Jonny Polonsky (born July 10, 1973) is an American songwriter, rock guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Career
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in suburban Wilmette, Illinois, Polonsky began writing, recording and self-releasing homemade cassettes as a teenager, under the name The Amazing Jonny Polonsky.
Marc Ribot introduced New York composer John Zorn to these early tapes, and Zorn invited Polonsky to play his New Jewish Music festival in 1992 at CBGB's Gallery. Polonsky's band featured Marc Ribot on guitar, Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) on bass, and Sim Cain (Rollins Band) on drums. Of that performance, singer Jeff Buckley (who was in attendance) was later quoted as saying, "He came to CBGB's Gallery and ripped it up...He killed 'em...The charm of it is that he's brought it into his own thing. It's a nice miniature. He does it with soul; you can tell the difference between someone who just slips into The Beatles or something and someone like him."[1]
A year later Reeves Gabrels introduced Polonsky to Frank Black, who became an immediate fan. In 1994, original Pixies manager Ken Goes began representing Polonsky, and Frank Black produced a demo for him. On the strength of this demo recording, iconic record producer Rick Rubin signed Polonsky as a solo artist to his label American Recordings.[2]
The Frank Black-produced demos were eventually scrapped, and Polonsky decided to rerecord the songs in his childhood home in Wilmette, using digital home recording equipment. He produced, recorded and performed everything himself on his debut record for American. Hi My Name is Jonny was mixed by Brendan O'Brien and was released by American Recordings on January 16, 1996. It received a positive critical reception from international news outlets, from The New York Times[3] to MTV.[4]
Immediately after the record's release, Polonsky and his live band toured as the main support act for Frank Black for twelve weeks in North America.[5] They also performed on the Second Stage for the 1996 Lollapalooza summer tour.[6]
Polonsky then disappeared from recording and touring as a solo artist. He reemerged as a touring musician in the late 1990s and into the new millennium with Local H[7] and Pete Yorn,[8] among others.
In 2004 Polonsky released The Power of Sound, and he and his band supported Audioslave on their five-week North American club tour in the spring of 2005.[9]
In 2012, Polonsky released his third full length, Intergalactic Messenger of Divine Light and Love as an internet only digital release. It was recorded in Rick Rubin's recording studio, Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research, and mixed by engineer Jim Scott.
In 2015, The Other Side of Midnight was released. It was performed, produced and recorded by Polonsky, and mixed by Dean Hurley at David Lynch's Asymmetrical Studios.
Kingdom of Sleep, Polonsky's sixth full length studio album was released on March 6, 2020. Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer of The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In contributed vocals to the record. A subsequent European tour, completed just before the pandemic lockdown, was filmed for a documentary. "Hi My Name is Jonny Polonsky," directed by Otto-Jan Ham and Sjoerd Tanghe, was released later that year and went on to win Best Documentary at the Flemish Ensor Awards, the Belgian equivalent of the Academy Awards. [14]
Polonsky's second full length release of 2020, and seventh overall studio album, Power and Greed and Money and Sex and Death was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020. It features guest appearances by Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos on vocals, and Hong Wang of the Kung Fu Panda soundtracks on erhu.
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