that many of us ceased to consciously think about long, long ago (if ever): the first stanza of ...
Posted by Jon Autry on Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:27:00 PST

Jon on NPR

Hey Everyone!The lovely people over at This American Life have once again shown me some love and used two of my songs in this past week's episode of TAL on the radio!If you missed it, you can catch th...
Posted by Jon Autry on Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:52:00 PST