Blue Blazer

August 24, 2014

Like all good things, this post started in a bar over some beers during hockey season. I had been a fan of Vincent Moon’s La Blogotheque, and living in a city surrounded by artists, I wanted to start a similar initiative of my own pairing musicians with interesting locations. So after sneaking away, from work to a bar, I floated the idea past Jonny Schoen- the chill guy I’m in the trenches with every day as assistants, but know in the evening he moonlights as Blue Blazer.

Below you see him filmed at an apartment in Westwood. I wanted Jonny to take off the sunglasses, slow down, and reveal the raw artist within - the kind of creator who keeps themselves a little wounded for the sake of bettering the music. I hoped it would feel like he was outside her door singing all the things he’d wished he had the courage to say before. After all, there’s a lot more to Jonny than he might let on. 

Jonny will practically sell his soul to get you to his shows. I’ve overhead him offer co-workers compliments, drinks, cute guys, cute girls, even a soul mate, if they went. In his defense, Jonny doesn’t disappoint live. He draws a crowd that grows with each performance. So his ability to get repeat customers as well as using creative marketing tactics (that I won’t reveal), Blue Blazer's ever growing following is inevitable.

Blue Blazer’s California façade caring mostly for beaches and beer hides his true depth. In his hit “West”, there’s a secret nod to the band’s true bittersweet beginning. The blonde hair and tan skin may fool you, but Jonny is an East Coast transplant. We’re talking Connecticut prep school blue blazers kind of roots. There, he found the name and original bandmate Greg Hillman, who he made plans with to head West with and pursue music.   

Something Jonny won’t share until you’ve earned it is that after his original band member took his own life, Jonny took it upon himself to see their original dream through. So it took coaxing to get him to play “West” acoustic, an otherwise upbeat performance. Here, you really feel the story behind the song and the noble calling Jonny’s taken on.