Kris Jonathon’s soulful power ballads started with learning saxophone and a mother with a love for Mo-Town. Growing up on the genre—first out of his mother preventing him from downloading music himself, then turning into a personal love he still holds true—helped Jonathan turn to writing emotive and passionate music with a goal to affect listeners with just that.
“My goal is to impact as many people with love and passion as possible. That is my overall goal.” Says the Maryland-based musician. His latest single “Rewind” taps into that love and passion, specifically talking about a previous relationship of Jonathan’s where around Valentine’s day, he found out the person involved had been seeing other people. “Rewind” into with a clip from Finding Nemo over a solemn piano, when Dory is trying to recite the address: “P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way” echoes into her fear of memory loss, and then Jonathan’s vocals.
“That was the inspiration. And then I was like, You know what? All I know what to do in these situations is go to the piano. I just had that riff in my head to get it and it got stuck in my head and I was like, that would be a great intro to the song,” explains Jonathan. “Then I went on TikTok and saw that quote from Finding Nemo and I thought that'd be perfect in the song, and it kind of all just came together. It's funny cause I made the chords for the song a month back but the lyrics wouldn't come to me till after that experience.”
Much more than Mo-town or Disney inspires Kris Jonathan’s music. The single cover for “Rewind” is a photo of Jonathan as a child smiling. It’s a hint towards the track’s title, looking at the image and wishing to go back to the happiness in a child’s face.
“That was one of the first photos in my album and I was laughing because I just looked so happy. I was like, `I wanna rewind to that.’”
“Rewind” is Jonathan’s second hit single. “That’s All” has almost a million streams on Spotify, and also shows the theme of passion and solemnity, with a vocal style akin to 90’s R&B and even elements of Luther Vandross. But that should come as no surprise to Jonathan, looking back with a smile at himself growing up with those artists on his playlist.
Make sure to stay connected to Kris Jonathon on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
.png)
