Johnny Jewel

Johnny Jewel, born John David Padgett (31 May 1974), is an American musician, producer, composer and visual artist. A multi-instrumentalist known for his use of entirely analogue equipment, he has been recording and releasing music since the mid-1990s.

Born in Houston, he began recording mainly in Portland, Oregon, in 1996, after forming the group Glass Candy with singer Ida No. Initially marked by a no wave influence, the group evolved into an electronic duo incorporating elements of italo disco. In 2006, Jewel founded Italians Do It Better, an independent label based in Portland that brings together artists and groups producing similar disco, electronic and synthetic music. Among them are Glass Candy, Chromatics and Desire, with whom Jewel has written, recorded and played.

Thanks to his involvement, Chromatics enjoyed considerable commercial success with the album Night Drive (2007), and their music was subsequently used in Nicolas Winding Refn's film Drive (2011). Jewel also composed the score for Refn's Bronson (2008), as well as Lost River (2015), the first film directed by Ryan Gosling. Between 2014 and 2018, he also released three solo albums, composed largely of instrumental material.