New Audio: Jonas Shares a Soulful and Appreciative Bop

Jonas Rendbo, best known as the mononym Jonas is singer/songwriter  and multi-instrumentalist and neo-soul artist, who has widely hailed by the international music press as the Godfather of Scandinavian soul. Throughout the course of his two-plus decade career, the acclaimed Danish artist has managed to be remarkably prolific, continuously releasing copious amounts of original material, which he has supported with tours with Omar, John Legend, Joss Stone, Lynden David Hall and Bilal among a lengthy and growing list of others. Adding to a growing profile across Scandinavia and elsewhere, Rendbo won Artist of the Year and Best Video at the 2016 Scandinavian Soul Music Awards.

Since 2004, Rendbo has split time between Copenhagen and London, where he met his wife and started a family. And while in London, he started collaborating with London-based multi-instrumentalist and producer The Scratch Professer, who coincidentally is Omar’s brother. Rendbo and The Scratch Professor had an instant musical simpatico and a couple of songs they wrote together wound up on Jonas’ sophomore album 2009’s W.A.I.T.T. 

That collaboration also managed to produce a handful of songs that Rendbo kept in the vault for the better part of a decade — until the four-song EP, 4ward Fast To Future, which was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in April 2020. The EP, which featured “Pick Me Up” and “What’s Cooking” was a return to the warm, vibey neo-soul sound of his earliest work paired with Rendbo’s sultry and yearning falsetto and his uncanny knack for infectious hooks. 

The EP was released to widespread praise across the blogosphere including SoulBounce.com, ScandinavianSoul.com and was a featured album on SoulTracks.com. Additionally, 4ward Fast To Future‘s material received airplay on soul music radio stations across the globe. 

Building upon that momentum, the Danish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist released the 4ward Fast to Future (Remixes) EP, an effort that features remixes of the EP’s material by friends and musical collaborators done in completely different styles. 

Earlier this year, the JOVM mainstay shared “Too Much To Mention,” a song that was rooted in earnest, lived-in lyricism, Rendbo’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks and paired with an arrangement featuring twinkling synths, a wobbling bass line, skittering beats paired with Rendbo’s yearning delivery.

The Danish-born artist closed out the year by announcing that he’ll finally be releasing his forthcoming and long-awaited album Be The Light on January 12, 2024. He explains that he had been sitting on the album for some time: First he didn’t know how he was going to release the album. Should he release it through the DSPs or some other way? But perhaps more importantly, he had other concerns on his mind: He and his wife had their third child earlier this year.

This January, the acclaimed Danish-born artist celebrates his 50th birthday. And he thought that would be a great occasion to celebrate himself and a full life in music by finally releasing the album. “It is expected that you raise a flag when you turn a big corner like that, but I feel that if I release the album on my birthday, then the focus is not so much on me, but more on the music — which I prefer,” Rendbo says in press notes.

Be The Light‘s first single “You Are Amazing” is a hook-driven and vibey bit of neo-soul built around a strutting, feel-good, two-step inducing groove that’s roomy enough for Aaron Wood to contribute some buoyant, fluttering flugelhorn paired with the Danish artist’s soulful croon, singing sincere lyrics detailing the affection and appreciation he has for his wife.

The song as Rendbo explains gives his wife the praise she deserves. “I think it is only right that she gets some shine, especially after having carried and delivered our 3rd child. She doesn’t realize how much she is an inspiration to the people around her, and somebody has to tell her.”