ABOUT
Born on the North Side of Chicago, John Fatum has been immersed in music since before he could talk. Immediately drawn to the Gospel music played around his family home, John’s parents put him into percussion lessons and his love for the drums led him to the Midwest Young Artists and the Music Institute of Chicago. It was not long after that John knew he had completely fallen in love with the life of music, travel, and dear friends. After graduating high school, John went on to study Jazz Performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Unexpectedly distraught by being away from his family for the first time in his life, John and his fraternal twin brother, Michael, started planning projects to keep in touch, and the The Fatum Brother’s Jazz Orchestra and The Rad Trads were born. Playing national and international jazz festivals such as ambriaJazz in Sondrio, Italy and Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, NY, John has been able to live his dream of traveling the world while playing great music with friends.
John Fatum represents a new type of songwriter, blending folk, country, blues, and rock elements into his recordings. His debut solo LP, Locked Up In My Mind, was a journey into to the young mind of the 25 year-old percussionist and singer-songwriter. His sophomore effort, Self-Titled, weaves a story of legacy of story and sound and shows John taking on the characters and mythology of those who came before him. Supported by friends and New York folk scene veterans like Prairie Home Companion’s Sarah Jarosz and Scottish musician Hannah Read, Fatum’s release takes on a haunting and cinematic tone on tracks like Ride On Nebraska. Together the crew creates the kind of magic that can only occur between talented, tight-knit friends reaching epic back porch jam proportions. John sums up this feeling by explaining “there’s a nebulous aspect to rhythm that you can’t write or put down. It’s not definable. You couldn’t create unless a human was playing it,” says Fatum.“I really believe that life is a rhythm, that we’re all on some trajectory through time. Music provides us that pulse that tracks us through life. And it’s a steadying thing, instead of free fall.”
