Walter Jones
Walter Jones born July 16, 1968 - Shreveport, Louisiana. Walter's musical background goes as far back as three generations. During the 1950's both of Walter's grandfathers played as a session musician for famous acts. His grandfathers were excellent vocalist and guitar players. His Father is an accomplished guitarist and his Mother is a classically trained vocalist. Both were taught music as children. During the 1970's Walters Father worked for a Public Relations firm where he was first taught about editing on reels as well as early production techniques at their ad production studio. Water bought his first record with his own money in 1978, Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue". Disco was his favorite music at the time as well was the group Boston.
In 1978 Walter would have a musical encounter that would change his view and direction. In 1978 when he was ten he saw the Sex Pistols perform. He couldn't go inside of course, but was able to hang outside and hear the music. During the 1980's Walter would visit New York for the very first time and in 1982 with his parents he would be exposed for the first time to Break dancing and Hip Hop culture. "I got into everything from New Wave to No Wave (like the group Gong) to Industrial to Euro-pop to New Romantic to Boogie Down Bronx style Hip Hop to Soulful Synth Funk in the early 80's"
Walter absorbed the culture and fashions of that time. "I made edits and mixed them together by recording one measure of a song and hitting the pause button on the Sears cassette recorder on the down beat and then again on the upbeat of a different song. I sold these in High School to the break dancers and Pat Benatar look a likes that dug music like Depeche Mode and Frankie Goes to Hollywood as well as electro Hip Hop like on the label Tommy Boy."
At 16 Walter would sneak in to the clubs to listen to the new sound emerging in the early 80's club scene. From 1986 to 1988 he had an Avant Garde group called "Rational Id" that was very experimental with lots of references to religious figures like Jesus and Krishna. There was lots of smashing on pianos and acoustic guitars or what ever they could put up to the mic. Very beatnik!
Walter was a student at LSU as well as a radio DJ on KLSU 91.1FM at Louisiana State University in 1987. That year Walter would get into House and Techno after being turned on to the sound from tapes of Chicago\'s WBMX Hot Mix Five crew supplied by Dallas legend Derrick Wright the year before. These tapes also would bring Walter to included Chicago House and Detroit Techno into his playlist on KLSU in Baton Rouge. His first legal club venture was at the Stark Club in Dallas Texas in 1986. "My first memory of Stark is the co-owner of the club, Grace Jones, twirling around on the dance floor early one night with absolutely no clothes on."
During the 1990's Walter would move back to Dallas from Baton Rouge where he would meet like minded music lovers who taught him how to spin his collection of 12"s which he had been collecting for almost a decade. "I had been buying dance records since I bought my first 12” (Quadrent Six-"Body Mechanic") in 1982, but didn't get tables until 10 years later in 1992. That year I honed my skills and got booked at various parties in the Dallas area including the famous Mainstreet warehouse parties and Aqua Lounge. I started going to the Hazy Daze parties including the famous Paper Loveparty. I started throwing parties in the Spring/Summer of1994 in a warehouse where me and 3 other people lived. We stopped in 1995 when I moved out."
In 1992 after the breakup of his fiancé Walter Jones started to get serious about music and production. "I bought a Prophet 2000 sampler and a Roland 505 used for very little money. I started to make very bad Sampled Track House." Over time he would purchase his first synth and in 1995 he would acquire an ARP Odyssey as well as a Roland TR606 drum machine. Soon he had enough in his collection of other instruments and would expand his sound and create a nice home studio. "I was, and still am, learning about production techniques. I started getting into computers late in the game (1997) and dove right into computer music after resisting digital music and trying to stick with all analog."
After years of musical direction and help from DJ Klas in Los Angeles, Walter has finally started to market his music to various labels. Early last year Westbound records released All God's Children with a Maurice Fulton re-mix which got a great write up in URB Magazine as "URB's Pick of the Month" for April 2003. The follow up called the "Fadeinn Moments EP" is a little more personal and very eclectic as far as styles go. It has received great feedback from such DJ\'s as Marcus Wyatt, Doc Martin, Danny Krivit and Francois K. Walter Jones is currently working on a self produced full length album. Walter Jones upcoming work sounds like it may be a concept album of some sort.
