A Furness college teacher is set to release his third album in three years.
Jonny Swift, 41, of Dalton-in-Furness, is getting ready to release Kalimera in January, which is heavily inspired by his love for Greece.
The musician spent his 20s and 30s in various bands and decided to go solo during the pandemic, when he released his first album Dalton Daze followed closely by his second album Story of Luna.
Talking about what music means to him, Jonny said: “It’s always been a part of my life really, I’ve come from a musical family. I’m really looking forward to getting the album released, I’m quite excited.”
“For me it’s a creative output, I’m an engineering teacher and a father of three and music is a great creative expression for me as well as a hobby. I prefer the recording of music and releasing it to playing live, I write everything myself and create my own artwork, it’s like an extension of yourself.”
Jonny writes, performs and releases all of his music alone, with some help from music producer Matt Kassel. Matt has recorded, produced and mastered Kalimera at Digital Man Recording Studios in Barrow.
Kalimera, which means good morning in Greek, is inspired by a range of musical influences and experiments with several different music genres, including shoegaze, indie-pop and Caribbean and Greek music.
Featuring nine tracks, Jonny’s favourite track is Summer Solstice, which is heavily inspired by psychedelic music and seven minutes in length.
The new album is set to be released by Seahouse Records, an independent record label based in Barrow, which currently works with 15 musicians from across the county.
Jonny also creates music videos for his songs with the help of friends in the industry and artistic college students. His latest music video for Kalimera was filmed using a green screen and edited in Furness college by student Brandon McGuckin. The video is humorous and light-hearted and follows a story of a man holidaying in Greece.
During the first COVID-19 lockdown, Jonny also set up Bags of Love, which began as an idea to raise money for local foodbanks through local music purchases on Bandcamp.
The idea started to grow in popularity and post-lockdown Jonny began organising gigs and a stage at South Cumbrian festivals which led to him raising £6,000 for local foodbanks.
He said: “It’s been a good little project, I’ve met loads of musicians and made new friends and raising the money has been great.”
Jonny’s music has been played by BBC 6 music, BBC Introducing, Amazing Radio and local independent radio station CandoFM and Kalimera will be available for digital streaming on all platforms from January 6.
