mellowdrone Battles Marilyn Manson, Boredom and Norman Bates
By Randy J. Klodz
The name mellowdrone (aka Jonathan Bates) may not jump off this page as boldly as a Madonna or a Metallica would, but with the buzz that’s beginning to brew, maybe one day music lovers will see the name in lights soon. Bates will be making his Chicago debut by bringing what he calls his “small sound” to Double Door on Jan. 28, in support of Johnny Marr & The Healers.
What’s in a name you ask? In the music industry, a name can mean a lot. Bates chose the moniker “mellowdrone,” but fans don’t have to address him by that. “I love Jonathan. I just use mellowdrone because when on a bill when you are playing music I didn’t want it to come across as ‘All right, I’m Jonathan Bates,’” said Bates. “My name’s kind of stupid so I thought mellowdrone was kind of pretty.” Bates also noted that when he was young, people would relate his name with Norman Bates, the character from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho.”
When choosing the name mellowdrone, Bates also became wary of stage name popularity. “I didn’t want people to think that I was trying to be a cheap Marilyn Manson—they are like ‘What are you, Jonathan Bates?’ I didn’t want to go down that road, because somebody’s already doing that that very well.”
mellowdrone will warm the stage for Johnny Marr & The Healers, a band whose sound he feels differs much from his. “I’ve kind of got this small sound and he’s got this big rock guitar sound,” Bates said. “I do a bunch of stuff myself where I sample and loop things and Scott [Elliott] comes in like halfway through and plays with me as well. I try to make it as unboring as possible.”
In spite of the ever-present controversy of artists—and record labels—fearing the threat of online music piracy, visitors to www.mellowdrone.com can download Bates’ entire EP titled “a demonstration of intellectual property” for free. “I always feel that everybody buys CDs regardless of MP3s and things like that. At least for myself I know that if I like a band, I’d buy their CD regardless of how man MP3s I have.”
Bates also said that he’s grateful for the Internet and its vast reach toward music consumers. “Nobody knows or cares who I am, and I understand that, because there’s so much stuff out there,” Bates said, hinting that the Internet and his upcoming tour, may help him establish a fan base that old forms of music artist promotion may not have.
The six tracks on mellowdrone’s EP—from the instrumental opener “Tinylittle” to the quiet ender “Bitelip”—cover personal subjects, often with hints of sarcasm and humor. Slow guitar strumming opens “And Repeat,” with soothingly sarcastic lyrics to follow: “You’re just so amazingly cool / Cause someone wrote a song about you / Oh please can I shake your hand / So I can grow up to be just like you.”
Double Door is at 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave., in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets for this 21-and-over show are listed for $20 each, with a start time of 9 p.m. For more information on mellowdrone, check out www.mellowdrone.com.
| mellowdrone | Photo: ARTISTdirect |
