Jonah Mutono

After a long run of releasing music under the Kidepo moniker, songwriter Jonah Mutono began using his legal name as the banner for his textural R&B-tinged songwriting. GERG, his first album under his given name, arrived in May of 2020. Mutono began playing music at a young age, moving from piano lessons in his childhood to writing spiritually inspired music as a young adult. He spent much of his life moving from place to place; He was born in London, but he and his family spent some time living in the States before returning to Uganda. Mutono studied in the U.K. for almost ten years before finding himself back in Uganda, where he began releasing music as Kidepo in 2016. He worked on solo music as well as writing songs for other artists for a few years, eventually ending up back in Los Angeles. When he transitioned from making music under the Kidepo pseudonym to using his given name, Mutono's songs became more transparently centered around themes of his sexuality and the struggles he'd experienced hiding his true identity. After releasing several singles in a buildup toward a full-length album, GERG was released in the spring of 2020. ~ Fred Thomas