Biography
From Melbourne, Australia – Jarrah Thompson is an esteemed musician, guitarist and singer/songwriter whose albums and live performances have captivated audiences worldwide since his debut release ‘Stargazer’ in 2010.
In 2022, Jarrah is currently recording his 4th studio album due for release in June.
The Band Years – 2008-2015
Stargazer (2008) indicated a wisdom beyond his years for young Jarrah, with lyrical ideas pointing to higher consciousness, and things in life worth holding onto. The acclaimed debut album, was a versatile showcase of well crafted songs from high energy, fuzzed out guitar rock, to finger picking soul with a live orchestra, this gaining fans nation wide. Through a successful Indi push, the album went on to gain support in local and community radio across the country, and enabled the band to tour. What followed was 2 years of solid touring, around 300 shows across Australia including small to medium festivals.
2010 saw Jarrah and his band tour Brazil where they recorded Jarrah’s 2nd album. The new LP, Rio Claro (March 2011) was named after the town in Brazil where the band stayed for six weeks of the tour and encapsulates the raw energy and rock edge, typical of a Jarrah Thompson live music experience. In Brazil, Thompson and his band landed the ultimate gig… A spot on the popular late-night talk show program, ‘Programa do Jô’, (described as the Dave Letterman Show of Brazil) where they were telecast to over seven million people across the country!) This preceded an extremely successful tour with hundreds of people showing up their gigs showing support.
Back on home turf in late 2010, Jarrah teamed up with flautist ‘Asha Henfry’ for a national acoustic duo tour, 25 gigs over 3 states of Australia. The pair were heavily featured and supported by ABC National and various other stations.
2013 sees the arrival of Jarrah 3rd release Voyager (June 2013). Voyager is a mixed pallet of sounds, the genres spread from rock, blues, progressive rock, folk to world music and is shaping up to be his finest release. Some songs were written in Berlin Germany while street-performing while the others were created during a 6 month break in Melbourne. Voyager’s title gives meaning to a place where the album came from, a more introspective album with lyrical ideas pointing to the inner self, freedom from self and mind, love and open heartedness.
2014 Jarrah made a very special collaboration with the Brazilian Percussion Orchestra. The group made a collection of videos and audio, the project’s aim was to fuse Australian blues rock with different rhythms from all over Brazil. Jarrah went on to collaborate with New Zealand animator Helena Van Kampen on a stop-motion music video for the song ‘I Am The One’ – the song was successfully funded through a kickstarted campaign.
Solo Career – 2016 onwards
2016 – Is the year Jarrah unveils his new live show accompanied by a new single ‘To The Ocean’. Recorded with loops, electronic drums and a banjo, the single was recorded entirely at his home studio in Jan Juc on the surf coast of Victoria and mixed by Lachlan Wooden. Jarrah toured the single through Brazil with Bianca Aviaz featuring at 2 festivals and 8 side shows.
2022 – In March, 2022 Jarrah headed into The Aviary Studios in Melbourne to record material which became the song book volumes.
The idea was to record all the songs live – guitar and vocal at the same time, focusing on a solo performance of the song in its truest form.
This is Jarrah’s first release since his full length album Voyager in 2013 – which led to a long stint of touring in Brazil and India and eventually a move down the great ocean road where he began to dive deeper into acoustic guitar playing, finger style and the slide guitar.
Song Book Vol 1, is Jarrah’s first recording on his return to Melbourne in this acoustic style of writing, and aims to showcase his ability as an acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter in blues and folk. The songs are intimate and personal and reflect on the last two years in Jarrah’s life.
Accompanied by Harry Mullany on piano/keys on select songs, engineered and mixed by Fraser Montgomery and mastered by Adam Dempsey, the first volume is 5 songs including Jarrah’s rendition of Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold’ on the weissenborn guitar.
Out June 16th via bandcamp and all major streaming platforms – stay tunes for shows!
