Somewhere along the way, someone called me Tono.

I never planned to be a musician. I wanted to be a genius, so I took to memorising facts. I could have been an historian, but the unfortunate combination of a broken heart, Ryan Adams and The Strokes changed my fate when I was eighteen.

I love pop music and I love lyrics. I started writing songs because no one did these quite the way I wanted.

It was harder than I thought, but I’m getting somewhere. Many times I’ve realised I didn’t want what I thought I did, and each time I’ve fallen in love, the music I listen to and the direction I was going in has changed.

I like to write characters. I like to talk about where I come from - self conscious cities on isolated islands, saturated with culture from far away, and desperate to know someone wants to hear us. I don’t push politics, but I think it’s valid for art to take sides. I used to try to be ironic, but now I find myself becoming blushingly earnest. Sometimes there are funny lines in my songs, but I’ve never intended to be a comedian. I’ve never let myself take the easy option in my music, but I feel like it’s becoming simpler despite that.  

More than anything else, I’ve always wanted to be clever. But now I find myself striving to create things magical and unintelligently wonderful.

My band is the Finance Company, and it includes almost a dozen musicians from my former home in Dunedin and my current one in Auckland, but not all at the same time. I used to play guitar in the band live, but now I’m embracing the role of singer-frontman in all my awkward glory. I often play by myself live, but I always record with my band.

Here’s what people have said about my music.

“Tono and the Finance Company, whose front man comes on like a cross between Morrissey and a shy Jarvis Cocker-meets-Nick Cave, opened the show with a deliciously droll set of songs about love, economics, and supermarkets.”  - Scott Kara (NZ Herald) on Beirut at the Powerstation

“(Tonnon’s) local narratives are alternately dry and devastating.”
– Dan Trevarthan (5 Stars – Real Groove) on Fragile Thing

“Tonnon is an intelligent, adult lyricist (and possesses a dark, assured voice) and if the music seduces in its pop-smarts, then be prepared to be provoked into thought by what the subject matter is…One of the most surprising and rewarding local discs of the year.” – Graham Reid (Elsewhere.co.nz) on Fragile Thing

“With their singular mix of tenderness, detachment, fine detail and savage wit, songs such as “Describing The Harbour” and “Barry Smith of Hamilton” suggest Tono might be Mosgiel’s answer to Morrissey” – Grant Smithies (‘Album of the Week’ – Sunday Star Times) on Fragile Thing

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Contact Marty Jones - marty@bonesandwoods.co.nz

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Contact me - anthonie.tonnon@gmail.com