Radial artist Jon Reshard – Vigilant about realizing his dream
When you start building your dream at 15 you can get a lot accomplished in a relatively short time. Bassist Jon Reshard started his journey long before 15 but launched his professional career at that age, recording a drum and bass album with Tony Royster Jr. At 18 he recorded and toured with Greg Howe on his “Soundproof” album. Howe then contributed to Reshard’s first solo album that caught the attention of Prince who invited him to jam. Yes, jamming with Prince in his 20’s.
It is no surprise then to discover Reshard has a very specific plan for his future and it lies in the band Vigilant (formed in 2011) that has just recently released their first single “Get It” off a soon to be released album. It is impossible not to pick up on his passion and enthusiasm about the project. “The band is the main thing I do. It’s what I wanted to do from the moment that I knew I wanted to perform, so it’s where all my focus is. I wanted to find people who were extremely talented. People who wanted to push their own limits, who were into the idea of a band and were willing to work and give of themselves creatively. That isn’t always easy, but I was determined to go as far as I had to to find them. As a result, Padget (drums) and I are in Florida, our singer Chloe is in Los Angeles, and Jordan (guitar) is in Massachusetts. It’s a little more work, but it’s worth it to us.”
“I ended up writing a lot of the music and lyrics for our first record, but we all love music that can make you feel like you’re 10 feet tall, or that makes you say, ‘That’s how I feel,’ or that lets you escape into it and completely forget about everything around you at that moment. That’s what we strive to make our music do for others. As far as genre, it’s essentially hard rock. Even though elements of other types of music influence what we do, the high energy is always there. Our sound is also influenced by where we are in life and what we’re into at the time.”
Reshard is, of course, just as selective about the gear he chooses. He found his Tonebone Bassbone (2 Channel bass pre with built-in direct box) 4 years ago. “I love the clarity. You can hear everything from the low end stuff through the highs. A lot of that was getting filtered out with other things I’ve tried. It just sounds really good. I use it on the road quite a bit. It’s useful if I have two instruments because I can set them up differently, or if I’m using only one bass, I can have two different sounds that I might switch between on different songs or parts. I also think it’s funky that it has an effects loop on it. That’s cool for a lot of reasons for me.”
Click here for more information on the Tonebone Bassbone
