Current Influences are: Simon Phillips, Dream Theatre, Spock's Beard, Liquid Tension Experiment, etc.
Jonathann Launer Hails from Columbus, Ohio. He literally grew up in the music business in a musical family that goes back many generations. His father, Andy is a successful Jazz pianist, & has many albums out, & has been a fixture in Columbus for many years.
Jonathann started playing drums at the tender age of 4. "It started out as simple rhythms using a maraca, & went from there." Launer remembers. He got his first drum set in 3rd grade, & by the time he was 11, he was playing professionally, as the youngest card carrying member of the musician's union. Influences at that time were Don Brewer (Grand Funk), Buddy Rich, Danny Saraphine (Chicago) & Louie Bellson. Then at age 13 a friend introduced him to Frank Zappa, & a little unknown band called Kansas. Life would never be the same. Something just clicked.
The musical bar had been forever lifted. Then came ELP, Genesis, Yes, Rush, Dregs, Mahavishnu, & the like. Jonathann recorded & toured with several bands in the late 70s & 80s opening up for many national acts playing arenas, & finally moved to L.A. in 1988. Two weeks after arriving in L.A., he appeared twice on "Star Search" with a pop rock band "The Touch" "That was my first & last attempt to play music that was not in my soul for the sake of trying to write commercial music for the "masses" & the cowardly record company assholes" Launer laughs.
After that, he was recruited to join the successful L.A. Band, "Shy Boy" A classically trained vocalist in his own right, Jonathann always sang lead from behind the drums. When Shy Boy disbanded, it was time to make some changes. "It was the early 90s, & music had gotten real ugly.
Everyone was tying to sound like Nirvanna, people actually considered rap, MUSIC! Pop culture had gotten real stupid" he says. Progressive rock was completely dead.
He decided to go to film school, & do a solo album. The solo album, entitled "Welcome to the age of DUH" was like therapy. It was comedy music. Scathing social satire in the vein of Frank Zappa, with crazy arrangements that broke all the rules. Launer decided to do comedy music after having won the 95.5 KLOS FM comedy competition two years in a row. That same year, he won a drum solo competition spanning seven states across the western U.S. It was shortly after, that he hooked up with old friend G.T. Richards who recruited him for L.A. Underscore (then Dreamland).
Currently, in addition to his drumming duties, Launer owns & operates a multi Award Winning Film & television production company, JLP, where he directs, shoots, edits, & composes music for Film & television. Launer has produced videos for Terry Bozzio, Paul Gilbert, Marco Minnemann, Chad Wackerman & countless others. Launer has also worked with Brian Wilson, Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, Joe Walsh, Alan Holdsworth & provided content for all the major networks. "Progressive Rock has come back!"
"Thank God for Dream Theatre, Spock's Beard, Symphony X, Vanden Plas, & Derek Sherinian."
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