Jon Hopkins

Jonathan Julian Hopkins (born 15 August 1979) is an English musician and producer who writes and performs electronic music.

He began his career playing keyboards for Imogen Heap, and has produced but also contributed to albums by Brian Eno, Coldplay, David Holmes and others.

Jon Hopkins was born in 1979 in Kingston upon Thames and grew up in nearby Wimbledon.

He first became aware of electronic music after hearing early house music on the radio at the age of seven or eight, and also became a fan of Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys.

These records inspired an early fascination with synths.

At the age of 12 Hopkins began studying piano at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music in London, where he continued until age 17.

The composers that were greatly influential to him whilst studying were Ravel and Stravinsky, and he eventually won a competition to perform a concert of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with an orchestra.

For a time Hopkins considered becoming a professional pianist, only to decide classical performance was too formal and unnerving to pursue full-time.

As a teenager he also listened to acid house, early hardcore, grunge, as well as electronica artists such as Acen, Seefeel, and Plaid.

When Hopkins was 14 he got his first computer, an Amiga 500, and started programming MIDI material.

By the age of 15 he had saved up enough money from winning piano competitions to buy a low-level professional Roland synth, and on this he began creating his first full-length electronic compositions.

After finishing his final exams at age 17, Hopkins accompanied his friend Leo Abrahams to an audition for Imogen Heap's backing band.

Hopkins decided to audition as well, and was hired to handle both keyboard and samples, while Abrahams was hired as guitarist.

He toured with the new band for the entirety of 1998.

In 1999 Hopkins signed with boutique London label Just Music as a solo artist, and began recording his debut album Opalescent.

At the time he was also working part-time as a studio session musician.

Opalescent attracted positive press attention upon its release, and several tracks were licensed to Sex and the City.

The Guardian reviewed it as "a beautifully realized debut. Using synth oozes, phased and echoed guitars and pianos and chilled beats, his wonderful tunes drift from calm to eerie power like a restless sea. It will delight any lovers of beautiful music."

DJ Magazine gave it 4/5 stars, and stated "Piano, guitar strings and slow beats blend like the clouds at sunset (or an opiate smoothy) filtering in and out like elegantly wasted beauty. Darker drums add a further depth."

Hopkins released his second album, Contact Note, on Just Music in 2004 while still working as a studio musician.

The album slowly gained an underground following but failed to take off, and led Hopkins to become disillusioned with his solo career, and take a break from writing to learn how to become a producer.

By 2004, Abrahams had been collaborating for some time with ambient musician and producer Brian Eno.

Abrahams played some of Hopkins' second record for Eno, and Eno invited him to join them for a jam session.

On the first day of their collaboration they came up with some of the music for Eno's upcoming album Another Day on Earth, and Hopkins became a long-term collaborator.

Shortly afterwards Hopkins produced King Creosote's album Bombshell, which initiated his relationship with the Fence Collective.

He also co-wrote tracks with DJ and composer David Holmes for Holmes' Holy Pictures album, and remixed for James Yorkston.

In 2007, Hopkins was invited by Eno, who was producing Coldplay's upcoming album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, to join the band in the studio for a day.

Hopkins ended up staying and contributing to the album for the next year, co-producing several tracks and playing organs, harmoniums, and other keyboard instruments on others.

The intro to the track "Violet Hill" came from an improvisation with Hopkins and Davide Rossi, the album's string arranger.

Throughout this period Hopkins was periodically creating his own solo tracks, and his song "Light Through the Veins" was adapted to serve as the introduction to the album's first track "Life in Technicolor".

"Light Through the Veins" was also picked by the band to serve as the backing for the track "The Escapist", which is hidden at the end of the album.

Viva la Vida was released in 2008, and won Best Rock Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards and became the best-selling album of 2008.

Coldplay asked Hopkins to serve as the pre-show DJ and opening act for their 2008 world tour.

Hopkins toured with the band for six months through England, the United States, and Japan.

His third studio album, Insides, reached no. 15 on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart in 2009.

His collaborations on Small Craft on a Milk Sea with Brian Eno and Leo Abrahams and Diamond Mine with King Creosote both reached no. 82 on the UK Albums Chart.

Hopkins composed the soundtrack for the 2010 film Monsters, which was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Score.

Both of his albums Diamond Mine (2011) and Immunity (2013) were nominated for the Mercury Prize.

His fifth studio album Singularity received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album in December 2018.

Hopkins's sixth studio album, Music for Psychedelic Therapy, was released on 12 November 2021.