Jonathan Pasquarella is an up-and-coming artist in New York City. His current project is “The City That Sleeps”, an alternative rock and hip-hop fusion that relies heavily on guitar and vocals inspired by a number of Jon’s favorite artists. While it successfully avoids trying to be “everything to everybody,” the project navigates the difficult line between committing to a specific genre and allowing for the change and growth of both the artist and the fans within a single project.
Originally from Patterson, New York, Jonathan began taking guitar and vocal lessons in high school. He sees the guitar as more of an instrument than something to just copy – and to that end he continues to take lessons. He also plays piano, ukulele and, “obviously,” bass guitar. He’s been writing music for years and used that material for his first EP, Night, which he released late last year. His new material – to be released in the next few months – will be inspired by more recent events, including his move to New York.
His first exposure to guitar and playing music was through artists from the 80s and 90s that his parents played while he was growing up. In grade school he was surrounded by hip-hop and recalls idolizing Eminem for both his style and sound. Now John Mayer is one of his favorite people “because of his guitar playing and his ability to be both a blues artist and a pop singer.” He appreciates Indie bands that produce their own styles and sounds without conforming to a genre and cites The Neighbourhood as a strong influence because of the group’s skill in combining a hip-hop feel with rock sounds.
When asked about his intentions with the style of The City That Sleeps, Jon says, “I’m pursuing a style that has elements from my whole life. There are a lot of themes that I appreciate in the rapper and hip-hop world – I listen to G-Eazy and he’s very beat-oriented, and then I have guitar in my music which represents a John Mayer-California feel, and I like to draw from The xx which is pretty bass-heavy. Then there’s the band feel which I think I’m still exploring in terms of knowing myself and getting the feel for other people in my music.”
The name “The City That Sleeps” is the result of Jon’s surroundings and his desire to keep his name out of it: “I don’t want the music to have my name as its identity; I want to be able to bring other people into the project – it’s art, and it’s not all about myself. Music is about getting ideas from other people and saying, ‘Hey I really want to have this experience’ – so that you don’t have to like Jon to like it.” When it came to picking the name itself, he was inspired by New York, where he’d just moved – “I’m in the quieter part of downtown, but I’d had this idea because I grew up in the suburbs that this new area would be full of constant craziness and things that always had a different feel.” He chose to focus on this quieter side of the Big Apple because of his personality: “I’m more of a mellow person; I don’t never sleep – I do relax. So much of music is differentiating myself as a person from where I am, not just being a part of society but being my own person, and I wanted the name to reflect that.”
He strongly believes that music doesn’t need to have an overlying theme and values in an artist the ability to move into different genres and to expand musically. He plans to pursue a different “kind” of music soon, explaining that artists can become really experimental and change the sound. He says, “The album doesn’t need to have just one sound – I do like this hip-hop beat, but I also like this alternative song but I also like this other thing...and I should be able to address all of that in my music.”
The project is entirely Jon’s own, though when he performs, primarily in New York City bars, he calls on his friend Charles as an instrumentalist and additional guitarist. Jon looks forward to expanding into the band realm, saying, “Right now I appreciate the freedom – I write the drums, the guitar, the vocals, which gives me a lot of flexibility and freedom. I enjoy writing all the music myself, but I want to transfer that to a group of people later on – I don’t have to depend on anybody, which is great, but I can’t play all the instruments on stage.”
Originally from Patterson, New York, Jonathan began taking guitar and vocal lessons in high school. He sees the guitar as more of an instrument than something to just copy – and to that end he continues to take lessons. He also plays piano, ukulele and, “obviously,” bass guitar. He’s been writing music for years and used that material for his first EP, Night, which he released late last year. His new material – to be released in the next few months – will be inspired by more recent events, including his move to New York.
His first exposure to guitar and playing music was through artists from the 80s and 90s that his parents played while he was growing up. In grade school he was surrounded by hip-hop and recalls idolizing Eminem for both his style and sound. Now John Mayer is one of his favorite people “because of his guitar playing and his ability to be both a blues artist and a pop singer.” He appreciates Indie bands that produce their own styles and sounds without conforming to a genre and cites The Neighbourhood as a strong influence because of the group’s skill in combining a hip-hop feel with rock sounds.
When asked about his intentions with the style of The City That Sleeps, Jon says, “I’m pursuing a style that has elements from my whole life. There are a lot of themes that I appreciate in the rapper and hip-hop world – I listen to G-Eazy and he’s very beat-oriented, and then I have guitar in my music which represents a John Mayer-California feel, and I like to draw from The xx which is pretty bass-heavy. Then there’s the band feel which I think I’m still exploring in terms of knowing myself and getting the feel for other people in my music.”
The name “The City That Sleeps” is the result of Jon’s surroundings and his desire to keep his name out of it: “I don’t want the music to have my name as its identity; I want to be able to bring other people into the project – it’s art, and it’s not all about myself. Music is about getting ideas from other people and saying, ‘Hey I really want to have this experience’ – so that you don’t have to like Jon to like it.” When it came to picking the name itself, he was inspired by New York, where he’d just moved – “I’m in the quieter part of downtown, but I’d had this idea because I grew up in the suburbs that this new area would be full of constant craziness and things that always had a different feel.” He chose to focus on this quieter side of the Big Apple because of his personality: “I’m more of a mellow person; I don’t never sleep – I do relax. So much of music is differentiating myself as a person from where I am, not just being a part of society but being my own person, and I wanted the name to reflect that.”
He strongly believes that music doesn’t need to have an overlying theme and values in an artist the ability to move into different genres and to expand musically. He plans to pursue a different “kind” of music soon, explaining that artists can become really experimental and change the sound. He says, “The album doesn’t need to have just one sound – I do like this hip-hop beat, but I also like this alternative song but I also like this other thing...and I should be able to address all of that in my music.”
The project is entirely Jon’s own, though when he performs, primarily in New York City bars, he calls on his friend Charles as an instrumentalist and additional guitarist. Jon looks forward to expanding into the band realm, saying, “Right now I appreciate the freedom – I write the drums, the guitar, the vocals, which gives me a lot of flexibility and freedom. I enjoy writing all the music myself, but I want to transfer that to a group of people later on – I don’t have to depend on anybody, which is great, but I can’t play all the instruments on stage.”
His favorite aspect of performing is the freedom – knowing that the people in the bar know him and know that he’s there to play: “People can just come and listen to you, hear what you create.”
Jon’s favorite song right now is also his newest release, “From Me To You”, and he cites the different sound elements he employed as something that makes it unique – “There are a lot of things you might not hear at first, and these push you to go back and listen to it again to hear all the aspects.” His favorite to perform is “Night”, his standard opener – “It’s the most high-energy and people tend to look up and get interested in it because it’s a fast-paced get-into-it kind of song.”
His goals for 2016 include releasing his first full-length album and playing shows more regularly. He looks forward to establishing his musical identity before moving forward – and determining and demonstrating what he has to offer as an artist. To new listeners and old fans he says, “Stay tuned – in my perspective even single projects are never done growing – and what you’ve seen so far isn’t exactly what’s coming up next.”
Be sure to check out The City That Sleeps on Soundcloud and twitter, and get ready for more of Jon’s upcoming projects!
Photos: James Sheff / www.JamesSheff.com