Vienna producer Jon Gravy has just released his third album, 21 Dreams. The songs on the record are equally well suited to headphones and to the dance floor, and have made him the FM4 Soundpark Act for March.
A visit to his family in South Africa changed Jon Gravy’s life, musically speaking. He brought back a CD – “kwaito and house from Johannesburg. That was the first time I realized, as a teenager, that there was house music besides David Guetta. That’s when I started loving it; that’s where the journey started.”
Kwaito is a house music variant born in the Johannesburg area. Its 4/4 beat is often slower than other house music and enriched with vocals, samples, and funky, syncopated rhythms. In recent years, the amapiano style that evolved out of kwaito has established itself in clubs all over the world; there are amapiano edits and remixes from just about everything. For the young Jon Gravy, who borrowed his artist name from his favorite South African food, kwaito introduced him to a whole new world of sound and rhythm.
The Vienna musician’s passion for music was partly inspired by his parents’ extensive jazz record collection. He started out playing DJ sets and releasing early EPs of conventional house beats; it was during the pandemic that he found the time to concentrate more on production. His first two albums, both from this period, feature house grooves and broken-beat material ranging from electro to UK garage – a style currently experiencing a significant revival. It’s also the style of his Lou Asril remix, the first track that got him noticed at FM4.
Anyone looking for numerological revelations in the title of his new album, 21 Dreams, is in for a letdown. The number is left over from a gaming username he used in his youth, and has since become his lucky number. Wishing and dreaming are a common thread throughout the album, though – they appear in the form of uplifting piano chords, hopeful synth melodies, pleading voices. Rhythmically speaking, breakbeats are at the fore; there’s hardly a song on the album without one.
Jon Gravy generally seems to like quoting his way through EDM history. The result is a collection of songs that will surely cast their spell in the club. However, 21 Dreams is just as effective dancing with oneself, whether it’s coming over the living room speakers or headphones.
Concerning his own dreams, Jon Gravy is a pragmatist. “I’d love to play in the UK and Paris – wherever my listeners are. Obviously I want to keep making music, and I hope I can continue to do it for a long time.”
Stefan Trischler, translated from the German original by Philip Yaeger.