BIOGRAPHY
Born Jérôme Cotta in Marseille, Jehro moved to London at age 20, where he used to live in an artists' squat in Hammersmith, performing in the tube. He now lives in Paris and using his guitar skills he composes acoustic songs with a mixed Caribbean/reggae/folk/Latin sound.
As a child Jehro’s imagination was fuelled by the dreams of his Greek-Italian-Corsican mother, and the songs of his Georges Brassens-inspired singer of a father in the Panier area of In that Hammersmith artists’ squat he immersed himself in pop, rock and reggae, surrounded by Spanish and Jamaican musicians. Perfecting his skills as a guitarist by covering all his favorite pop standards, he broke free from his native French by lending his voice to the songs of his new-found idols - he fell in love with Bob Marley’s music, its roots and its spirituality, when busking to it in London's tube stations.
He then moved to Paris, settling in a small hotel on the rue Marcadet in the 18th Arrondissement. A new city meant new places to play: Pigalle, Montmartre, Belleville, Saint-Germain, where he wrote the lyrics and music for his first solo album. “L’arbre et le fruit” was released by Chrysalis / EMI under his real name Jérôme Cotta, earning him well-deserved praise from the French critics in 1999. Jérôme’s songs were heard on the radio, and he took to jamming in the studio of a couple of new acquaintances he met in the courtyard of his block of flats: Christian Brun and Richard Minier. By giving him the opportunity to explore new musical avenues and Jehro moved away from his solo career and sparked a profitable artistic collaboration.
From indo-electro theme tunes for the advertising industry through calypso-pop songs co-written and sung for the Marathonians’ “A Tropical Soul Adventure” LP (Superfruit, 2003), Jehro was gradually finding his own distinctive voice. Somewhere in the South of France, in a little village full of sing-song accents and surrounded by ochre-red hills and olive groves, he came up with the first tune of an album almost entirely written in English, “Shantytown Carnival,” produced by the Marathonians duo and signed to their Superfruit record label. Jehro’s self-titled debut is an album inspired by Caribbean and American grassroots music (reggae, folk, Latin etc.), full of snapshots and tales from the lives of ordinary people.
LYRICS
Life is a strange thing
That drain inside?? on
Life like us strange
There comes and goes
But we can never hold on
Whatever comes to your life
Whatever comes to your heart
If you can learn the rules of time
So you don't loose you win
I talk about life
Like an old game
You may win or loose
But it still remains the same
Whatever comes to your life
Whatever comes to your heart
If you can feel the deeper signs
And be prepared to change
Now I've got to open my heart
We've got to open our hearts and give it
Now we've got to open our hearts
We've got to open our hearts and leave it
And leave it to life
Whatever comes to your life
Whatever comes to your heart
If you can learn the rules of time
So you don't loose you win
Sometimes you gonna
You gonna feel lonely
But sometimes
You gonna feel daring
Daring
Sometimes
You gonna feel sorrow
But for sure
You gonna feel loved
Loved
Loved by life
You'll be loved by life
You'll be loved by life
26 сен 2024
