Jonathan Still Music
ABOUT JONATHAN STILL
Jonathan’s childhood centered on music and sports. His mother, a piano teacher, and his older sister, a devoted piano student, urged him to the piano when he was seven years old after they moved to Dallas from Denver. At that tender time, he began playing competitively, and kept that “sport” going for the next 10 years. During his early teen years, he learned to play the saxophone, and while attending the University of North Texas he discovered his love of the guitar.
After a few years of teaching himself on his sister’s nylon stringed guitar, Jonathan turned his focus to private study, and he began to study classical guitar at the University of North Texas. This decision, and exposure to new sounds, led to the start of a rock band. That experience led him to composition, and as the leader of his band, called Headcase (later called 1 A.D. - ‘and the Muslims say, “A.D.? Who’s he?”’ - E.Izzard), he composed all of the instrumentation, including drums. He took to the drums with such fervor (which seemed like a sport to him) that he became the band’s player. Jonathan’s band recorded a few projects and played the club scene in Dallas on and off for several years until his bassist decided to go crazy and the band blew up. No, only kidding. It was just a few years, not several.
But it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do with his life anyway.
Earlier when he graduated from UNT in 1997, Jonathan got an early opportunity to compose music for advertisements. Through an industry connection, he landed an ‘internship’ with one of the country’s best known companies for music and sound design, and they allowed Jonathan the chance to hone his compositional and production abilities. More than 15 years later, he’s still freelancing for the group. And those freelance credits include some of the largest network and cable television companies and broadcasts. Through Jonathan Still Music, and his previous company Limelight Sound, he has composed and produced music for broadcast and interactive media building a client list which already comprises companies such as American Airlines, Macaroni Grill, 20th Century Fox, and Susan G. Komen. He also composes music for film, and has been scoring short films and animated shorts from all over the country including Hollywood.
Additionally, Jonathan also has a growing catalogue of eclectic solo albums in the progressive ambient/electroacoustic style. His rookie album, Under the Bodhi Tree, won the 2007 Independent Music Award for Best New Age Album and the 2007 New Age Album of the Year from the Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR). Three albums have been released since then, The Awakening (2007) and Euphoria (2008) released by the UK’s New World Music, and Jonathan’s self-released Christmas (2011). A fifth album, Simple Truths is due out soon in 2012.
All in all, Jonathan’s reach into the industry stretches far and wide. His vast credits, broad compositional palate, attention to detail, lightning quick production ability, and network of top notch industry composers available for massive projects continues to solidify his standing as a go-to composer in the industry and a great asset to those producers and creatives working directly with him. And considering his true love of creating all kinds of music, Jonathan always treats every project, large or small, with the same care, professionalism, and expertise. He is now based in the greater Seattle area where he lives with his wife.