Ernesto

Ernesto's is soulful singer and music maker Jonatan Bäckelie from Gothenburg. He's one of the Swell boys and a part of the Gothenburg Jazz Hipsters, a collective of various people that have got jazz, soul and electronic sounds at the top of their agenda. Jonatan has been working with his first instrument – his voice – since he first stood upright … since his early childhood it has been clear to him that he would end up making music. He wrote his first song when he was three, even though he can’t remember it but some of the material he made when he was four or five he can clearly remember. Having music at close range and singing in church a lot in his childhood, touring with his father – who’s a pastor – playing and singing together when his father was out preaching. In fifth grade he came in contact with the rave culture, something that came to change his life, what he wanted to do in it and how. He managed to get his hands on two cassettes, one more techno based and the other more towards uptempo with break beats. Break beats seemed from the very beginning as something magic. Soon he was not only writing vocal based tracks but also started to experiment with his synthesizer and in eight grade he got his first computer that was fast enough to serve as a music machine. In college he discovered jazz. Chet Baker became the new household God. Jazz started to infiltrate his music more and more. Meanwhile he started to make contact with three other guys at his musical college, these fellows where also deep into the electronic music and jazz: Andreas Saag, Christoffer Berg and Paul Lachenardière. College was extremely developing for Jonatan and music was flowing like the Niagara Falls, both in solitude and together with his new friends … Each summer he worked his ass off to be able to afford a new sampler, a new computer and a better sound so bit by bit he was on his way towards a proper studio. While many jazz musicians have tried to develop their sound by adding the electronic elements, it has been the other way around for Jonatan as he comes from the electronic tradition and has later on started to integrate jazz into his music. Even though his music is a fusion of these and other elements he has got a tendency to keep those apart when he listens to music himself. It’s either Boards of Canada, Lexaunculpt, Lemon D and the older stuff from Photek OR it’s D’angelo, Elis Regina, Nat King Cole and Lewis Taylor. His music is currently divided into several projects: Ernesto’s stands for the more jazz integrated stuff, while Pinku Vääty and Jong Tan is electronica – Pinku is of the more happy kind and Jong Tan is modal and soft. Tantan is another project in the instrumental broken beat tradition.