HOWARD JONES
The legendary Howard Jones was one of the first wave of high-profile synth users. Throughout the 80s, he utilised the best in analogue technology to produce a string of hit singles and albums. He was a regular in the UK singles charts but, importantly, sold even more records Stateside, scoring Platinum sales with his second album Dream Into Action in both the US and Canada.
Since these heady times, he’s maintained a strong and healthy fanbase around the world. Howard’s new music is still hotly anticipated, selling tens of thousands of copies of his newer records and can even command the odd 35-date tour of the US, something that most current artists can only dream about.
For his latest album Transform, Howard collaborated with US dance producer BT (who has been supporting him during the US dates), and he also teamed up with long-term collaborator Robbie Bronnimann, cementing an almost 20-year studio partnership. We head down to Robbie’s incredible Bristol-based Recognizer Studios to talk synth technology with Howard and Robbie.
From the joys of Omnisphere to the possibilities of modular, it’s certainly a great time to be making music with synths, we’re all agreed. The only problem being, as Howard laughs, you have to have access to more than one lifetime to enjoy it all…
MusicTech Hi guys, so how did you two first meet?
On the street, weirdly enough! Robbie had sent me some demos and I had written back to him saying I though they were brilliant. In fact, he now has that letter framed in his studio – it seems a bit patronising now! So I hadn’t actually met him, but had heard his demos, thought they were great, and then by chance I had just come out of a dentist in Maidenhead and Robbie was walking by. It was years after the letters – around the
