Brandon Jones promoting new album
Published Saturday November 1st, 2008
New Brunswick artist is moving on from Idol fame, trying to 'crack' into the music business
He endured the spotlight that is Canadian Idol and survived. Three years later, Brandon Jones has been able to keep his musical dream alive and in tact -- and he says you haven't seen nothing yet.
Jones, 19, who went to high school in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, is now focusing full-time on a blossoming music career. The East Coaster is thankful for the start he's achieved thus far and hopeful for what might lie ahead.
As a competitor on the fourth season of CTV's top rated Canadian Idol, Jones finished in the top eight of the singing competition's contestants. To an audience of millions watching across the nation, he crooned out tunes from Kenny Rogers, Queen, the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi.
Since then, Jones has moved to Toronto where he's in and out of the recording studio, promoting a debut album released last year.
"I've definitely been a little busy," he says.
But something else had to come first before Jones could focus 100 per cent on his musical ambitions.
"After Idol I had to graduate high school," he says.
Jones was commuting back and forth between Toronto and New Brunswick, working on the foundations of becoming a professional artist while trying to ace algebra and Shakespeare in the classroom. And while the commute back and fourth was tasking not only personally and emotionally, school also had to find a legitimate place in that mix. In his senior year, Jones says he missed more than 50 days of school.
"I was finishing my Grade 12 year, but my head was somewhere else."
Fortunately, his celebrity of being on a national television show didn't make things awkward with fellow classmates.
"My high school was pretty cool about it. They all supported me from the get-go and when I got back they never treated me any different," he says. Jones did graduate (on time and with honours) and was then able to pour himself completely into music, which included writing songs.
"I was pretty happy about being able to balance those two but school and Grade 12 came second to music definitely." Post-Idol, Jones has released an album (2007's 10-track disc 'All for You') featuring the singles 'Stain of You,' (as heard on an episode of 'Degrassi: The Next Generation') and 'Fallen.'
The first time Jones heard one of his songs being played on a Saint John radio station was something he describes as being surreal -- one of the first milestones he experienced from being a professional artist.
"Just getting a song on the radio is incredible to me," he says looking back. Reflecting on his Idol days, Jones says he might have done things differently as a contestant on the show.
"I was young," he says of his time on the program, pointing out that he was 16 at the time. "My song choices would be completely different. I sang the types of songs that I liked but that didn't really represent me all that well."
"If I could go back, I'd sing more songs about what represents me today," he says, saying songs that he weren't offered at that time in the show's song book (such as John Mayer, Lifehouse, Coldplay) are now songs that could be featured.
"I felt that I sang stuff that was older."
While he would have loved to attain the top Idol title, Jones says he sees some benefits to not having the top contestant distinction weighing pressure down on him. He names former show contestant Jacob Hoggard (of the band Hedley) as an example of somebody who finished as a finalist, didn't come in first place, but still benefited from the exposure.
"He came third and he's now one of the top selling Canadian acts," he says. Ultimately, Jones' experience on Idol gave him a taste of show business early in his life.
"The good thing is that we get the convictions we need and the knowledge and a good understanding of how the business is."
As for what he wants his career to grow into, Jones says becoming a touring artist would be most satisfying.
"Also getting into the United States would be another goal," he says. "I'm still working at it."
"It's a tough game; it's a tough business to crack."
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