Ionne

The creative visionary known as Ionne (ee-oh-nay') has been making music since he was a child. Born in Riverside, California into an Air Force family, he grew up “a little bit of everywhere,” he says. Several years in Germany were especially formative in his early electronic music explorations.

​It was the beginning of a deep dive into the possibilities of electronic instruments, he says. With synthesizers, Ionne could ​“manipulate waveforms until they sound the way I want them to sound, feel the way I want them to feel.” This can be heard in his music today—a refined brand of electronica that encompasses synth pop, dance music, hints of hip hop, and just a bit of jazz.​

Since the 1990s, Ionne has written music for popular TV and has worked with EMI Records, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, V2 Records, and Hollywood Records on projects for Grace Jones, Pocket Size, Blessid Union of Souls, and LaKiesha Berri, among others. Ionne is a creator at Midnight Oil Collective and co-founder at 5015 Records with his brother, Grammy-nominated guitarist Rod Harris, Jr.

A moniker inspired by its etymological links to the atomic ion as well as the holy isle of Iona, aptly describes the artist's work, which is at the same time futuristic, spiritualized, polarized, and polarizing. In Ionne's hands, electronica is elevated to the level of serious music that espouses important messages, catches the ears and the feet, and finds its way into the heart and mind.