Hailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma, twenty-something singer-songwriter Jonathan Van Risseghem (pronounced “van – riss – egg – hem”) summons daydreamy pop-melodicism that betrays influence from such diverse sources as Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and more AOR fare like Train’s “Drops of Jupiter.”
Instantly hummable and clearly ready for a wide mainstream audience, it is not the anomalies and winsome touches in the production that draw as much attention as the very grounded storytelling and real-world imagery his lyrics summon.
We invited Jonathan to fill us in on his side of these stories:
MusicZeitgeist: What?
Jonathan Van Risseghem: I just finished up my full length release called, “The Motions”. It contains nine highly melodic songs all written and recorded over the period of last year. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have it finally released.
Why?
Jonathan Van Risseghem: Making my own music on my own was something I had always wanted to do. I used to work with a lot of other artists helping out with session musician work or songwriting or other things. There are a lot of fantastic artists in the Midwest that I’ve met and it’s nice to have a great network. But it just seemed to be the right time to venture out in my own direction this last year. It’s been great to connect with so many people and give them a CD with nine cuts of my own recorded art with my voice and my thoughts.
Until When?
Jonathan Van Risseghem: Oh man…I’ll be a musician all my life. I don’t think there’s any stopping that. Whether I’m playing in a venue or someday in a living room with my kids, I think God put melody inside of me and I don’t plan on keeping it inside. I won’t make any secret of the fact that I want to be successful with making my own music. The exposure that has been independently generated in the first six months of releasing this CD has been unusually faster and bigger than other projects I’ve worked with. I don’t say that to come across as arrogant by any means. But I guess what I’m saying is I’ll stop doing this when God wants me to start something else and right now I don’t see any redirection.
Where?
Jonathan Van Risseghem: Well, I assembled a list of great musicians for live performances and we have been hitting the Midwestern music scene for the last six months. Some of these guys helped perform parts on the CD so as I write new songs we’ll continue to record demo versions and overall keep the artistic creation process moving. I don’t plan on releasing anything for awhile because releasing a full length is ridiculously exhausting. But I want to continue to write and not become stagnant.
Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/vanrisseghem
http://www.lastfm.com/music/van+risseghem
http://www.cdbaby.com/vanrisseghem
http://www.twitter.com/vanrisseghem
Listen now to “‘We Are All Full of Love” by Van Risseghem at MusicZeitgeist.com
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Like his music..love that song. Would love to feature it on my own blog, if I could find some kind of embedding thing! :p
[…] Artist Profile: Van Risseghem Floats On Realities | Music ZeitgeistHailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma, twenty-something singer-songwriter Jonathan Van Risseghem summons daydreamy pop-melodicism that betrays influence from such diverse sources as Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and more AOR fare like … read more… […]
this song is melodic brilliance. reminds me of nada surf.