Hi There..

 

Jono here.  I am a musician and producer living in Ireland.  I am from the home of traditional Irish music, Miltown Malbay in Co. Clare, so luckily was steeped in songs, tunes, dancing and poetry from a young age. I have been involved in the live music scene in Ireland since I was 14 years old, when I started out jamming with friends and gigging on the pub circuit.  Proud to say I still am. I started out on electric bass, and over the years I have picked up double bass, guitar, mandola, banjo and various other instruments. 

 

As well as playing music, I also have a passion for the technical side of things.  So when I finished school in Ennistymon, Co. Clare, I headed off to study Sound Engineering at the University Of Wales.  Here I met lots of characters from around the world with a common liking for electronic music, and so received an education in more than just engineering.  It was a fantastic time.  After Wales, I moved to Dublin and enrolled at Newpark Jazz College to study bass.  While still in my first year at Newpark, I attended an audition for The Walls, of whom I was a big fan at the time.  After managing the nerves and passing the audition, I joined the band.  A fortnight later we were on a tour bus in Eastern Europe.  So began a busy time; writing, rehearsing, touring and recording.  We toured all over the world, including the US, Russia, Australia and Europe.  We recorded two albums and released singles from both which were incredibly well received. 

 

During this time, I commuted back to Clare as often as possible to play traditional music in the sessions around the pubs.  There is no buzz like the buzz of being in a good Clare session, and I would take an old double bass and squeeze in wherever I could.  At these sessions, I fell in with a certain crew who called themselves The Céili Bandits.  Eoin O’Neill, Quentin Cooper and Yvonne Casey.  Soon enough they were stuck with me, and whenever I wasn’t playing with The Walls I’d be down in Clare with the Bandits.  Over the course of the next few years, comings and goings and various adventures, we ended up as The Fiddle Case, a Clare folk band that was rearing to go.  We had recorded various singles and videos, and now began our first album together, Audio Incense, recorded with the great Quentin Cooper, multi-instrumental virtuoso and founder member of The Fiddle Case.  This album includes Liscannor Bay, which proved to be one of our most popular songs.  My brother Kieran O’Connell joined the band as singer, guitarist and percussionist in 2017 and we went on to record our next album, Write Me A Letter, at Malbay Studios in Miltown Malbay.  

 

During this time, I started working with Galway singer-songwriter Ultan Conlon.  I played electric bass on his album Songs Of Love So Cruel, recorded at Grouse Lodge in Westmeath.  Over the course of this project we became good friends, and so I joined Ultan for pre-production on his next recording project.  We worked late into the night at Ultan’s studio in Clarinbridge, and eventually these sessions became the foundation for Ultans great album Last Days Of The Night Owl, which we recorded subsequently.  We had so much fun working on this album, and ended up working alongside some incredible musicians and engineers.  I toured extensively with Ultan as a member of his band, The Night Owls.

 

The Fiddle Case is as strong and busy as ever, and we began a year-round Monday night session in Doolin around 2016.  Here we have met and continue to meet so many amazing people and musicians. It’s here we began jamming with the great Luka Bloom, and began an amazing collaboration which has brought us on some incredible journeys.  We have played onstage as Luka Bloom and The Fiddle Case many times, in some of the nicest venues in Europe.  Luka guested on The Fiddle Case album, Write Me A Letter, and before that I played double bass on his long player Frugalisto.  Recently, I played on and co-produced Bittersweet Crimson, Luka’s latest album, featuring a stellar band; Steve Cooney, Adam Shapiro, Niamh Farrell and Robbie Harris.  

 

That’s a rough sketch of my journey thus far.  Along the way I have jammed with, hung out with, recorded with and gigged with a good deal more characters, and most have influenced me in some way, and I’m grateful for that.  There is nothing like playing music, and I try to bring all of my experiences to my music.  I let these experiences inform my production, and keep an open mind as much as possible.  I keep an ear out for those interesting things that happen once, or happen ‘by mistake’ and go with it. 

 

Currently, I am working on several recording projects.  The Fiddle Case are in pre-production for our next album, and my brother Kieran and I are beginning recording our debut album as the O’Connell Brothers.  On the live front, I am also gigging as part of Luka Bloom’s band.  So forward we go, and on to the next adventure!