First Look: Gonzo Jones takes us through each track of his debut EP

An exclusive.

After assisting on the tracks of some well-known Australian Artists (Client Liaison, City Calm Down), Gonzo Jones has finally released his debut EP.

Misty Dreams was written, recorded, mixed and mastered by the man himself after he spent eight months of 2015 living in songwriting isolation.

Gonzo sat down to give us an exclusive track-by-track rundown of the EP, detailing his writing process and the inspirations that helped him create the 7-track record.

‘Misty Dreams’

This is my ode to primal attraction in all its lust and infatuation. I wrote this from a brief encounter in a bakery, where I was stumped by someone I had no connection to. Sometimes it can lead to your thoughts running away and leaving you gawking at the ground. Not acting on it only makes the mind race harder. I continued to go back time and time again, and I can assure you the sandwiches where not ‘all that.’

‘Keep It Clean’

This track is really about living a life of excess and the feeling that you won’t ever burn out or slow down. I grew up on a lot of hip hop, along with other genres, and wanted to write something that reflected the feeling of being indestructible (a dangerous mentality). This is something that a lot of 20-something people feel and can end up in tears pretty quickly.

‘Ride or Die’

I always wanted to write a song like this and had lots of fun in the process. It’s just meant to be all about the bass line and vocals playing off each other.

‘Technicolor’

I’ve always loved the ecstasy wave sound of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. I wrote the guitar riff first and after that everything fell into place. Lyrically it’s all about grabbing the moment and seeing the world through a different filter. I think people shy away too much. We are taught to be small but we can do so much better.

‘Cigarettes and Silhouettes’

This track is pretty much all about self-reflection of the past few years. It really focuses on insecurities and where the path does or doesn’t go. I started writing it after someone really close to me passed away over a long period and [I wrote about] how it can take something like that to realise things are never permanent. It was the first song I started writing for the EP and it was the last one I finished.

‘Passages’

This is a bit of a summer jam I did the day after finishing ‘Misty Dreams’. I really wanted to write something people could dance to and fucked around with the Juno 60 [synth] for hours on end. I was really happy with how it turned out and felt I could take it lots of places on that endless drum loop. This is also a dream to play live.

‘Westwards’

The first time I took acid was with six other friends up in Sydney. We could see a graveyard in the distance as this huge tropical storm rolled in. We decided that would be a good place to spend our time. It was one of the most profound moments of my life (and I’m sure the others’), as we trudged around, bent out of reality. The graveyard was perched up on the side of a cliff with the sea rolling in and in the distance was a clear night sky full of stars.

Misty Dreams is available for purchase here, or you can stream via the player below.

soundcloud.com/gonzojonesmusic