The growth of an American songwriter : Jonathan Brightman? What inspires you to write? Jonathan Brightman: I get inspired by seeing other great bands. We write together as a band. That’s really fulfilling. Collaboration is much more fun. I was hoping to catch you in LA last year, but you weren’t playing a lot of dates. Will you be touring this year? Jonathan Brightman: We hope to at least hit some territories in Europe this summer. Touring in the U.S. has gotten really political. For example, bigger bands are now doing this thing called “buy ons”, which is basically charging their opening band to get added to the bill. It’s rotten.
Jonathan Brightman and Buckcherry: Josh Todd grew up in the Anaheim Hills neighborhood of Anaheim, California and later moved to Lake Forest, California. Early on, Todd fronted the Hollywood glam rock band Slamhound. He eventually met lead guitarist Keith Nelson through their tattoo artist (Kevin Quinn). The duo made a few demos before being joined by bassist Jonathan Brightman and drummer Devon Glenn, calling themselves Sparrow. Sparrow began performing around the Hollywood club scene, receiving a strong, local following due to their old school rock and roll vibe, and were signed to DreamWorks Records shortly after. The group changed its name to Buckcherry after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from a record label called Sparrow (owned by EMI). Although the band’s name is a spoonerism of the late Chuck Berry, the group said it was inspired by a drag queen acquaintance of theirs named Buck Cherry.
Black Robot is a California-based hard rock band formed in 2008 by bassist Jonathan Brightman (JB). In December 2010 the band’s self-titled debut album was picked by Apple iTunes as one of the top 15 rock releases for the year alongside notable artists including Tom Petty, Slash, Elvis Costello and Deftones. Additionally, Classic Rock Magazine ranked their song “Baddass” as the #5 Song of the Year and chose it as the opening track of their Best of 2010 CD.
Black Robot is a band you will love, making classic rock’s best of 2010. Here we’ve been playing their cd since we first heard ‘Badass’ back in 2008! Now everyone is picking up on the band and that means we’re all winners! Mark got the chance to catch up with Jonathan ‘JB’ Brightman recently, many thanks to Jenn for setting us up!
Over the past years Brightman Music has been a premium Producer Management firm based in Southern California with a presence in New York City and Nashville, Tennessee and London, England. We represent some of the recording industry’s most highly recognized award winning producers, mixers, songwriters and engineers as well as tomorrow’s game changers. We hold a unique emphasis and proven track record on the discovery and development of groundbreaking chart-topping new artists. Our clients work with artists and record labels, big and small from every corner of the globe. We celebrate musical diversity and support artists of all genres. Find even more info on Jonathan Brightman.
In 2010, he will unleash the fruits of his labor with a re-release of Black Robot’s debut album. Black Robot are an eclectic band that culls from genres such as classic rock of the 70’s, punk, jam bands, no-frills hard rock and power-pop. Their self-titled album is sure to make many top 10 lists at the end of the year. Sleaze Roxx’s Ruben Mosqueda caught up with JB a couple of weeks ago and talked about the band and the album.