ellajo

My name is Ella Jo I am a vocalist from England. In the Late 80s and early 90s I worked with a songwriter called Terry Bartlett. He taught me to sing and write songs.
I lived in Nottingham in the mid 90s and used to go busking in the subways around the city. Thanks to everyone who dropped in some money. It was for the electric bills.
I always wanted to go travelling so ten years ago I went to India and Nepal. It was a good place for songwriting. I have returned to India twice more since then, gaining a wide education from this culturally rich country. I have visited the lower Himalaya (which was high enough), had singing lessons in Varanasi and practiced meditation at Bodgaya.
I am also a Tarot reader and have researched its origins in East India and Turkey. Thanks to everyone I ever met on a beach or up a mountain who had a reading.
Tarot has been an inspiration for song lyrics and a good reason to travel. A book will be written, when I can fit it in!
A couple of years ago I embarked on a recording project with Steve Spon, a talented musician and sound engineer from the former Luton Punk Band, UK Decay. He has since produced new music under the name Nostramus, and in the last two years has contributed to bringing some of my ideas to fruition.
We are constantly working on songs, as over the years I have amassed a collection of around fifty. I am indebted to Terry for passing early material on to me and to Spon for his interpretations and his patience as we whip ideas into shape.
My latest craze is photography and we will be adding pictures as we update Myspace.
2008 My Space Update
Wow, have we been busy since setting up this My Space Page!
In 2006 Ella Jo traveled to Greece, Turkey, Hungary and Czech Rep – an exiting trip over seven months to gather pictures, and ponder the archaeology of ancient civilizations. It was also great to discover the vibrant Turkish popular music culture, a true inspiration!
Back in the UK now and two years on, Spon and I find ourselves in the summer of 2008 with the culmination of our projects. We have made two albums from Ella Jo which shall be completed in the near future and Spon is again playing with UK Decay, back together again and gigging! (See the UK Decay Website and Myspace )
My albums contain material from Terry Bartlett, Spon and myself, some tunes have been around a while, while others have been written quite recently. These songs have become a sound track to my life – sometimes too close to explain, but I hope they reach out to others who can relate to them from their own experiences.
The first album is called ‘The Limits Of Milkweed’ – from a documentary about Monarch butterflies – how they live only on this plant and can migrate no further than it can grow. Seems to me like an analogy of the human race, we need to recognize our limits and take care of what we’ve got!
The second album is called ‘Alter Ego’ – the front cover is a detail taken from a picture by the artist Martin Giles who sadly passed away Jan 2008.
These albums have been produced by Diamond Seeds and will be mastered in the Summer of 2008.
Although we appreciate the Internet, and how it can be a positive force for music, we also have to take on board the difficulties musicians face nowadays in protecting their music from being copied or pirated.
We want the world to hear our music, but we also need people to know that it is not a cheap commodity. To make people aware of the value of our art we have added what we call an ‘audio water mark’ – so that if you are listening on the net there will be points in the song when you will be made aware who the music is by and that it is for sale. Radio has been doing this for years. We do not want to spoil the enjoyment of the song, but the intention is to encourage internet users to buy the album if they like the songs.
We would also encourage other musicians to try this as it goes some way to protecting their material in an environment that we have little control over.
So… we have put some new songs up for the world to hear, we hope you enjoy!!!!