Colin Jones: back from Australia

Colin Jones, local slinger of blues shot through with ’90s rock — or is it the other way around? — picks up music, and influences, on the fly. But from his peripatetic childhood, he’s used to that.

“I was born in San Diego,” explains Jones, “but we moved to Australia when I was young. I grew up in a steel town called Newcastle. There wasn’t a lot there, but the people were good. My parents were preachers so we moved around town a lot. My dad loved road trips so we often took long drives with great soundtracks.”

Even without a methodical plan for influences, stuff got through to him. “Howlin’ Wolf and Nina Simone inspired me a lot. [Simone’s] Pastel Blues is a near-perfect album.”

“Discovering Dylan and Waits in my early twenties had a huge influence on what I thought music could do and what a career could look like. Albums like Aha Shake Heartbreak (Kings of Leon) were pivotal.”

Down Under turned out to be a heavy party scene. “In 2015, I played at the birthday party for a famous artist and Dominatrix in Sydney, Australia. It was in an old stone house built on a cliff by the ocean. Under the main house was a series of old jail cells that they used back in the 19th century. The place was filled with artists, photographers, writers all kinds of wild drunk and tripping and drinking.”

“We played for a few hours till the booze was gone. Come morning we played another set while everyone recovered from their hangover and started the party again.”

Jones came back to San Diego to live three years ago. “I’m in National City. It’s very much a Mexican neighborhood still, and I love that about it; the culture and the generosity of the people. Not far from my place was a bar called Alotta’s. It’s closed now and I can’t tell you everything that went down there, but anyone who knows it knows that it was a hidden gem full of life. It wasn’t always positive but it was always alive.”

He likes house parties. “Venues are hard to come by, and the deals they make with artists are disappointing to say the least. I did love playing at Soda Bar, we played a support show for our friends Thee Sacred Souls. That’s a venue with a lot of heart.”

“We played a show in Ocean Beach last year, that was a strange one. A lineup of folk, jazz, and rock artists, and they were playing the Ying Yang Twins in between artists. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it really messed with the night.”

“My band has rotated a bit over the last year, but at the moment I’m lucky enough to be playing with amazing friends like Zack Marzoni on pedal steel and guitar, Becky Free on drums, and Julianna Zachariou on bass; who is an amazing songwriter in her own right.”

The new EP is called Mama Don’t Weep, brought out of mothballs from his Australian days. The future? “Too many people are getting hit heavier than I am for me to complain. But I will say it’d be nice to play [live] again.”