Ione

Ione grew up in a small town near Sioux City, Iowa, called Sergeant Bluff. From a young age, she was an avid classic rock fan. “I used to ride around in my dad's convertible during the summer with the top down, singing along with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac,” she says. From there, Ione dabbled in musical theater, although she switched gears after a sixth-grade talent show, where she sang “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin. “Some older boys who were in seventh and eighth grade played an instrumental set,” she recalls. “And they were like, ‘We need a singer for our band.’ That was the beginning of it all, performing and being in a band.”

Despite their young ages, the group was dedicated and became very serious very quickly, rehearsing weekly and booking weekend gigs. Ione missed out on typical school activities as a result of this packed schedule, but amassed invaluable music experience. “I was out playing street dances, which is when they’d shut down the main street in towns and all of the residents would come and see my band,” she explains. “We played the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally when I was 15, 16 and 17.” All that hard work paid off for the band when they entered a competition to open up for Bon Jovi in Chicago—and won.

Through that victory, Ione met and started working with Obie O'Brien, Jon Bon Jovi’s long-time engineer and collaborator. The pair share an affinity for Motown and classic rock, giving their creative partnership a solid foundation. “Collaboration-wise, he's really good at listening,” Ione says. “My creative input and direction is always at the forefront of every writing session. It’s always, what do I want to write? What do I want to talk about?”

In the process of collaborating, she also had the chance to connect with studio musicians and session players. “Being around that caliber of talent—which has such dedication to their craft—was huge for me,” Ione says. “It was such an important part of me learning how to sing and be in a studio. I picked up a few things from them.”

Ione poured all of this experience into her latest single “Why Anna,” which came about while she was on a camping trip and talking to someone who was decidedly not a fan of the outdoors. “They're not campers, but I am,” she says. “But I love the outdoors and nature.” From that kernel of an idea, however, “Why Anna” evolved into a song about managing romantic expectations.

“It’s a song about navigating dating, and the different interpretations partners can have while you're in that process,” Ione says. “It’s not necessarily wanting to meet somebody and then be like, ‘Oh, I'm going to date you,’ but more like, ‘I'm exploring, and we're having fun.’ The verses are my perspective, and the choruses are the perspective of partners.”

Musically, “Why Anna” bloomed into a warm, timeless rock song with sinewy grooves, horn bursts, and bluesy guitar licks. Ione’s dusky vocals, which boast a light twang and a hint of mystery, round out the sound. Think the Rolling Stones’ disco era crossed with Fleetwood Mac circa Rumours with a dash of ’70s soul thrown in—and it’s a good approximation of the song’s vibe.

For Ione, “Why Anna” is a quintessential representation of her creative approach. “One of my favorite processes is seeing a song come together—watching it take on this life from writing the words on paper to the demo stage to starting to track the different instruments to putting the vocal down,” she explains. “It’s a very continuous, fluid process for me.”

In the last few years, as Ione has refined her sound, this process has sometimes required her to shed some already-recorded songs or switch directions. However, she’s emerged from this self-discovery period stronger than ever. “I was like, ‘You know what, this doesn't feel like me.’ And that was a big thing for me to say,” Ione says. “I think back now and I’m like, ‘Oh, that was very, very brave of me.’ I continue to grow, and I'm really happy with how it worked out.”

Currently, Ione lives outside of Omaha, Nebraska, in a little cabin in the woods on property with a variety of friendly farm animals. “It’s a very nice spot to come home to after traveling,” she says. “It’s secluded. I need my own time alone time to really cope and get my energy back.” When she’s not at home, she’s doing live showcases, working on demos and writing songs, with the goal of releasing new music as the year progresses. Ione can also confidently say that the future has never looked brighter.

“I feel comfortable vocalizing my opinions and feelings about music now,” she says. “Right now I’m very writing-focused, and wanting to continue making songs that I feel proud of, that I hope other people want to hear. It's been a process of finding my voice and finding my sound and knowing what feels good and what feels right to me—but I’m confident that I’m in a good place going forward.”