The 8th of October 2025… A poignant date on the calendar for rock legend Jon Stevens. Not only is it his birthday (many happy returns from all of us at The Rockpit, Jon) but it is also the official release day for ‘Shimmer’, his first solo album since 2017’s blockbuster ‘Starlight’.
We’ve been lucky to have ‘Shimmer’ on repeat for a few weeks now and can report it is a cracking collection of genre-crossing tracks and for fans old and new, there really is something for everyone. It’s also a body of work he is extremely proud of and has been recorded in studios around the world; New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne & Hawaii.
We managed to catch some time with Jon as he prepared for his birthday present to be unwrapped in front of expectant fans. We discuss the albums creation, working with old friends, plans for a tour in the new year and much more…
Jon: Seany!
Sean: Jon, how are you mate?
Jon: I’m good bro.
Sean: It’s bizarre but over the years we have got to know each other and the many catch ups, this is the first time we have had an official interview since 2019!
Jon: [laughs] Damn, what are we going t0 talk about? Can’t you just make something up for the interview so we can just shoot the breeze?
Sean: [laughs] We could but that would only get me in trouble. Anyway, so much to discuss. Firstly a huge congratulations for ‘Shimmer’. It’s a cracker of an album and one that has grown on me each and every listen, with different songs sitting forward each time.
Jon: Oh, thanks mate. That means a lot. I mean, obviously, you know, it’s eclectic because I like so many different things and I think this album sort of has naturally occurred, you know, utilising all those different sort of things that I like about music in general without being stuck in one genre. I’m really, really stoked with it.
Sean: What I’ve loved as well, and it’s something that’s so unique, is that you haven’t released singles as such. This weekly drop of a track has been a real nod to the fans because they’ve been itching to hear this new music for a quite a while now, and it’s nice that they’ve got to hear it at regular intervals.
Jon: Yeah, I just figured that, you know what, it’s like when you go out on tour, you’ve put out a new record or whatever and you go out on tour and you’re playing a new single that nobody’s heard because radio’s not playing it and so everyone goes to the bar. So I just figured, I just thought, you know, with this record, there’s no guarantees about anything, but what I do know is that the fans have been supporting me for years, like rabidly supporting me live. And they’re the ones that show up on Facebook and on Instagram too. They’re the people that are true fans, and I just wanted to give them the first dibs on it, really.
It was my son Levi, actually, who came up with the artist and the artwork and stuff and we said, well, there’s so much amazing art that this person is doing, why don’t we just marry them up with each song title, see which ones resonate. So that was a kind of vibe there and I thought, what a great idea. And we could just put out a song each week online, give them a little taste of it and then drop it. And then, by the time they get to the record, they’ll know all the songs. You know, within this day and age with Spotify and Apple and all these business service providers, everyone’s got access to every song ever written. There’s history in music anyway. Mostly everyone has those service providers, so they’re getting it for free anyway. So I have just sort of given it to the fans first.
Sean: Fantastic. And, of course, no better way to celebrate your birthday than the release of the album, on 8th of October.
Jon: Yeah, it just sort of worked out that way from the release of the first song on the film. I was, I must have thought on my birthday, it’ll be a birthday present to me [laughs].
Sean: No need for me to wrap you a copy for a present then! [laughs]
Jon: [laughs] I might already have one or two. Well, you know it’s kind of a bit of a gift for me actually because it’s been a while since I’ve made a solo record… about seven or eight years or something you know and obviously in that time I’ve been sort of touring a lot and obviously covid happened and the whole world sort of changed and everything you know so to have this record, yeah, it’s a real blessing and I’m really proud of it.
Sean: Well, of course, it’s certainly an international album, and it has been recorded in all kinds of places dotted around the world and in all kinds of studios and with so many different friends you’ve met over the years. How did you even start sort of timetabling and planning that out and are the songs all brand new or are there any that you have delved into from a while back that may have been sitting on the back burner maybe?
Jon: No, they’re all new, all brand new. And all start, all brand new from December 2023 going into 2024.
Sean: Wow.
Jon: That was the day I got it together, that’s when I flew to LA after being on Rock the Boat, just being on tour all year, all 2023 I was on tour. And in 2023, I toured and I did 15 shows with Rod Stewart, since he’d played around Australia and New Zealand. And it’s Rod’s guy, Kevin Savigar, who was side of stage every night, just going, “Hey, fuckin hell! Do you want to play some songs?” [laughs] I met Kevin in the 90s, early 90s. Him and I had actually written a song together called ‘Kamikaze Pilot’, which was on my ‘Changing Times’ album, from way back when.
So I knew Kev, I hadn’t seen him for years. But he’s been working with Rod since the 70s as his producer and song writing partner and what not, you know what I mean? He’s just an amazing guy. And so I got to go to LA and work with him for a week and he brought Emerson Swinford along, who’s Rod’s guitar player. And the three of us just hung out and drank margaritas, you know, and they’d come up with a whole bunch of ideas off the bat. I mean, I’ve always got tons of ideas to do and play, but we just sort of… it was just really fun. We just really liked each other and wanted to create something.
And then obviously through 2024 into 2025, I was just doing different things and travelling and I’d just chip away at it as I went along wherever I was. I was in Hawaii, I was in New York. I hit up my sound guy Shane (Rae) and we’d just go to a studio somewhere and record. That’s the great thing with technology today, you can do it anywhere. And then I’d just speak to Ken and I’d sit in the back and say, can we do this, can we do that, you know. And we just did it that way. I’ve got my drummer, Johnny Salerno, play drums on everything and, you know, Chris Bekker played bass on some things and it was just really between that group of people that we made this record and it wasn’t rushed, it just came out naturally, really quite naturally.
