M T Jones may sound like a shop on the High Street; maybe even a turf accountant’s [“bookies”] but it is in fact a truly exciting UK soul artist – whom we tip for big success and whom you really should bet on!
His 13-date UK and European tour kicks off tomorrow [Saturday 4th October 2025] and runs into November – and the latest single, the oh so fabulous “Why I Cry”, has just been playlisted on both BBC Radio 2 and Jazz FM. If you want to hear blue-eyed soul a la Marvin Gaye, this is your man.
Under the radar on the mainstream, but as a songwriter and THAT voice, multi-instrumentalist Mr Jones really is a rare find. Word is starting to spread overseas too, and he pops across the pond in December for a few US shows after this UK and Europe trek.
The only blue-eyed male UK soul-man we can think of, to compare to M T to in terms of a blissful voice and well-crafted songs is the wonderful James Hunter. And like JH, this guy M T Jones really, really has it nailed. “A warm blend of 60s soul, modern R&B and jazz inflections, rooted in the emotional complexity of grief and memory…”
“Why I Cry” is the perfect introduction to M T’s music – which pairs his signature vocal warmth with lush live instrumentation and raw lyrical honesty, and with it he announces his much-awaited debut full-length release, scheduled for early 2026.
An artist has to find their voice and it would take a crisis, of sorts, for M T Jones to find his. An accomplished sideman and songwriter by his early 20s, it would take a lean spell in London then lockdown, to get him back to Liverpool and the house he grew up in. There he would write and record the songs now making his name, but the voice he found had been showing its potential from an early age.
“I just wanted to do music, straightaway,” M T recalls. He and his school friends, “all super-keen musicians,” were eminent buskers before they were even in their teens. Playing covers on the streets of Chester from the age of 11, they honed the art of parting winners from their winnings outside the local races, “Play Wonderwall, or something like that… everyone starts loving it, singing along in the street. And they’re like, ‘they’re kids.’
“So they’ll give you twenty quid. We did better there than we did at gigs later on! Thought we were millionaires, going to the all you can eat Chinese buffet in our breaks. We stopped asking for pocket money, bought instruments. I loved it.”
A young soul fan, a trip to see Stevie Wonder at age of 13 galvanised M T’s interest in piano and jazz, and he seized upon the storied Mersey/Motown connection making the Detroit label’s house band, The Funk Brothers, the subject of a school project.
This fascination with players and the craft of song writing stretched from The Beatles across the Atlantic to the most prolific and popular writers and composers of the 1960s; Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Holland/Dozier/Holland and the industrial-creative culture of the Brill Building.
Back in northwest England, M T, playing guitar and singing, “by default,” and his crew’s busking prowess didn’t go unnoticed, and they were soon performing at parties, restaurants and making (mostly) chaperoned appearances in pubs.
Spotted by a local producer, the teenagers were placed in a studio and encouraged to write their own songs. “I was dead passionate, very serious about it” he recalls, “and convinced we would get signed. I was super naïve, it was life or death, and it didn’t happen, so I thought, ‘that’s it then, that’s the end of my career.’ I was about fifteen.”
That apparent ending was the beginning of M T’s song writing. The gigs continued, and by the time he entered the prestigious LIPA [Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts ]as a piano player three years later, he was already an experienced live musician. “I loved performing, but I much preferred the song writing side. So when I went into university, I kind of went in with that in mind, I wanted to be a songwriter.”
LIPA found M T in the same cohort as fellow soul and r&b man Jalen Ngonada, and the pair formed a friendship and creative partnership that continues to this day.
Playing bass for and writing with Jalen as well as singing backing vocals, M T became part of Jalen’s touring band, gigging across Europe and even supporting Lauren Hill in Montreal, “pretty sick when you’re 21,” as well as playing keyboards, bass and singing harmonies for fellow Liverpool artist Louis Berry.
Between touring and working with other musicians, M T developed his own skills and ideas, “I was always doing my own music, writing, and getting into production as well. Learning how to record. Always making my own demos and stuff.” Paying the rent however, meant playing cover versions.
“You do the cover stuff that pays more so you can do less of it, basically. So you can facilitate writing and doing the other stuff which you don’t make any money from. You know, it’s like you do originals gigs but they don’t pay.” “But,” he adds, “I’d never knock playing covers, ‘cause it’s a great space for learning what works as well. It definitely influences your writing.”
After a few years writing and playing out of a house in Liverpool, M T and Jalen “took the plunge” and moved to London, “to prove our thing as songwriters.” While striving to write in London M T found himself going back up north to play in order to make ends meet, “I was having to get the train back over the weekend, do like five gigs, then get the train back on Monday try and do a full week in London writing and working.”
In London, “I struggled to get into the scene,” he reflects. “I did a lot more writing on my own as well, still not 100% sure what I was doing about my own stuff because, I was very much like – I want to get into this solo writing thing where I’m writing a variety of songs for different people, you know?”
“I loved the work ethic,” he recalls “but when there was work it wasn’t in the vein of music where I felt creatively fulfilled, really.” In the end the cost of leaving London at weekends to work to pay to be there no longer made sense. “I was skint. Then lockdown hit.”
