Many artists wrote their first song at age five, and Cara Jones is no exception. Her parents tell her she composed it one night lying in the back seat of the family car (an ancient, white Plymouth eyesore) on the way home from some outing. And it went: "The stars are beginning, ginning, ginning...". Her second song came in her mid-teens, and the emphasis was on using complete English words.

In preparation for college (University of Pennsylvania for two years, then a transfer to Harvard University for the final two), she took up guitar thinking that her beloved piano would probably not fit in the dorm room. There she wrote the material that eventually became her first recording -- a cassette album which was independently distributed in Boston.

On the education front, Cara majored in Japanese Language and Literature at Harvard. After completing bachelors and masters degrees -- the latter as an excuse to stay in Boston without getting a real job -- and more than ever wanting to work with music, she spent the next few years trying her hand at various music industry jobs including managing a band, working in publicity at Rounder Records, booking concerts, and DJ-ing at the University's small but popular commercial radio station, WHRB (pic). It was there that she started to develop her voice -- using the tools she picked up on the radio mic as well as during her brief but impactful few months studying with vocal coach Mark Baxter -- to create her clear, angelic vocal style.

One day at WHRB, a pair of radio producers from Japan happened to come by as part of their tour of college radio stations on the East Coast. Fluent in Japanese, Cara was summoned by her Program Director to greet the visitors from a foreign land... and the rest is history.

The radio producers took an immediate liking to Cara, and convinced her to try her hand (or her voice, rather) at radio in Tokyo. Months later, she won the coveted 8pm slot on Tokyo's #1 FM station, J-Wave, and spent the next two years introducing incipient hit songs from around the world to a listenership in the millions on a show called "Tokio Cold Cuts". As a popular English-language presence in Tokyo's music world, it wasn't long before she was asked to write lyrics for Japanese artists who wanted to expand their repertoire into English.

Several hits later she finally got what she had always wanted -- a chance to record her own album.

Different Skies was released on May 12th, 1994 (Cara's mom's birthday) on an independent label, and almost overnight sold 15,000 copies. The small record company's policy was to move on to the next project rather than print more copies, so Different Skies disappeared from the stores within a few short months of its release although it remains to this day an often-requested title in record stores around the country. (Scoop: Fall Girl Records purchased the master rights to Different Skies and has made it available online.)

By this time "Tokio Cold Cuts" had ended and Cara was instead featured on a weekly radio show called "The Essential Love Collection" -- one hour of love songs and romantic sound bites to tickle Tokyo's tantric tendons, a show which she co-created and programmed. She also was spending more time writing and recording music. Over the next few years, she worked with such major Japanese artists as The Yellow Monkey, Zabadak, Yusa Mimori, and Puffy, and sales of her songs soon broke the million copy point when she co-wrote and performed a featured song on the hit Playstation game, Arc the Lad II.

Her voice-over work, stemming from her job as an English-language DJ, had quickly expanded as well, growing to include such resume-boosters as the GPS navigation system (sound sample) used in the Jaguar and Mercedes Benz (buy a Jag anywhere in the world and you can have Cara tell you where to go!); commercials for Shick, Toyota; video narration for Sony, Agnes B., Coca Cola, and Canon; and announcing the winners at the awards ceremonies of the Winter Olympics at Nagano (you probably heard her if you watched any of the TV coverage). If you're into video games and are really good, you might be able to hear her on the best-selling Playstation games Tekken 3, Einhander, or the hit Sega game Shenmue.

Meanwhile, the success of Different Skies had piqued the interest of the major labels in Japan and after much consideration, Cara decided to sign with Teichiku Records, a smaller and solely domestic major label but one she hoped would support her vision for her second album. They also supported a trip to Ireland. After one month recording basic tracks at Onkio Haus in Tokyo, Cara and her co-producer travelled to Dublin to finish recording and mix the album at Westland Studios. Enlisting the help of her old friend, producer and guitarist Jimmy Smyth (Toni Childs, Donna Lewis), as well as the Mary Black band, they finished off what was to become Pandora's Box and even had a few days at the end to explore the incredible Irish countryside.

Pandora's Box was released in September of 1996 to glowing reviews, and Fall Girl Records is proud to have licensed the album for future release in the US. Eventually, Cara got the 7 year itch and so she packed up and moved her residence back to the United States, maintaining the pre-recorded "Essential Love Collection" for another year by travelling frequently back and forth to Tokyo.

Cara Jones recorded her third album "NOW" at her hometown Philadelphia's MAJA Studios, working with producer/multi-instrumentalist Michael Aharon and engineer/percussionist John Anthony. Available on this site and on CD Baby, as well as in select and discriminating record stores, this album has a decidedly pop bent, featuring the musicianship of Michael Aharon (guitars, keyboards, cello, mandolin...), Chico Huff (bass), and Steve Holloway (drums).

Songs from "NOW" have charted #1 on MP3.com, been featured in several independent films, and Cara made her American television debut when the lead track from the album ("Spit It Out") played in the opening scene of an episode of the hit TV show Dawson's Creek. Since, her music has been heard in feature films, on Pandora Radio, and in Best Buy stores in-store displays.

Read what people have said about the album...

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