Sean: Of course you mentioned some of those names, we’ve been blessed as your fans of your live shows, to see people like Johnny and Chris play with you and put in some incredible performances around the country the last few years. It’s been such a fabulous band to watch and also for me to personally get to know. They’re just a wonderful bunch of human beings with incredible talents.
Jon: Yeah, absolutely. They’re great fellas as you know, and incredibly talented guys and we’ve done, oh my god, hundreds and hundreds of gigs together now as it is. Johnny has been with me like 20 years now. Chris first played with me in the 90s. Yeah, jeez. Yeah, like mid 90s, you know. So, yeah, we’ve all been around for a while. And Tony (Kopa) has also been with me since the 90s too. So it’s a family, you know, we’re a family. But obviously making this record, the ‘Shimmer’ album, going into the studio with a full band, you don’t go into the studio with a full band to come up with ideas. You go in with a full band to record the performance of the songs that are fully written and done. That’s obviously the case here, it’s a lot harder when you do that with a full band it’s so much harder especially for me as the songwriter. Recording is so easy nowadays so let’s just get it to a certain point and capture the moment and when they translate live, like a lot of these songs will be amazing live I reckon because once we get into that realm which next year I’m going to tour this record and it’ll open up to a new world really.
Sean: Taking us back to ‘Shimmer’, the one that keeps jumping out for me after many listens has been ‘Waiting For You’. Just incredible, especially… It’s the power at the end when the strings are all coming in over the chorus at the end. And listening to it through headphones today, it just takes it to another level, to listening to it through speakers around the house. You just pick all those little details out. It was wonderful.
Jon: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think, you know, the more you listen to stuff, the more you pick up on things. It takes a while for something to sort of, like, soak in and then when you start to get it, you start to go, oh, shit, I’m getting this now. I’m like, now. You know, and even for me, it’s like in the midst of doing it because I run a lot on instinct, you know. A lot of my stuff is instinctive when I’m creating, and I don’t get the true meaning of something until afterwards, until sometimes a long time afterwards, you know, because I just get into this zone of sort of creativity that, I don’t know, it’s like I sort of liken it to channelling or whatever that is. It’s not without thought, it’s just about applying and doing and just being in the moment and then get it on and then leave it and then come back to it go what was that all about and then you listen to it and go holy hell, that’s awful [laughs]…I mean that’s awesome!
Sean: The record label would be most disappointed… oh hang on, it’s your label, Circle Music! [laughs] I’ve always meant to ask, does it feel good to have so much creative freedom releasing music on your own label?
Jon: Oh man, I haven’t been with a major label since 1997, so I’ve been doing my own thing since then really. What is freedom? The freedom is in creating and, you know, owning your stuff and being able to do what you want without being, having that, I guess having that label-y thing, trying to, back in the old days they used to try and tell you what to do all the time. They would try to mould you or whatever and get involved. I mean, that was a good thing about being in a band like Noiseworks, you know, when you’re in a band, it’s harder to be infiltrated, you know. But nowadays the music industry has changed so much. It’s unrecognisable, really, and, you don’t know what’s real anymore. The amount of unbelievably successful artists that I’ve seen online, and I’ve seen them live, and they are not singing for real, mate. They are whining. And you got 50,000 people going crazy. I go, oh my God. They’re all drunk with Kool-Aid. You know? So it’s just kind of weird to see that kind of, what’s it called? It’s called untruth. I don’t know. But you know, but I’m old school, so therefore, I sing live and play live, and that’s what we do. So, you know, we’re actually becoming obsolete in that respect because people are so used to having that sound.
Sean: And I think the testament is that, this is why the Red Hot Summers and all those style of shows sell out time and time again because everyone knows that everyone up on that stage is banging out live music.
Jon: Yeah absolutely. 100%. But there’s something for everybody I suppose but everyone is so connected to these devices, you know it’s so wild and I speak for myself when I say that too. As soon as I decide to call it a day the first thing I will do is throw away my phone, throw away all the shit. You need it for your business, you know, you’ve got to have it. Yeah, it’s painfully necessary, unfortunately.
Sean: Well, we are about to run out of time Jon. But taking you back to our first interview you hit me with a curve ball when you told me there story of coming home to find Robert Smith & The Cure standing in your mum’s kitchen. The second time we chatted you caught me off guard when you told me about making it to the final two for front man of Van Halen, being pipped to the post by Gary Cherone. So what can you blind side me with this time?
Jon: Ah bro, you know a fair few stories that we’ve mentioned back stage but we probably can’t say here [laughs]. Ah, you’ve put me on the spot Seany. I suppose playing with Ringo on the Starlight album was pretty special. You know, that’s still one of the highlights for me of my whole life. A Beatle playing on one of my records, that’s truly amazing.
Sean: A great track and still an album I visit regularly. And talking of albums I just want to wish you all the best for the release of ‘Shimmer’ on October 8. And thank you for your time as always.
Jon: No, thank you Seany. It’s always great to talk to you. Make sure you hit me up if your back over in Melbourne anytime and we’ll see you at some shows in the new year if not before.
Sean: We will. Thanks mate.
