Howard Jones, ’80s Synth-Pop Pioneer, Is Still Innovating on New Album

Now in his fifth decade of making music, synth-pop pioneer Howard Jones is just as enamored with innovative technologies as he was in the early ‘80s.

For one of the two versions of his upcoming album, Piano Composed, Jones used a Steinway Spirio, a state-of-the-art player piano that captures mechanical data and allowed him to edit the performance on an iPad. Piano Composed will be released May 23 on Cherry Red Records, which owns Jones’ five albums that were originally released through Elektra Records. The limited-edition vinyl version, Piano Composed Ivory, contains the original compositions performed on his Steinway D piano during the COVID-19 lockdown. The CD version, Piano Composed Spirio, has the same tracks in an alternate sequence and reimagined using the Spirio.  Both versions provide the buyer with playable notion for five of the pieces. 

“It’s the most incredible instrument,” Jones tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist. The Spirio allowed him to combine his classical training — Piano Composed is his third piano-based album — with his proficiency with technology and computers. 

“For example, on a piano, you can do a glissando, where you will go down all the white keys, or maybe all the black keys,” he explains. “But to actually get a chromatic glissando, it’s almost impossible to do physically. But with programming [on the Spirio], I could achieve that.

“So I was thinking, ‘Oh, I can actually ask the piano to do things that you can’t actually physically play,’ which really excited me,” he continues. “And so I used it to do extra octaves, to double lines, to bring out central lines that were hidden within the chords.”

Jones’ affinity for innovative musical instruments goes back to his use of synthesizers and drum machines. Although a classically trained musician, Jones was part of a wave of artists who could create music in a bedroom without spending years learning how to play an instrument.

The then-radical synthesizer was the foundation his best-known songs. His 1983 album, Human Lib, reached No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 59 in the U.S., and spawned the hit songs “New Song” and “What Is Love.” His 1985 album Dream Into Action sent the song “Things Can Only Get Better” to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. “No One Is to Blame,” featuring Phil Collins on drums, reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1986.

After Piano Composed, Jones says he plans to record another album (titled Global Citizen), play dates in the U.K. and Europe, and add new visual elements to the live shows. “So it’s just more of the same for me, really, but with the idea that it always is moving forward and progressing,” Jones says. “That’s so important to me. Never stand still. Don’t become a museum piece.”

To listen to the entire interview with Jones and hear his thoughts on his Buddhist practices, young musicians’ mental health challenges and his concert setlist, use the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand.