We recently connected with Jonathan Heuer and have shared our conversation below.
Jonathan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
When I was 30 I left my career in architecture and moved from the SF Bay area to Los Angeles to pursue music professionally. It began with 1 year studying at the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, where I would meet some amazing teachers and players and give me the opportunity to really focus on my guitar. (My father was already living in Los Angeles after moving there to pursue his dream of acting years before, so the move was easier than it might have been otherwise. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to start over like that if it were not for him having done something similar already). For 5 years I was doing the starving artist grind, working during the day and gigging as much as possible at night. I played in multiple projects, some for myself, but mostly as a hired gun for others. I got to play with some really top notch musician’s and have experiences that will live with me forever. Eventually the dying industry and the ugly competitiveness started to wear on me, and it was turning my guitar into a job that I was starting to resent. Once I noticed that happening I knew I had to stop. I couldn’t lose my love for music. So I decided that I would make my money some other way and just treat music as a passion project. I moved back to the Bay Area and after a stint teaching high school I’m back working in architecture and playing in an original band for fun.
Even though I am not still pursuing music professionally, I have zero regrets about my time in Los Angeles. I learned a lot about music, my guitar, and who I am as an artist and person. On top of that, I created some art I’m really proud of and got to experience things that very few people in the world are lucky enough to.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I come from a family of performers, as my parents met in the theater. My mother was a dancer, choreographer and director, and my dad was an actor. My mom even had a short-lived local television show for children where she would sing songs and play guitar. I guess I had the performance gene from day 1. I started playing guitar in high school and continued playing while studying architecture in college. I’ve been playing in bands since college and have taught lessons off and on as well. One of the things I’m most proud of creatively are the records I’ve been a part of. You can hear my particular brand of nerdy music by listening to the following albums/releases:
MYOTONIA – self titled album, 2007 (metal)
TRIO NON GRATA – self titled album, 2011 (jazz/metal fusion)
DESERT OF THE REAL – various singles (progressive rock)
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
The streaming thing has really decimated the music industry. People without an ounce of musical talent are earning millions off of the creativity of artists. And now touring is becoming difficult to make work financially for even large bands.. It’s really difficult to make a living as a musician these days. If you want to support the artists you love, buy their albums, don’t stream them. Go to their shows and buy their merch. If you want to go a step further you can research what sites/outlets give the artists the biggest percentage of the purchase price and use those to buy their stuff. Low hanging fruit is subscribing to and following all of your favorite artists’ social media sites.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Oh man, growing up I was very heavily into the local music scene, but we were all such snobs about what was cool and what wasn’t. In addition, I had only been playing the guitar for a couple of years so I got it in my head that if I could play your music after only playing for a few years then your music must not be very good. These two things combined made me miss out on a lot of really good “simple” music. Bands like Nirvana and even the Beatles were ignored for such a long time. I really wish I hadn’t been such a snob back then, because I missed out on a lot of really great music that I’ve been coming back to years later.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jkheuer
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-heuer-9483819b/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jkheuer
