Pop Levi (born Jonathan James Mark Levi, 22 September 1977) is an English singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Biography
Levi grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham and attended Shrewsbury School, a public school in Shropshire between 1991 and 1994 where he would skip church to write songs in the basement. In 1997, Levi re-located to Liverpool to study at LIPA and formed the experimental instrumental band Super Numeri with Karl Webb and James Morgan who signed to Ninja Tune in 2002 and released albums "Great Aviaries" in 2003 and "The Welcome Table" in 2005. During this period, Levi also played bass for Ladytron live and on the album Witching Hour.
In 2004, Levi released singles "Rude Kinda Love" and "Reindeer In My Heart" on the independent "Invicta Hi-Fi" label set up by Daniel Hunt of Ladytron. A planned follow-up single in 2005 entitled "Kissed Her Sister" was shelved along with the album "Foxwatch", and Levi formed The Emergencies with organ player Jake Field and Zukanican members, rhythm guitarist Dominic Lewington (AKA Domino), bass player Harry Sumnall and drummer James Pagella. The band played regularly around Liverpool as "Pop Levi & The Emergencies" including slots at the Merseyside Unity Music Festival and Unite Against Racism Festival. Now backed by The Emergencies, Levi released "Blue Honey", his last single on "Invicta Hi-Fi", before signing to Ninja Tune. After signing the new deal, Levi moved to Los Angeles which resulted in The Emergencies disbanding. With Lewington still on board, Levi recruited drummer Marius Simonsen and bass player Luke Muscatelli (AKA Lucky Beaches) and the band moved to the US, living together in the same house in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The new backing band was named "Woman".
In February 2007, Levi released his debut solo album on Counter Records, an imprint specifically created for Levi by Ninja Tune. The Return to Form Black Magick Party was self-produced and recorded over several years, solely on a lap top & D16 recording machine, at Liverpool studio/rehearsal space The Kif (where a previous Super Numeri album was recorded) and whilst on tour with Ladytron in a number of different locations in "England, China, France, Greece, LA, New York" such as "on trains, in planes, in warehouses, on the top of Cathedrals, at the beach, in bathrooms, hotel rooms and tombs. I made sure to capture the first take of everything I recorded and then took the tracks to Sacramento to be mixed". The album was toured extensively across the US, UK, Europe and Australia, and was listed as one of Lauren Laverne's favourite artists to make it big in 2007 on BBC Two's The Culture Show.
In July 2008, Levi released the follow-up album Never Never Love, which was preceded by the single "Dita Dimoné" which made BBC Radio 6's 'Record Of The Week'. Levi set out to make the follow-up, in contrast to the loose feel of the debut, sound artificial and soulless, that it sounded "like Japanese toys falling in and out of love with each other". The album was recorded at Westbeach Recorders and Westlake Recording Studios, in the same room Quincy Jones recorded Michael Jackson's Thriller and Off The Wall albums. Following the recording of the album, Lewington was asked to leave, returning to England to pursue solo projects, while Simonsen returned to Norway and joined pop band Montée, leaving Levi with no band to tour the album. Levi and Muscatelli played sporadic shows across LA as a duo, with Muscatelli shifting from bass guitar to synth bass. Aside from a handful of solo acoustic shows in London, there was also no tour to support the album in the UK either.
2008 also saw the emergence of Levi's World Empire, Inc. film and music production company. In September, the 37th Festival Nouveau Cinema in Montréal held the world premiere of You Don't Gotta Run, a surreal 37-minute docu-featurette directed by auteur Lucky Beaches and starring Levi.
A planned double album of home demos and outtakes entitled "Micro Sex Tapes", which was originally set for release in 2009 was never released. A stand-alone double A-Side single "Police $ign/Terrifying (For Kenneth Anger)" was released in June 2009, with a new lineup featuring drummer Hayden Scott. An early version of Police $ign was featured in the in-game soundtrack of Gran Turismo 5.
In 2009, Levi travelled to Norway where drummer Simonsen was now based to record his third album, tentatively titled "Records", which was intended to be live and raw sounding. The album was recorded in a mountain-top converted barn and re-titled "Smack Musick", however, after being left in a state of limbo for 2 years, with the last scheduled release date being March 2011, it was eventually shelved.