JJ Appleton Singer/Songwriter/band Rock/Pop Based USA

JJ Appleton came from a musical family in Vermont, not far from Dartmouth College where his dad Jon Appleton had taught the offbeat subject of Electronic Music since 1967. A pioneer in the field, Mr. Appleton was an accomplished composer and one of the developers of the Synclavier. As a result, the family traveled all over the globe. Wherever the Appletons went, Jon had a musical agenda, which afforded JJ the rare opportunity to immerse himself in the indigenous music of such exotic places as Tonga, Sweden, Israel and Turkey.

Growing up in this musical incubator, JJ's home was a revolving door of the noteworthy artists of the day. The Appleton household had a constant stream of musical guests as disparate as Don Cherry and Wang Chung. But, JJ's older sister, who listened to a lot of Elton John and Doobie Bros, was mostly responsible for introducing him to rock. Dad would play just about everything from the music of Astor Piazzola to Fats Waller to the West Side Story soundtrack. JJ studied classical piano and essentially tried to mimic everything he heard, especially the blues, the Beatles and the Band.

Eventually he followed the musical Yellow Brick Road to NYC and got to work being an independent artist, releasing his first album 500 Moments in 2003 amidst TV appearances with Carson Daly and E!, gigs up and down the east coast at venues like the Knitting Factory and over on the west coast at events like the Sundance Film Festival, critical acclaim from Q104 and the Washington Post rapidly followed. For some reason, everyone in the States started commenting that he looked like Ben Stiller, even though he’s clearly more of a bastard love child between Adam Sandler and Ben Affleck.

That aside JJ followed up with a new album Uphill to Purgatory, which coincided with bumping into respected UK manager Daniel Lycett. Things haven’t stopped moving since for JJ, in the UK a single song publishing deal soon evolved into an album release through AATW/Absolute/Universal Music. Deciding to catch the UK up quickly on what it had been missing JJ came over for a year playing around London venues like Ronnie Scott's, Live on the Park and Ginglik whilst promoting the album Someone Else’s Problem which took the best of the previous albums and put them together, the lead single Walk Into the Room cropping up on the Terry Wogan show on BBC Radio 2.

Eventually, New York beckoned again and JJ has moved back to the Big Apple where he continues to work regularly on film and TV soundtracks and has recently completed a new EP Black and White Matinee, largely written in the UK, which he's currently busy releasing and promoting.

“Quality Pop Rock with lush guitars”
Rolling Stone

"Sometimes reminiscent of Fountains of Wayne, Elvis Costello or Tom Petty, Appleton's songs make up an all-around fun rock show, blended with catchy pop hooks"
New York Times

Discography
Click the album cover for purchase details

Video
Click the screen below to watch the video for Walk into the Room

JJ Appleton Booking and Publicity Enquiries
Click to send us an e-mail

Contact Coffee Artists now to book JJ Appleton; fee and rider on request, deposit required, venues must provide pa and sound system.
Call Gelli Graham
+44 (0) 1622 222 222
gelli@coffeeartists.com

Return to the top of the page
Close this window
Go to Coffee Artists front page

All content ©2008 Coffee Arts and Media Ltd; copyright and privacy details