Johnny Jewel

Born in Houston in 1974 under the name John David Padgett, Johnny Jewel has since the mid-1990s developed work situated between electronic, ambient, synth-pop, italo disco and film music. Based in Portland from 1996, he launched Glass Candy with Ida No, initially in a no wave and post-punk vein, before steering the project toward minimalist, nocturnal electronic pop. In 2006, Johnny Jewel co-founded the label Italians Do It Better, central to his activities with Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire and Symmetry. His writing rests on repetitive bass lines, misty synth textures, slow or mid-tempo rhythms and a strong attention to ambiance, between cold romance, off-kilter disco and cinematic melancholy. With Chromatics, whose sonic redefinition he accompanies, he contributed to the Night Drive album in 2007, often cited in the evolution of indie electronic in the 2000s. Johnny Jewel also composes for image, notably the soundtracks of Bronson (2008), Lost River (2015), Home (2016) and Holly (2023), while releasing several instrumental solo records, among which The Other Side of Midnight (2014), Windswept (2017) and Digital Rain (2018). Johnny Jewel thus pursues a path at the crossroads of records, the stage and cinema composition.