Jon Mess is a Sacramento co-vocalist and screamer best known as a founding-era member of the Sacramento post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance, where he shares vocal duties as the band's screaming/rapping voice opposite a clean singer.[1][2] Submerge consistently frames Dance Gavin Dance as a hometown Sacramento act, making Mess a local artist.[1][2] Mess was born November 14, 1985, in Columbus, Ohio, and is based in Sacramento as a member of Dance Gavin Dance.[3]
At a glance
- Co-vocalist (screams/raps) of Dance Gavin Dance, described as the group's "hometown of Sacramento" band.[1]
- Dance Gavin Dance formed in Sacramento in 2005.[2]
- Appeared on the band's debut EP Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean (Rise Records, November 14, 2006), performing unclean vocals and creating the artwork.[4]
- Departed the band after its early run, then rejoined in May 2010 alongside returning bassist Eric Lodge.[5][6]
- Writes fragmentary, non-concept lyrics; describes his screamed delivery as essentially rapping.[5]
- Still active with the band as of 2015's Instant Gratification lineup.[2]
- Teaches art classes at Sacramento State University and is an active painter.[7]
Role and vocal style
Mess is one of two vocalists in Dance Gavin Dance, occupying the screaming role rather than the clean-singing role.[1] He describes his delivery as deliberately hip-hop influenced — he writes his parts to rhyme like a rap and considers it "a screamed voice rapping," favoring that approach over long, sustained heavy screams.[5] Other Sacramento musicians used his screaming as a reference point: when A Lot Like Birds released Conversation Piece (2011), critics compared that band's co-vocalist Cory Lockwood's screams to Mess, a comparison A Lot Like Birds' Kurt Travis pushed back on.[8]
Lyrically, Mess works in fragments — "snippets, fragments of ideas or dreams," ranging across broad topics — rather than cohesive per-song concepts, a method he says has been his style since the beginning of the band.[5] On Dance Gavin Dance records he and co-vocalist Jonny Craig generally wrote their lyrics separately, with only a small portion meant to interlock.[5]
Outside music, Mess is an active visual artist. He teaches art classes at Sacramento State University and has produced hundreds of paintings, describing himself as someone who has always "made a lot of stuff" since childhood.[7]
Timeline within Dance Gavin Dance
- 2006: Dance Gavin Dance released the debut EP Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean on November 14, 2006, via Rise Records. Mess performed unclean vocals on the release and also created its artwork.[4]
- 2008: Mess is co-vocalist alongside original singer Jonny Craig, who departs on bad terms; the band recruits Kurt Travis and re-enters the studio (recording began Apr. 20, 2008) for an album then slated for an Aug. 19, 2008 release.[1] In this period Mess and the band briefly weighed continuing with Mess as sole vocalist but rejected it, in part because he could not sing the band's existing catalog.[1]
- By 2009: Mess is described as "also no longer in the group," indicating he had left the band after the 2008 period.[9]
- May 2010: Mess rejoins Dance Gavin Dance in May 2010, alongside returning bassist Eric Lodge; his return is also paired with the return of vocalist Jonny Craig, reuniting five original members (Will Swan, Matt Mingus, Eric Lodge, Jon Mess, Jonny Craig).[5][6] Submerge had described this as "summer 2010," but the Wikipedia band-members article specifies May as the month of return.[6]
- Late 2010: The reunited lineup records Downtown Battle Mountain II (released March 8, 2011, via Rise Records). Mess recorded vocals for roughly a month; he found the sessions more relaxed than the original Downtown Battle Mountain, which had been cut in about two weeks.[5]
- 2015: Mess remains a vocalist in the band, now with Tilian Pearson (clean vocals), Will Swan (guitar/vocals), Tim Feerick (bass) and Matt Mingus (drums) for the sixth album, Instant Gratification (Rise Records, April 14, 2015).[2]
Why he is local
Submerge repeatedly treats Dance Gavin Dance as a Sacramento band: the group is described as having a following "both here in their hometown of Sacramento and beyond," the band met with Submerge at a Sacramento coffee shop on Alhambra Blvd., and Dance Gavin Dance is later said to have formed "in Sacramento in 2005."[1][2] As a member of that hometown band, Mess is a local artist. He was born in Columbus, Ohio,[3] and is based in Sacramento.
Scene relationships
- Dance Gavin Dance — his primary band; he is a recurring co-vocalist across its lineups.[1][5][2]
- Jonny Craig — the band's other vocalist; in 2008 Mess publicly cited interpersonal conflict as the reason for Craig's exit, but the two later reconnected and rejoined the band together in May 2010.[1][9][5][6]
- Kurt Travis — vocalist who replaced Craig in 2008 and was later displaced when Craig and Mess returned; Mess described Travis as a friend and publicly apologized for comments made in an Alternative Press interview about why Travis was let go.[1][5]
- Will Swan / Matt Mingus / Eric Lodge / Tim Feerick / Tilian Pearson — bandmates across the documented lineups.[1][5][2]
- A Lot Like Birds — fellow Sacramento post-hardcore band (featuring Kurt Travis) frequently compared to Dance Gavin Dance; Mess's screaming was cited as the reference point for their co-vocalist.[8]