Piano Man Feeling 'OK Now'

Jon
By Laura Edwards

Warmer spring weather means it's time to roll down the windows and pull out your sunglasses. Jon McLaughlin's new album, "OK Now" is perfect for blasting from your speakers as you drive down the road. TC talked to Jon about his music, what he was like in high school, and life in a small town.


He's been playing the piano since he was a boy, but now with his unique sound and probing lyrics, Jon McLaughlin is showing the world a new kind of piano man.

Dressed in a well-worn hoodie and faded jeans, Jon McLaughlin is the picture of mellow. He doesn’t fit the stereotypical mold of a guy with two successful albums and an Oscar-nominated song under his belt. There’s no false persona, no egotistical fronts — just a guy who genuinely loves playing music and sharing it with others. Talking to Jon, you realize he knows who he is and where he’s going. And he’s going big places.

Jon started taking piano lessons at age 4 and continued his classical training for years. However, as high school approached, Jon became less and less excited about playing piano.

"At that point I had only really played classical piano, which I was really bored with," Jon said. "When you are in high school, it’s not cool to play classical piano."

So instead of music, Jon focused more on swimming, soccer and enjoying his high school years.

"In high school, I was kind of dorky, but I thought I was cool," Jon said. "I went to high school during the everyone-bleach-your-hair phase. I had bleached hair from like 8th grade to my senior year. I am surprised I even have any hair left now." The bleach may have fried his hair, but it couldn’t burn music completely out of his mind. Toward the end of high school, Jon’s family started going to a church with a bigger youth group. Some of the students in the group were in a band, and were in need of a keyboard player. Jon began playing with the group and his love for music was rekindled. In college, he began writing songs, and the rest is history ...

Jon's latest album is "OK Now," and the 80s pop sound, though drastically different from his first album "Indiana," is still rooted in piano.

"I just went with what I wanted to do at the time," said Jon. "I love 80s pop music but it's definitely not what I had started out with all the time. I definitely started at the piano."

The upbeat 80s vibe goes well with the theme of the album -- taking one moment at a time.

"A lot of the record is looking at life in the moment and basically not getting bogged down worrying about the future or the past really," Jon said. "Just kind of living at the moment."

Jon even carries the message specifically to high schoolers with he song "Four Years." Jon said the song was one he's been wanting to write for a long time to help teens remember that high school is not a matter of life and death.

"I wanted to write to all the high school kids so there's something out there saying [high school] is not everything," Jon said. "In four years, it's going to be over, whatever you built. It's kind of like a mini version of life. Whatever you do is going to be over in four years, good or bad."

As Jon's singles get more airplay, he's bound to catch the ears of thousands of new fans around the world, but no matter where he is on the charts, or what stage he's playing on, Jon seems to be the kind of guy who will always have two feet firmly planted on the ground.

Amy, Jon's wife, plays a big role in that. Because she goes on tour with him, she is by his side through all the ups and downs of making it as a professional musician.

"I've been really blessed to have a lot of great relationships in my life," Jon said. "But I would have to say the one now that's the most important in my life, the day-to-day the one I totally couldn't do without, would be my wife. She's the one. We're together all the time. Out of the year, we're together 364 days. She's the one the who's out on the road with me. When the shows are terrible she's there, when the shows are great she's there."

Jon has also attributed part of his calm, one-step-at-a-time philosophy to his small hometown of Anderson, Ind., an (almost) suburb of Indianapolis.

"[Being from a small town] influences me," Jon said. "I think no matter where you're from it does. If I grew up in Antarctica, I would write songs from that perspective. I think even if I were to never go back to Indiana, I'm still a guy who grew up in Indiana and never looked back. I can't change 25 years of being in the same town."

With a firm grasp on his past and a bright future in front of him, this traveling piano man is taking it one day at a time, and that's more than OK now.

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About Jon

What song gets stuck in your head?
"All the Christmas songs."

What is your least favorite chore?
"Washing the windows. I'm terrible at it."

What was your high school mascot?
"We were the Highland Scots."

If you weren't in the music industry, what would you want to do?
"I'd want some field where there's no gray areas, like accounting... but I'm not good at accounting, so not that."

Do you have a bad habit?
"I correct people's grammar, like double negatives."

What's the last thing you do before you go on stage?
"Stretch a little bit and then jump up and down to get the blood flowing."

What is your favorite article of clothing?
"This really nice tux-jacket kind of thing. I don't even know who makes it, but it's one of those names I should know. I wear it like once a year."

TC Magazine Spring 2009 Issue
http://www.tcmagazine.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=64438