Biography

The band Mellowdrone was formed and started by Jonathan Bates and his loop machine in the early 2000s while living in Boston & attending Berklee School of Music. Soon, Jonathan left Berklee and moved to LA where he couch surfed and played open mics until finally Mellowdrone was signed to Columbia Records. It was around this time that he met Tony DeMatteo and asked him to join the band. Other players would come and go over the years, but the core was always Jonathan and Tony. They went on to write & self produce Box for Columbia, and its followup Angry Bear which they self released. During this period the band toured with the likes of Johnny Marr, The Killers, Elbow, and Secret Machines. In 2009 Mellowdrone disbanded and Jonathan went on to form his next project, Big Black Delta, whilst also playing guitar for M83, and recording with Dhani Harrison. Now Mellowdrone is back. In 2017 members of the band The Neighborhood (who were fans of Mellowdrone), asked Jonathan and Tony if they would come and work with them. This put the core members of Mellowdrone in a room together for the first time in almost a decade. Following these sessions, unsolicited and with no expectation of anyone listening, Jonathan and Tony wrote 2 new songs together for fun, and Mellowdrone was reborn. New songs "I Don't Believe It" and "Way Out" see the band returning to their signature sound which sounds just as unique and inspired now as it did 15 years ago.