Ten years on from feeling it was all over aged 15, M T worried he was washed up again. “I felt like I’d lost it. I’m not in London anymore. I’ve gone back home. I’m like, not even living in my own flat. Moved back with my parents and I’m fucked, you know, basically.
“That was the first time I’d ever had time in between gigs, the first time I’d ever fully put the brakes on. And it was like a real liberating, weird feeling. I got dead into cycling in the mornings, 30, 40 miles. I got into a routine. I set up all my music equipment and thought, ‘I’m really going to have a go’.
“Back when I was playing sessions people would ask me what I was doing with my own songs? And I would say I didn’t know. I was sort of leaving them or letting them rot. Even back at Uni, other people were releasing stuff but I had release anxiety because I’m like, very scared it either being ‘not me’ or being judged for it.”
Somehow, between the constraints of lockdown, the seemingly exhausted possibilities of the capital and the familiarity of home, that anxiety transformed. “I thought, ‘right I’m gonna fuck off all the writing with other people completely and I’m gonna work. I cycled in the mornings, listened to music, then wrote and recorded in the afternoons.
“And for the first time I started to feel confident about showing it to people. And I felt very strongly about doing it as M T Jones. Mike Thomas Jones, the full name. I thought, ‘this is me, there’s no bullshit with it.
“With lockdown ended and his parents on holiday, M T covered the walls of the house in fabric and converted it into a studio where with a producer and a drummer, they recorded his stuff. “We got the songs sounding like songs, something that I was comfortable putting out.”
He added: “I sent the demo out and people were like, ‘this is kind of raw.’ So I decided I was doing it regardless. I was going to release a tune every month until something happened.” It didn’t take long. “When I uploaded the first track it got ‘BBC Introducing’ and’ One Extra.’ By the second release three weeks later people were listening to it on Spotify, and then people starting getting in touch with me.”
Bloody good reason for that. One listen to this spine-tingling voice and these special songs on this page and you will know what the reason is. Go see him live and that will surely confirm it! Mike Thomas Jones aka M T Jones has no valid reason to cry – only tears of joy for what his future holds, if there is justice.
- Note FAO Daptone Records in the US: M T Jones could well be your next big thing and is a shoo-in fit for you guys.So get your butts on the plane and throw $$$ at him to sign to your label – for a dead-cert bet. Or go see him in December on your own soil and take your cheque book!
M T Jones: “Track Record”…
1. First song you recall hearing as a child?
“Angels” by Robbie Williams.
2. First single you owned?
“Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand.
3. First LP/album you owned?
“A Hard Day’s Night” by The Beatles.
4. First CD you owned?
One of the “Now” albums: “Now 53” classic hits compilation.
5. Last music you bought and in what format (CD/vinyl/digital download)?
“People Get Ready” by The Impressions in vinyl – [1965 album featuring Curtis Mayfield].
6. Which album would you be happy to receive as a gift?
“Just Moments” by Bill Withers.
7. Favourite album? (Choose more than one if need be…)
Too many to pick, but some of them are: “Abbey Road” by The Beatles, “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye, “Innervisions” by Stevie Wonder, “Just As I Am” by Bill Withers, “Curtis” by Curtis Mayfield.
8. Best record ever made (can be single/album/EP – and choose more than one if need be)?
“For Once In My Life” by Stevie Wonder.
9. Guilty secret (or anything unusual or perhaps unexpected) in your music collection?
I would say people wouldn’t expect me to be listening to much punk, but I love a band called The Chats and their track “Smoko”. [The Chats were a trio of teenagers from Queensland, Australia and in August 2017 they released this track taken from their EP “Get This In Ya!!”. The song’s low budget video was picked up by Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl to receive millions of views. Josh Homme also loved the band and gave them the support slot to Homme’s band Queens Of The Stone Age when they toured Australia. Smoko: Aussie term for cigarette break at work.]
10. What does music mean to you and how does it make you feel?
It literally means everything. Music turns a grey sky to blue.
11. Which song or album is a guaranteed mood booster?
“Low Rider” by War.
12. Which song or album would be the soundtrack to a film about your life?
I would like it to be something like “Pusherman” by Curtis Mayfield. But I reckon it would be some mad sounding tuba following me around!
13. Your favourite driving track – or music to exercise to?
As a driving track: “Horse With No Name” by America.
14. Best song or album for a romantic moment?
Any Bill Evans Trio tracks.
15. Which song was played for the “First Dance” at your wedding (if you are married) or which song would you choose if you did get married?
I am not married, so I am not quite sure yet. But it would have to be something that meant a lot to both of us.
16. Your choice of song to sing at karaoke?
“Tequila” [1958 song by US surf band The Champs.]
17. Which song takes you back to your childhood – and to which specific memory/memories?
18. Favourite band (or bands)?
The Beatles.
19. Favourite singer (or singers)?
There are so many, including Bill Withers, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Marvin Gaye and Etta James to name just a few.
20. Which song would you like played at your funeral?
“For Once In My Life” by Stevie Wonder.
Jalen Ngonda photo by Manja Williams
