One U student marches to the beat of his own drum-or whichever instrument he has chosen to play that day.
Jonny Glines, a junior in communication, is an alternative musician and a publicist-in-training because, unlike the gimmicky bands he hates, he does not seem to conform to the norm.
Glines, with his messy black hair and blue eyes, is as mellow as the music he listens to. He is laid back like The Cure-not too concerned with his posture or agenda, but with a definite rhythm, talking in a poignant beat. He speaks slowly and softly with a rich undertone, much like The Killers, another of his favorite bands.
“Indie for right now,” Glines said, carefully browsing the albums stored in his head, taking more than two minutes to come up with an answer. “Yeah, it’s definitely my favorite genre right now.”
Like indie music, Glines seems to be put together at the last minute, wearing sandblasted jeans with little dark stains-probably ink spilled when he was penning out lyrics-which are mostly written about “girls, world hunger and politics,” he said.
He is also wearing a worn-out white T-shirt and a Ramones keychain-a souvenir from a recent concert, but he can’t remember which one, he said, because he estimates he has been to more than 100. He is a regular at Kilby Court, a local concert venue that turns unknown bands into local favorites overnight.
And it’s not surprising that he has dreamed of turning famous overnight since he was a child. His mother played the piano; his sister, the drums. He tried to start a family band once, he said, but his attempt was unsuccessful. His dad is an accountant who at one point worked in England and moved the entire family to British soil for five years.
“I can’t do the accent anymore,” Glines said. “It sounds Australian now.”
But change is natural for Glines, who served a two-year mission in Brazil for the LDS Church. He also participated in a study-abroad program with Utah State University in which he traveled to Costa Rica and learned both Spanish and Portuguese and also picked up a love for “foreign cultures,” he said
Now, after receiving an associate’s degree at USU, he’s enrolled at the U.
A big part of the move, he said, was because the USU radio station he worked for began airing “Billboard Top 40” music instead of playing what student DJs wanted.
So he complained, quit and moved to Salt Lake City.
Learning to adapt quickly has become a habit for the Utah native. When he was in high school, he dropped the trumpet he had been playing since fifth grade to teach himself to play the guitar.
Now, he is dropping instruments all together in order to focus on a publicist career.
“I’ve currently stopped making music to enjoy it from a spectator’s point of view,” Glines said.
So instead of hogging the spotlight, he will try to land managing deals with local bands.
Seth Peterson, Glines’ friend for more than 13 years and a former roommate at USU, said Glines is likely to reach his goal due to his determination.
“He’s very ambitious and pretty much does whatever he sets his mind to do,” Peterson, a USU junior in integrated studies, said. “If he sees an opportunity, he gambles and takes a risk. Nothing really holds him back.”
Glines’ dream is to represent the rock band U2. When he makes it big, he said, he would like to have his own record label, which he spontaneously named Randomness.
Randomness’ debut album: Something to Put More Thought Into, he said.
Jonny Glines, a recent transfer from Weber State, studies in the Marriott Library on Tuesday. Glines, a junior in communication, is interested in public relations and hopes to become a publicist.