Jon Fernsler
Create
Using music, multimedia, and art to tell a story and build a community.
Music
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I love playing and writing music and I find that the people who I play music with become the best friends I've had, including my wife, Lori, who plays flute with me. There is a connection made when playing music that is unlike almost any other activity: you all contribute to the same creation but play different roles, and to make good music you must learn to read each others' thoughts like your own.
I've played with Jimmy Paulding, Rob Wishon and Eric Riddiough in the reggae-rock band Oso Sol for over a decade. We don't have a real website or any published music, but when we have time to play together we always get the crowd dancing! |
Producer
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Our first album, the Pause
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Creating music, recording it, and producing albums is what I spend the most time on lately outside of my academic life. Since the late 1990's I've explored different software, microphones, audio plug-ins and recording techniques for music production. I've settled on using Reason Studios because it contains all the tools I need, it looks and acts like real audio hardware, and it's incredibly stable allowing me to use it in live shows. I enjoy writing and recording parts for my family members, too: my wife Lori on flute, my son Nash on marimba, and my daughter Skye on cello and vocals are featured on several of my songs for Immersion Summer.
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Multimedia
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The Immersion Summer Experience is a multimedia show that features video clips from the audience that are integrated into a show with live music, a light show synced to music, and backing video that tells a story from one of our concept albums... and it's all played on a 50 ft movie theater screen! Amazingly, all this tech is controlled by a single Macbook Pro with Reason triggering audio, effects, video and light shows. Events are ticketed and we typically use this money to buy a surfboard, a paid trip or something similar to be won by a lucky member of the crowd. Our goal is to build communities of people that celebrate their friends and make memories to last a lifetime.
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Art
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I studied watercolor painting in high school and college and I have decorated my house with a several paintings over the years. I find painting to be creative and relaxing and it helps take my mind off of distractions. Since moving to California, I am mostly inspired by our beautiful coastline and mountains. Lately, I've enjoyed creating art for my music taking a sketch I drew and coloring it in Adobe Illustrator.
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