Jonas Tomalty

Tomalty was born in Montreal. While at high school, he started a rock band called Rubberman. In 1999, Rubberman won first prize at CHOM-FM's annual "CHOM L'Esprit" contest[1] as well as the MusiquePlus "DémoClip" contest. The band signed to Donald K Donald's Aquarius Records (Canada) label and released the Rubberman LP. That same year Tomalty formed a blues side project, Jonas & The Blues Blooded, featuring his father, Rick Tomalty, on harmonica.[2]

In 2004, Tomalty released a cover of "Edge of Seventeen" (originally performed by Stevie Nicks) appearing on the gold selling EP titled Jonas. It was soon followed by the original singles "Show Me", "Daddy" and "Like a River". A North American tour opening for Van Halen followed for Jonas and his band.[3] The success of the Jonas EP earned two nominations at the Juno Awards of 2006 in the "New Artist of the Year" and "Rock Album of the Year" categories.[4]

Following this came the DVD of a live recording of his show at Montreal's Métropolis music hall on June 2, 2005. Titled Jonas Live ...As We Roll!, The DVD went platinum. His second album, Suite Life, was released in October 2006 and featured "SuperSexMe" as its first single, with "Bows and Arrows" as the second single. 2006 was the year that Jonas and his band were invited to play in Afghanistan for the armed forces.

In 2007, Tomalty released Promised Land, his third album. The album was never distributed outside of Canada due to conflict between the band and their record label, eventually resulting in the end of a four-year relationship. However, a cross-Canadian tour with Collective Soul followed the appearance of Promised Land, and the band subsequently put out a live DVD of their Montreal Bell Centre performance called Live at the Bell Centre. Touring in Quebec and Canada would continue for the next few years while managing a transition between label and management.

The 2013 album release Live Out Loud[5] (co-written and produced by Marti Frederiksen) brought the act back onto the Quebec francophone charts with "Respire", the french version of "Breathing", which hit the #2 spot. The second francophone adaptation "Je Crie Ton Nom" (co-written by Simon Wilcox, Nelson Minville and Mark Holman) became Jonas' first SOCAN #1 single. Jonas subsequently teamed up with producer Fred St-Gelais for the first time and recorded his first duo with Quebec pop icon Marie-Mai. Their collaboration, "Jamais Trop Tard", would also reach #1 on the charts, setting up the creative trio for another success with "Christmas Calling", written by Tomalty. This recording boasted the voices of a newer generation of the PSBGM chorale, the same choir that began Jonas' musical journey as a youth.

In 2014, they released Album X as Jonas & The Massive Attraction. It had seven new songs like "Lifeline" (co-written by Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace) and 3 re-recordings of past successes such as "Bows & Arrows", "Daddy" and "Burn the House Down". The band toured this album for the next few years and cut a live version of the show for the release of Live & Electric in 2017.

• 2004: Jonas
• 2006: Suite Life
• 2007: Promised Land (compilation album of Jonas and Suite Life)

• 2010: Big Slice
• 2011: Big Slice Unplugged EP (EP)
• 2011: Big Slice: Deluxe Edition (re-release of Big Slice which includes the EP)
• 2012: Unplugged
• 2013: Live Out Loud
• 2014: X (Tenth anniversary album including 7 new songs and 3 remixes)
• 2017: Live & Electric (Live Album)