Jon Allen Interview: SXSW 2010

With his gravelly vocals and a raft of classic singer-songwriter influences, Jon Allen is the natural heir to Damien Rice's much coveted throne. The SXSW -- bound, London-based singer and guitarist sounds like a young, off-kilter Rod Stewart steering away from the middle of the road to knock out blues-tinged anthems with big hooks and even bigger choruses.

Describe your sound.

Folky, bluesy, melodic, retro and rootsy. Sometimes I throw the odd jazzy chord in to scare the horses.

How did you start playing and recording?

I sang in a choir at school and had piano lessons when I was seven years old. My parents loved music but weren't musical themselves and weren't massively into pop music either. They were more fans of jazz and classical music. It was me nagging my mother to buy me a four-track tape recorder for my birthday that really opened up the world of recording and overdubbing to me. I became intrigued about how instrument and vocal arrangements are constructed.

What are your musical influences?

Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Ray Charles, the Faces, James Taylor, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison and JJ Cale. Yes kids, these guys are the future!

What's your biggest vice?

Pizza.

What's in your festival survival kit?

My own trailer and entourage!

Who was your first celeb crush?

Ginger Rogers in the Fred and Ginger movies that I loved watching as kid.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I've got quite a few but let's go for 'Missing You' by John Waite.

Beatles or Stones?

Love 'em both but, for getting out the door before it turned to s*** in the '80s, it has to be the Beatles. Plus they we so damn consistent in those eight years of recording, whereas the Stones had their lapses even in the sixties.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

What, that can be printed!? I've had someone - a mad female fan - trying to set fire to me while I was on stage. First rule of rock 'n' roll: Always keep a fire extinguisher handy!