Jon Fratelli

Jon Fratelli (born John Paul Lawler on March 4, 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish musician and songwriter best known for his work with the band The Fratellis. He has also played with Codeine Velvet Club before moving onto a new solo career.

Little is known about Lawler’s life before he joined the Fratellis. He attended St. Maurice’s High School and visited Cumbernauld College when it opened its new music studio in September 2007. Before joining The Fratellis, he released a solo album entitled Free Urban Clown.

In 2005, Jon responded to an advert placed in a music shop by drummer Gordon McRory, which stated «Opportunity of a lifetime … seeks band to make our mark on the music industry». On this advert he put his name as «Graeme» to avoid detection of his then current band mates finding out he was seeking a new band. After calling the number, asking for «Graeme» he got told repeatedly that he had the wrong number, he nearly gave up but tried one more time and got a hold of McRory and the band started to form, with Barry Wallace joining the band on Bass.

Jon’s role in the band is songwriter, lead vocalist and lead guitarist. He was initially accompanied on guitar by the man now called Mince Fratelli (Gordon McRory), but Mince switched to drums after the initial drummer did not work out. Writing credits for the first album are for The Fratellis, however, for the second album, they are solely credited to him.

After playing the Coachella festival in California in 2007, during promotion of Fratellis’ debut album [album]Costello Music[/album], Jon decided to flee from the US tour and return to Glasgow, stating that he was too tired to continue the rest of the tour. He later saw this as a mistake, but it allowed him to be even more grateful for the success of the band.The band are currently on hiatus while the band members pursue other projects.

For The Fratellis’ debut album, Costello Music, Jon mainly used a Fender Telecaster, with the exception of a few songs in which he used a Gibson Les Paul and a Gibson ES-335.

For the second album, Here We Stand, he used a Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Firebird, Rickenbacker 12 string, Gibson Les Paul, and an ES-335 for his electrics. For the acoustic performances, he used a Gibson SJ-200, a Gibson Hummingbird, and a Gibson J-45. During promotional performances of the album, Jon was mainly using a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty with Bareknuckle Mississippi Queen pickups (humbucker sized P-90’s).

During promotion of [album]Here We Stand[/album], Jon stated that he wished to create a solo album to keep himself busy once the band were done touring the album, with the band scheduled to take a break. It later emerged that he planned on teaming up with singer-songwriter Lou Hickey, who he met due to her friendship with Jon’s wife, and creating an album.

It emerged in an NME article that the band was set to be called Codeine Breakfast Club, however, on August 23, 2009, it was confirmed that the band had changed its name to Codeine Velvet Club and their debut album was to be released on November 16, 2009 (however, this was later pushed back to December 28, 2009). This album sees Jon sharing songwriting duties with Lou for about half the tracks on the album, penning the other half by himself (one track, «Nevada» was composed by Will Foster).

Jon and Lou took their band (consisting of Ross MacFarlane on drums, Will Foster on keys and guitar, Lewis Gordon on bass and various horn players known as ‘The Velvet Horns’) for a tour of the UK in 2009 and the US in 2010. However, Jon decided that he could not commit to the band anymore and called an end to the band, finishing off what live dates they had and announcing his solo career.

On April 24, 2010, Jon announced via his Twitter that he had set up a MySpace page, which had a demo of «Bonnie & Clyde» on it. Jon stated in an interview for the Sun where the demise of Codeine Velvet Club was announced that he will be pursuing a career as a solo artist. He is taking the backing band from Codeine Velvet Club with him as he has a fondness for working with the musicians. His website is currently offering a free demo track, «Sometimes You Just Can’t Win» by signing up to his mailing list.

He has recorded his debut solo album in LA with Tony Hoffer, who produced the Fratellis’ first album. During this time, he kept people up to date on the progres of the album via his Twitter page. During the end of 2010, Jon played a handful of solo shows both before and after recording the album, mixing new tracks in with his back catalogue of Fratellis’ and Codeine Velvet Club songs. The album is expected to be released in the first half of 2011 by Island Records in the UK and Dangerbird Records in the US. Jon recently announced that his Fratellis’ bandmate Mince would be joining him during live shows in 2011, sharing drumming duties with Ross MacFarlane.

Jon likes to keep his personal life private and not many details of what he does outside of music is known. He resides in the town of Cumbernauld, north-east of Glasgow with his wife, Heather, whose burlesque name «Chelsea» he used for the Fratellis’ hit single, Chelsea Dagger. Jon has a son named Jamie, born 1999 to a girl Jon was seeing when he was 18.