John Arnold

Fellow Detroit resident, John Arnold, met Jeremy when he was invited to go and listen to him perform in a funk band… “I met Jeremy when I was 17 and my buddy said to me ‘listen to this funk band’ and this red [haired] Irish kid was playing the funkiest music and I was like ‘my God!’ Musically, we’re on the same level and we push each other...” After studying music theory, multi-instrumentalist John went on to perform as part of acoustic jazz set-up, Blackman & Arnold, and has also performed as part of Amp Fiddler’s band and was invited to perform live at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000 by one of Detroit’s best known producers, Carl Craig. John believes that the struggle to survive and the long winter months in Detroit are one of the reasons so much musical talent has emerged from the city. “There’s so much of a struggle there; you have to be creative or you’ll die. Everybody’s broke and they need the excitement of music.” John has released singles and remixes on labels including Transmat and has produced two albums for Ubiquity Records. Plus, of course, he is well known for his unique live performances alongside Jeremy…

Having worked together for a number of years, John and Jeremy feel they complement each other musically because they each play different instruments – John plays the guitar and Jeremy plays keyboards – and they are both musically trained, and jazz trained and continue to practice together regularly.

Surprisingly, until now, John and Jeremy had played on each other’s music but had never combined their talents… For Future Soul Records, John and Jeremy have replayed Barney Blair Perry’s ‘Nightlife’ track note for note. The original tune was a huge club hit for The Blackbyrds member when it was released in the late 70’s. John explains how this choice of track about: “Mike Greenleaf brought us together and wanted us to make an album together. He chose the track Nightlife, he thought it would be the perfect track for us and it really was because of the keys, the vocals, the guitar – we did everything together on it and it really brought us together for the first time.”

With all of the elements of a quality funk track, ‘Nightlife’ blends electronic sounds, seductive strings and deep vocals. Lovers of quality jazz, funk, broken beat and soul are going to adore this track!