Jon Sortland

Jon Sortland (Born September 12, 1973) is an American musician currently playing the drums, bass, keyboard and singing harmonies in Broken Bells^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} with producer Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse^[10] (U2, Black Keys, Gnarls Barkley), James Mercer (Shins) and Dan Elkan. Sortland is drumming and singing in his band E V Kain^[11][12][13] with Brian Belier on guitar and vocals and Jonathan Hischke (Dot Hacker, Broken Bells) on bass. Sortland is endorsed by Paiste^[14] and C&C Drums.^[15]

History

In the late 1980s Sortland started The Circus Tents,^[16][17] a northern California skate punk band with Matt Wedgley (The Force, Dirty Filthy Mugs, Viva Hate), Scot Pickering, Jeff Jones and Chad Cox. The band self-released their 12-song cassette tape in 1991, followed by their EP (Hard Up) ^[18] in 1992. Both releases had songs featured in several skateboarding videos (Powell, Toy Machine). In 1996 Sortland formed Cigar with Rami Krayem on guitar and lead vocals, and Jason Torbert on bass. Cigar, produced by Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise, released their debut full-length Album “Speed is Relative" in 1999 on Theologian records.^[19] Throughout the 2000s, Sortland has performed and recorded with several other bands and producers until starting his current band E V Kain. E V Kain released their “Clear” 7” in late 2012 and is currently active. The most recent release from E V Kain is a split 7" record with Mike Watt and The Secondmen.^[20][21]

References