Jonathan Davies is a musician and engineer with a degree Creative Music Technology from the University of Huddersfield. Created in his second year, this site documents his work through a recording log and examples of his work. Please look around and enjoy.
Jonathan began his journey in music when he was very young, bashing a piano while growing up. He had his first piano lesson when he was 6 and he continued until he was 18. Through this time played in a variety of context for school concerts, a piano master class and several musicals amongst other things.
During his time at secondary school Jonathan started playing guitar and very quickly he became proficient, and able to get by in most contexts. He initially fingerpicked, as a fan of Mark Knofler, but later picked up a pick finding the increased ease at speed. He improved most serving at the church he attended at the time playing guitar, playing material with very little rehearsal time.
He was age 16 when he played in his first musical, Les Mis, he played the piano for cast rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals and for the shows themselves. Working as a rehearsal pianist for the first time, his sight reading and his general musicianship improved greatly. This was a large time commitment and his first big project as a musician. He would later find that his best work and highest achievements would be in large projects that he could focus on in detail.
Around this same time Jonathan had his first experience as a sound engineer, he learned how to do PA for his parents church mixing intuitively and logically. They used a 16 channel analogue mixing desk and taking his knowledge of signal path developed from building pedal boards for himself, Jonathan could solve problems and craft some effective and musical mixes.
In his A2 year Jonathan set out on a very large project. He began arranging “Do They Know Its Christmas”, written by Bob Geldof, for Orchestra, Choir and soloists in October, and following a meeting with the headteacher and her team of department heads I began recording parts. This process took a lot of time from my final year studies but the results were incredible. In a late decision with his producer, Connor Wilson and other key contributors, electric guitar were added having a massive impact on the character of the piece.
Following this adventure, an appetite was developed for sound engineering, moving from just doing PA in church Jonathan began to do some freelance work, notably taking a role in the Hertford Musical Mystery Tour for a couple of years. Even in other roles he did his utmost to insure high sound quality. In his gap year before going to university he was the Musical Director for an award winning ameture dramatic production, this was the second time he was MD for this company. In this particular show he brought his own PA system into the venue including microphones, mixing desk, multicore, PA speakers and in-ear monitoring for the band. Further to that, he spent time rigging the venue before preparing as system tech, for a less experienced engineer to take over.
In 2016 Jonathan began studying in Huddersfield and has loved every minute so far. Attending Huddersfield Christian Fellowship every week he is part of an amazing family here in Huddersfield. He was unfortunately very ill in the first term of his studies having major surgery in December that affected his work. He did not let this stop him, he came back to university in January after the Christmas break and worked very hard to regain some of the ground he had lost.
In these most recent years, Jonathan has taken on a number of audio challenges. He mixes front of house and monitors at his church. He has recorded an EP and put together a large concert for the release. Since finishing his degree he has worked as a carer, teaching music tech to one of his service users. He is still in high demand to mix audio for his church as well as taking on other projects for other churches and private individuals.