Jonny Maudling

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'Jonny Maudling' (born Jonathan Maudling) is an English composer, keyboard player and former drummer for the band Bal-Sagoth. Jonny Maudlings' primary instruments are Roland synthesizers when playing live. He comes from a musical family and was classically trained on piano from an early age. He has contributed to two My Dying Bride studio albums, and has also composed music for the video game Adellion. Currently, Jonny is a producer and engineer, operating his own recording studio called Waylands Forge Studios in Yorkshire, England.

Jonny composes the music for Bal-Sagoth, sometimes incorporating ideas from his brother, guitarist Chris Maudling. He played drums on the first three albums and during subsequent tours, using a session keyboard player, but in 1999 Jonny opted to concentrate full time on keyboards and composition, handing drum duties off to Dave Mackintosh (Dragonforce).

Though he composes music mostly in the symphonic metal/black metal genres, Jonny's main influences include mostly non-metal bands such as The Police, Tangerine Dream, Queen, Pat Metheny, as well as classical composers such as Wagner, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Messiaen and Holst.

Early days

Though born in Kent, Jonny grew up in Sheffield Yorkshire. In Kent, Jonny's parents lived opposite a music store in which the store owner, Terry Bradford, who ended up representing Britain in A Song For Europe in the 1970s, was a friend of Jonny's father and received free records from all different kinds of artists. Most of which being classical/contemporary music and Jazz. Jonny grew up listening to these records, by which educating himself to a wide variety of musical styles. He also had private piano instruction, working through the Royal Academy Of Music Grade system under Elizabeth Hydes.

At school in South Yorkshire, he learnt to play guitar and bass guitar. He played in various bands in his teen years, performing gigs in pubs and nightclubs around the area. He started song writing at this time. He bought his first synthesizer in the mid 1980s with the money he earned working a Saturday job. After school, Jonny tried out for music college, but was ultimately considered a borderline candidate with substandard sight-reading ability. Together with failed auditions, Jonny opted instead to concentrate on band work.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Jonny played bass, sang and composed songs for a thrash metal outfit called Ignitor. Brought together from Jonny's musical friends, this band recorded two demos and also performed gigs around England, the most high profile of which was a support slot with prominent thrash metal outfit Xentrix.

After the demise of Ignitor, Jonny was out of the band environment, but his brother Chris had started a non-serious band with some old friends, and Jonny would help out on the drums from time to time. Alistair MacLatchy, who had previously played in a thrash metal band called Systematic Insanity with prominent extreme metal drummer Nicholas Barker, contributed his skills as lead guitarist to this covers orientated outfit.

Bal-Sagoth

Through Alistair, Jonny was introduced to vocalist/lyricist Byron Roberts. For several years, Byron had been looking for talented musicians with whom to launch his Bal-Sagoth symphonic black metal band, but up until then had been unable to meet anyone willing to commit seriously to the project. As a result of Alistair's introductions, Jonny, Chris and Byron duly began working together in a band environment.

This new outfit went loosely under the non-serious provisional name of "Dusk" for several months, as Alistair did not like the name Bal-Sagoth, nor the symphonic black metal direction which Byron had suggested. It was during this time that the band honed their skills, but as yet, there were still no keyboards.

Because of creative and musical differences in direction and style, the band parted ways with Alistair. With the implementation of keyboards, the band found their focus. Byron had the creative team he had long sought and brought a conceptual vision to the band. For Jonny, this presented a creative musical freedom which set the outfit apart from the rest. Byron, an English post-grad with an interest in 20th century pulp sci-fi writers, could finally implement the ideas he had had for years. Bal-Sagoth was thus born during the summer of 1993.

With keyboards playing an essential role in the sound, Jonny started to write the music using them, creating what would become the "Bal-Sagoth sound".

The band quickly recorded a low budget demo using riffs and songs salvaged from former Dusk sessions married with new material. Byron at this time was circulating flyers to the metal underground, generating interest from record labels. On the strength of the demo they were signed by Cacophonous Records, a then small subsidiary of Vinyl Solution based in London. The band signed a three album deal. Later, they would sign to Nuclear Blast for three albums, recording a total of six albums to date.

Mac actually joined the band on tour, replacing Jason Porter just after Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule was released. He accompanied them across Europe with Dark Funeral and later that year with Emperor, before being replaced by Mark Greenwell in 1998.

Keyboard equipment

Jonny has used various keyboards/Synths over the years including, Casio CZ-1000, Yamaha Dx21, Korg M1, Roland XP-50 and Roland Fantom X7.

External links

• Jonny's official site
• Jonny's myspace page
• Wayland's Forge Studio myspace
• Bal-Sagoth official site