It’s your third album. You’ve written and performed songs that recall the best tunes from simpler, more fun times, yet they reveal true songwriting talent and a desire to do more than flog the studio gimmick of the moment. You’ve also somehow found yourself working with pop-music gurus Mike Viola and Adam Schlesinger. If all of this strikes you as oddly familiar, you might just be Kelly Jones, and at this moment Popdose is catching up with you.

Popdose: You’ve just released your third CD, SheBANG! and you’ve found yourself in this pretty impressive pop collective, considering Mike Viola, Adam Schlesinger, Ducky Carlisle and the people they’ve worked with. How did you come together with them?

Kelly Jones: It all started very organically with Adam Schlesinger.  Sometime in 2004 while out to see a show, I recognized him and introduced myself.  I had only discovered Fountains of Wayne in 2002 or 2003 so I was very excited to say hello and gush over his music.  We exchanged info and I visited his studio (Stratosphere Sound). He came and watched me perform, and we became friends!  Then sometime in 2007, he introduced me to Mike Viola.  Coincidentally Mike and I were both playing the same night at the Living Room in NYC.  I saw the tail end of Mike’s set and was hooked.  I thought he was brilliant.  He had another show the following week so I went to that and we chit-chatted afterward and also became fast friends.  I started sitting in with him during his sets and the more we worked and sang together the more I decided he would be the perfect producer for the pop record I wanted to make.  Then I met the famous Ducky Carlisle when we traveled to Medford, Mass. for our first recording session at (his studio) Ice Station Zebra…

Could you give a little background on your career so far and what brought you to this point?
I’m originally from a small town just north of Portland, Oregon.  As a child/teenager, I was a dancer and trained in classical piano.  I moved to New York City in 2003 to get closer to the action and decided it was my chance to really pursue a life in music.  I completed my first record called Brave Heartache at the end of 2003.  it’s alt-country for lack of a better term.  Country music was one of the genres I was most familiar with growing up and went hand in hand with gospel music which I sang a lot of in church.  It seemed to be the natural first step for me as I was writing my first songs and I think it served me well at the time. After completing that record, I got a great band together here in NYC (which I still work with), we started playing a bunch of shows and I started to build a little following. (more…)