We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon Wheeler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon below.

Alright, Jon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’m the musician who’s never had a music lesson. Unless you count the recorder at primary school. And I didn’t set out to be a musician at all. It’s always felt like it just kind of happened, but obviously there’s a lot more to training in a career in construction and then ultimately ending up as a full time musician and songwriter.

I didn’t really start with the guitar until I was at University in Greenwich. I was the only person who didn’t play the guitar in a house full of students. I had a few pointers from my best friend at the time, who’d had classical guitar lessons at boarding school (and hated them) but I basically just waded in. From there I just played as much as I could, with people better and more knowledgeable than myself, just pushing myself to go further than I really felt comfortable with.

I don’t think I could have sped up my learning process. My evolution towards releasing my first serious music at 50 is based upon my life, it’s been a pretty natural process. Even though I’ve worked hard I’m still only now possibly discovering who I am, but in that journey, friends and contemporaries are very important. Family. Listening is really important. Everybody’s different though, and ultimately I suppose the only obstacles to learning more are those which we impose on ourselves. Life gets in the way sometimes, you need to find a balance.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a self taught musician, guitarist and tutor. Music has been my full time occupation for the last fifteen years since I basically got to the point where I was spending so much time playing music, I quit my day job.

I teach guitar, ukulele and mandolin. I’ve run a set of local, acoustic music clubs for almost 20 years, and hosted about 2000 open mic nights in the last 15. I’ve played in numerous bands, performing everywhere from local clubs in duos to festival stages with a regionally touring R.E.M. tribute band. I have a music blog, which I’ve been writing for just over a year, and I’m now finally writing and recording my own songs under the name “WestingWay”, after the street that I grew up on. This all really came about from continuing to try new things, work with new people, and just push myself that little bit further every time.

Being self taught, I have a very practical approach to music, and I think that’s appreciated by my students and club members, because everything I try to teach or impart has a practical application. The fact that I’ve been where they are, and worked out how to make a living from doing something that I love (or that we both love) is important. I think it makes people feel that they can achieve things musically too. I’m not gifted, I just put the work in, and I think people appreciate that, particularly as these days musicians seem to many people to be more and more detached from real life. It’s a reminder that probably millions of creatives exist who do good work, make a living, but will probably never be famous.

I love music, and I’m out to see how far I can go with no particular expectation. It really is the journey rather than the destination, and I enjoy meeting and working with people who are on that same kind of journey.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I first became a self employed musician at about 35. I’d started teaching full time, I managed to get into a proper band playing bass (despite not actually owning a bass, but that’s another story), and it was difficult financially but we were making it work.

At 37 I fell ill with an apparent tumour beneath my liver, and it turned out about 70% of my liver had died. I wasn’t well enough for surgery, so I had several procedures and a month in hospital to get me well enough for my main surgery, which in itself kept me in hospital for just over a month, with about a 4 month recovery time at home afterwards. I couldn’t move, I had a surgical scar that looked like a shark bite and there were a lot of pain killers.

So basically, 3 years into a new career, I literally started again from scratch, with pretty much nothing.

There are going to be setbacks, it’s not going to always go your way, and it’s certainly not fair. I wasn’t even a drinker. It’s like the line from ‘Ironic’ Alanis didn’t write, but what choice is there but to get back on the horse. Five years ago I had lung problems and I’m not a smoker, I’m still riding the horse. I have no idea where the horse is going, but there was really never any option but to keep going forward.

If I hadn’t, and had gone back to a more regular employment, then I probably wouldn’t have started writing more seriously, which is leading me to some of the most rewarding times and friendships of my life.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

With music it’s pretty simple. Go and see a band. Buy a record, buy a t-shirt. Streaming platforms are ‘lovely’ but they don’t support or nurture the majority of creatives. By all means use them to discover new artists but don’t limit your engagement with them to that. Support live music, and support people in their endeavours. If you don’t know how to support them, ask. I haven’t met a creative yet who wasn’t interested in talking about their work.

Right now is both a brilliant and incredibly difficult time to be an artist. The internet allows us to share our work with anybody and everybody, which is great, I wouldn’t be talking to you otherwise, but it is a drop in the ocean. I think artists need to concentrate on being involved with and supporting their local scene, rather than trying to generate Instagram followers, or make playlists.

If the scene exists, people will engage with it. I just think society gets a bit distracted by the wider world sometimes, and misses what’s on it’s doorstep. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to Taylor Swift, or whoever, but everyone’s from somewhere. I can virtually guarantee there’s someone brilliant in your town that’s worthy of your time. Go find them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.westingway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westing.waymusic/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/westingway-music
• Other: https://jonwh33ler.wixsite.com/blog
  https://linktr.ee/westingway