This page is on the Canadian musician. For the American tennis player see Jon Levine (tennis).

Jon Levine is a singer/songwriter best known as keyboardist and primary songwriter for the Canadian band Philosopher Kings. His brother is Jason Levine, of the pop band Prozzäk

Prozzäk

Prozzäk was a Canadian pop music virtual band that consisted of Simon and Milo . The name Prozzäk was inspired by the drug Prozac. In an interview with the New York Times, McCollum mentions that their music makes people feel good and happy which is an effect of the drug Prozac...

, and the former bassist of the Philosopher Kings. He is also the musical director for the childrens television show Razzberry Jazzberry Jam

Razzberry Jazzberry Jam

Razzberry Jazzberry Jam is an animated children's television show about music. All of the characters are anthropomorphic musical instruments. In each episode a special guest arrives at "The House of Jam" and the band learn about that guest and a new song that features that instrument...

. Levine has been a major force in Canadian popular music for the last 10 years, writing, developing and producing a handful of high profile Canadian musical acts in a number of musical genre's including Toronto rapper Jellystone, Nelly Furtado

Nelly Furtado

Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...

, Kreesha Turner

Kreesha Turner

Kreesha Turner , is a Canadian R&B/pPop recording artist. She cites as her inspirations R&B acts such as Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and D'Angelo, hip-hop acts including A Tribe Called Quest, Andre 3000 and Common and rock acts like the Foo Fighters and Our Lady Peace.-Early life:The oldest of three...

, Jenna Andrews and Fefe Dobson

Fefe Dobson

Felicia Lily "Fefe" Dobson is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Her self-titled debut album earned her two Juno Award nominations. Her second album, Sunday Love, was not released and she was terminated from her recording company...

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Biography

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Jon Levine began playing many instruments at an early age, including bass, guitar and drums. He toured as a drummer with various local bands before focusing on songwriting and his main instrument, the piano. Jon then spent two years at the University of Toronto studying jazz piano. It was there that he met some of the musicians that would make up the band, The Philosopher Kings. The band was quickly signed to Sony Music Canada and in addition to playing piano, Jon wrote and co-produced almost all of the material on their eponymous debut, including the hit “Charms.” The album was certified gold and the band won a Juno Award for Best New Artist. The album was also picked up by Columbia Records for release in the United States, where “Charms” became a Top 40 hit. The band’s second album, Famous, Rich & Beautiful, was certified platinum and yielded the hits “Hurts to Love You,” “I Am The Man” and “You Don’t Love Me Like You Used To Do,” all written by Jon. This established him as a highly coveted songwriter and producer.

In addition to writing and producing solo material, he began expanding outside of The Philosopher Kings, producing and songwriting for a slew of established artists, such as Canada’s own female MC Michie Mee and Warner Bros. recording artist Esthero. He then went on to produce full-length albums for BMG’s R&B band, Jacksoul, and EMI Canada’s Amanda Stott. He also wrote Jacksoul’s No. 1 hit “Can’t Stop” and the top 10 hit “Somedays” for the album Sleepless, which won a Juno for Best R&B/Soul Recording. In addition, Jon scored a hit for Canadian pop group Sugar Jones with “How Much Longer,” which he wrote and produced, and helped the album achieve platinum status.

Shortly after, Jon worked with Toronto-based rapper, Jelleestone on his first full-length album, 13, which he produced for Warner Bros America. He co-wrote and co-produced 11 of the 14 tracks, including the hit “Money (Can’t Buy Me Happiness).” Jon went on to produce a track on Columbia recording artist Emma Roberts’ debut album, Unfabulous and More; and a song entitled “Well, Well” on Nelly Furtado’s debut album, Whoa, Nelly!; an album that has sold more than six million records worldwide and earned a Grammy Award.

In 2006, Jon work with Virgin Records priority R&B singer Kreesha Turner’s album, co-writing and producing seven songs. Turner’s songs landed numerous television syncs in Entourage, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, and The Hills, among others. “Don’t Call Me Baby,” which he co-wrote with an artist he is developing, Anjulie, became a top 10 hit in Canada and No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard dance chart in 2008. Jon also co-wrote two songs on Juno Award-winning pop sensation Fefe Dobson’s album, Joy, which came out in 2010.

Along the way, Jon still found time to produce and co-write Anjulie’s self-titled album. She too landed numerous song placements in hit TV shows like The Hills and The City, and the song “Boom” was No. 1 on the U.S. dance chart in 2009; the video was nominated for Breakthrough Artist at the 2009 MTV Awards. Jon also squeezed in a solo album, Ground Tied, which showcases his deft piano skills and merges his classical and jazz training into a timeless soulfully pop rock sound.

Overseas, “Boom” and another of Jon’s songs, “Jamba” were covered by two top-selling Asian superstars, Miss Eva and Rainie. He also worked on a few Disney artists, including producing Selena Gomez for the Disney Mania 7 album and Mitchel Musso from Hannah Montana and other Disney shows. At the same time, Jon was also hired as musical director for an animated television series on Canada’s CBC called Razzberry Jazzberry Jam. The show concept is unique — the characters are musical instruments and have a band. Jon scored the entire two seasons as well as writing and recording the opening and closing themes and an original song for each episode. From pop to jazz, Jon also tried his hand at a Christmas song for roots singer Serena Ryder, and “Calling To Say” hit No. 1 in Canada.

On the horizon, Jon has a song entitled “Eggshells,” on Esthero’s next album; a full album he produced and co-wrote for EMI Music Canada's signing, Shawn Hlookoff; and two songs on Def Jam recording artist Jenna Andrews’ forthcoming album, one entirely self-penned called “Moon & the Stars,” and another, “Sharks,” which he co-wrote with Jenna and Max Martin. He is currently working on Kreesha Turner's new album, as well as the next album for Anjulie, who is now signed to Universal Republic. He is also developing another artist, Calgary’s Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, whom he calls the best live artist he's ever seen.

Artists, managers, record labels and music publishers call on Jon Levine because he has this ability to bring the best out of artists and produce and write songs of which the artists are proud, the charts embrace, the public buys and TV shows place.

Solo work

Levine's solo work can be heard on his debut album Ground Tied that was released November 1, 2009 and is available through a number of online outlets, most notable of which is iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

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Ground Tied

All lyrics and music by Jon Levine.

1. "Hot Girls" – 3:33
2. "Happy" – 3:37
3. "If I Could Sing" – 3:05
4. "Rosy" – 2:41
5. "Pharmacy Jane" – 4:07
6. "Longdarkday" – 5:11
7. "Julia" – 4:06
8. "Save Me From Myself" – 3:36
9. "Crime and Punishment" – 2:45
10. "Ugly" – 3:22
11. "Nobody" – 4:10
12. "Mercy" – 3:44