Vocalist / Percussionist / Songwriter
- Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience -
James, your tonsils are perfectly stunning! When did you first think to yourself, "Hm, this sounds pretty great?
Hello, Caroline! Music has always been in my life and I've been playing music since I was a teenager. As a musician I always try to take it to the next level
with each performance. The audience decides how good that is.
Was your voice the first instrument that you concentrated on
or was it a straightforward musical instrument - guitar, piano or
something else?
I first learned to play the guitar.
You've been involved in myriad music projects - Principle of Alchemy, Virtual Zeppelin and Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience -
what is it about JBLZE that you really lock into right now, compared to your other projects?
Well, it's like anything. You put your energy into whatever inspires you or whatever is working well for you.
JBLZE is truly a physically thrilling band. Combined with your vocal
range and octaval ventures - for example, on 'Stairway To Heaven',
a girl can't decide if she feels like crying, or wants to rip her top off
and wolf-call! How do you channel Plant's vocals in a way that is not
only brilliant, yet is completely unique to you?
Hahaha definitely rip off your top and wolf call! Woooohooo! Led Zeppelin delivered their songs in a manner which was as important to their sound as
the compositions themselves. My voice is not really like Robert's, but I
identify with the way he delivered the songs and try to stay true to that.
While performing live, do you lock into the audience
or do you more go to a place of full concentration?
Definitely, everything is very intense between the band and the audience.
We are throwing energy out from the stage and the audience throws it back
up to us. You build it until everyone feels it on a deep level. It's consuming when everyone is completely in the groove of what is going down.
Have any of the original Led Zeppelin band members offered
advice or feedback regarding the way you all play the material,
or do they pretty much leave you guys to it?
I really don't know them. Robert, Jimmy, and John Paul were Jason's father's friends and their opinions and advice mean a lot to Jason. Whatever advice they have offered Jason would be between them.
Is there the possibility of a JBLZE album with touring that would possibly bring you to Europe?
Right now all the guys in JBLZE are writing together and plan to put
something out under another name. There is a Summer tour coming
up, and the details of that are online.
Have you considered - and how cool would it be -
recording with Robert Plant? Or maybe Plant, Page, Bonham & Dylan?
Talk to your people, James, make that happen!
Hahaha, I don't have any people yet! I'll work on getting some people
and after I get my people I'll tell them to work on getting that done.
Are you pretty content with the state of the music industry right now?
I think music is in a very good place right now. The internet has given
musicians an inexpensive way to reach a broad spectrum of listeners
without having to conform to what the record companies want their
sound and image to be.
What are some of the emotions and sensory perceptions you
associate with your own personal Led Zeppelin experience?
Led Zeppelin covered a lot of ground musically and they explored a vast spectrum of contrasting emotion. The song Thank You touches the overwhelming depth of profound love. When we play it in the show Jason shares old family movies from his father's youth, it catches you off
guard in this context. I've been choked-up singing it many nights.
The Immigrant Song is a primal battle call, an unleashing of a barbarous, animalistic attack.Their music reflects human nature. Whole Lotta Love is
the exhibition of a woman's physical and biological impact upon a man.
Each song takes you to a new and unique place.
Thank you, James, you lovely and spectacular badass!
Thank you Caroline, you are most welcome!
Hope to see you when we are in your neck of the woods!