• Favorite Drink:

    Moose Drool Brown Ale

  • Favorite Food:

    Pasta in olive oil and garlic

  • Favorite Song:

    Cadillac Hotel by Little Feat

  • What are you listening to now:

    Antoine Fafard and Dhafer Youssef

  • Favorite downtime activity:

    Hockey

Follow Jon:

Jon Poli

Drums and Percussion

Jon is every musician’s dream drummer. A master timekeeper, a solid pocket you can feel right down to your toes and he actually doesn’t sleep on a friend’s couch at night. That alone makes him a highly prized commodity in LA’s demanding community of serious musicians. Even more admired though is his impeccable feel and taste for putting a groove right where it needs to be and adding that flair to make a moment stand out and shine, even if that moment calls for him to just lay out and let a measure or two breathe. Jon has played and recorded with a long list of groups both nationally and internationally and it is that well-honed artistry that helps make Raise Your Glass (RYG) a group that stands out from the rest.

From as far back as he can remember, Jon know that in music, it was the beat that spoke to him. At age 15, after spending his formative years air-drumming and banging on coffee cans, Jon finally convinced his mother to loan him the money to purchase a real drum set. From then on, he was completely hooked. He studied music at LA Harbor College as well as the Berklee College of Music. Jon jumped at every opportunity to play he got whether it was playing “garages” with all kinds of rock groups, laying down funk and reggae beats at local watering holes or playing blues, country or jazz for any recording session he could land. Jon’s dedication to his craft has made him the first-call drummer to a long list of bands and artists who having once played with this formidable groove master, never settle for anything less than what Jon brings to the table.

As the man who sits on the throne for RYG, Jon has a very high bar to meet in emulating the powerhouse feel that P!nk’s drummer Mark Schulman has set. Schulman who has laid the beat for artists such as Cher, Velvet Revolver, Eikichi Yazawa, Foreigner, Stevie Nicks and Simple Minds as well his gig as P!nk’s stickman on every major tour has made him an icon for many aspiring drummers. So does Jon feel any pressure in filling those shoes? “Pressure? Not in the least,” says Jon, “Mark has laid a really solid road map for these incredible songs. All I got to do is just drive the bus from the downbeat to the last crash cymbal and with my fellow players in RYG, it’s a party bus all the way.”