After Jon and I finished this interview, he said “good luck making sense of that.” I thought about it for a long time and realized that maybe it doesn’t need to make sense. Some things don’t. Not everything can be put into a chronological order, stacked in a pile and spit shined. The story of Jon Loudon, Jena Berlin and Restorations is one of those; a great story with no real beginning or end. A whole lot of middle, if you will. Try to get confused.

Jon Loudon was the singer of Philadelphia’s Jena Berlin for many years before transitioning to his “easy, laid-back old dude band,” Restorations alongside other members of Jena Berlin and other Philly area bands. He grew up in Pennsylvania and now makes his home in Center City, Philadelphia, a place where he is deeply involved in the music community. A graduate of Tyler School of Art at Temple University, he is a designer, fine artist and musician making a living doing pretty much that. He also has four walls, a bed and an apartment with working heat, a major leap in quality of life compred to the Jon Loudon five years ago who was living on the floor in a back room in a warehouse owned by Jumpstart Records or the Jon Loudon two years ago who shoved towels under his front door in the winter to keep the cold air out. All in the name of art!

More after the jump…

“I remember my Dad playing old Styx and Billy Joel LPs when I was young. I think I’ve been trying to re-experience that initial joy ever since,” he says. “Jena Berlin was really my first band. [It] sounded like something I’d be into, so I gave it a shot. Eight years later, I’m still on the same path from that band. It’s been a strange and awesome trip. I owe those guys quite a bit. I am still in awe of how many places I was able to go to with that band.”

Jon joined Jena Berlin in 2003 as an art student with some time on his hands. Things picked up almost immediately and Jon nearly dropped out of college because of it. It was somewhere around the time that Jena Berlin started touring the country that Jon realized he had no idea what he was getting into. “I guess I was hoping to just keep doing it,” he says. Locked up in a van with his friends, he was achieving the things he never intended to, and it felt pretty great. Jena Berlin was a powerhouse and Jon Loudon was the ammunition. He never showed restraint; every performance was an eruption of anger which cultivated in a bath of sweat. Jena Berlin was a very intense band. What happened to Jena Berlin wasn’t so much a break-up, but a transformation. All cars run out of gas at some point. When that happens there are two choices: sit and wait for help or get out and fucking walk. It was a Tim Barry song that said “there’s sense in slowing down…”

“We really, truly fucked up constantly, but I think we learned a ton from it. We lost so much money and probably played to 50 people total, but man, that was a great time. I think I liked the end of the band almost as much. I think we’d pushed the band so hard at that point that it was all there was in my life. Half of us had nowhere to live, no money, etc. Simultaneously the best and worst years of my life, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. When it was done I really felt free. We sort of set Restorations up to be a casual thing, but now this is becoming more involved than JB ever was.”

Restorations is not a continuation of Jena Berlin, but rather its own beast. They sound like what might happen if The Constantines were impregnated by Fugazi and spawned a skinny Torche lovechild with glasses.  Jon, Dave Klyman and Carlin Brown are the current survivors, as many friends have come and gone throughout the adventure thus far. Dave played in Jena Berlin and Carlin was a member of Jumpstart label mates, Giving Chase. Restorations has built a solid foundation, playing with Frank Turner, Less Than Jake, Rogue Wave and a whole slew of other bands they probably didn’t fit in with but made it work in a way only Restorations ever could. The plan is to put out a record in Australia, keep writing and playing show primarily as a weekend band. Jon is at a point in his life where he is comfortable being home at night, working on his art and giving back to the opportunities that Philadelphia has given him. Sometimes it’s about the surroundings; that radius of what’s around you and what has given to you. The world will turn whether you’re rocking to a thousand people in West Hollywood or a hundred people who have been listening to your shit for a decade. It’s about what feels better.

“The whole thing. I can’t believe I landed here. I feel like I’m working in my community, not at a stupid job,” he says. I think now more than ever I feel at home and like I contribute to the greater independent scene here. For the longest time, all we were focused on was making a dent in other places. It has been humbling to be entrenched here with generations of punks and artists and to focus on the bigger picture in our home.”

Sounds pretty damn punk rock.