Jonny the Wham is the name under which musicians John Paul Thompson & Jonathan Merla together make music. The duo perform songs in a variety of genres and styles, offering interpretations on blues, soul, R&B, rock, and folk. Thompson provides the harmonic structures, the melodies, and the words. Merla augments the shape, tone, and dynamism. The resulting product is a tenuous alchemy of competing talent-- a combination that challenges the listener while inferring the familiarity of retro.



Unlike todays notable guitar-drum duos for which the drums provide methodical consistency under a highlighted guitar, Merla is wild and Latin and untamed and under no-one. His partner croons and cries, his guitar staggering and stammering against the serpentine rhythms, moving notes between the percussive snap of his drum. Every so often the song is too tender to be affected and is presented bare, straight from the songwriter's notebook. More often, this is not so.



John Paul Thompson and Jonathan Merla also appear as session musicians on most Pandarosa releases. Jonny the Wham has been performing since 2006, and is in the process of preparing their first release.