‘Spotlight Project’ presents Oakridge band Stoner and introduces new talent coordinator Holly Olson

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Two Oakridge musicians who’ve been jamming together for 15 years will perform as the band Stoner this Sunday evening, Aug. 8, in the latest production of the community’s unique “Spotlight Project Presents.”

Formed by the duo just a year ago, Stoner features Jonathan Chiarella on guitars and vocals with Michael Shawn handling drums and sound.

Chiarella is a widely respected artist who found his way to Westfir in 2004 and put down roots in the community along with Shawn, who was an entertainment industry sound technician in Los Angeles before discovering life in the Upper Willamette.

Produced by Loren Christopher Michaels of Oakridge, the show is set to begin at 7 p.m. Sunday, live-streamed on Facebook from the newly refurbished stage in the Willamette Activity Center (WAC) auditorium. Michaels this week introduced a new talent coordinator for the Spotlight Project — Oakridge actor and entertainer Holly Olson, a member of the Zero Clearance Theater Company. She has started a Facebook page called Oakridge Talent Scout, aiming to draw in local artists.

Also taking the stage will be host Becky Chamberlain, doing an interview with Oakridge City Council President Chrissy Hollett.

Sunday’s production will feature another “Community Corner” segment with interviewer Catrina Davis, as well as another episode of  “Mountain Kids Minute.” It’s a short feature hosted by Averi Rhule and her mother Chelsi Rhule, highlighting talented children in the community.

In the face of a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases and a return to restrictions, “Spotlight Project Presents” is still not ready to open up the WAC auditorium to live audiences. Like the first shows in the series, this one will be live-streamed on Facebook. Anyone can view the program at no charge online by going to https://www.facebook.com/Spotlightingtalent and clicking on The Spotlight Project Presents.

Here are brief biographies of the two members of Stoner, as provided by Loren Christopher Michaels:

Jonathan Chiarella

Jonathan is a multi-talented artist. His life began in the southwestern states where he was surrounded by Native American culture and arts. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts where he focused on bronze casting sculpture, painting and printmaking.

He apprenticed with Tom Corbin of Corbin Bronze. In 2000 he moved to Kauai, Hawaii and lived mostly in the woods for nearly two years. He refers to Kauai as his spiritual birthplace.

He moved back to the mainland in 2002 to live in Eugene, where his beautiful daughter Ahja Bella was born in 2003. This same year he entered an art competition known as the Mayor’s Art Show where he placed second out of 474 Lane County artists.

By 2004 he had moved to Westfir where he played open mics with his friends for three years at the TrailHead Cafe.

In 2008 he met Michael Shawn, a drummer, and bassist Forest Schröeder and started a band called Crumb. The music was raw and loud — the band played together for nearly 12 years.

Jonathan realized that singing and playing music were his passion. In 2019 Shawn and Chiarella created their current band Stoner, as they say “out of a need to become more accessible” to the local establishments in Oakridge.

“Our music is made for our area,” says Jonathan.

Through his musical journey he always made time to paint and to nurture his creative passions. Stoner has been well received by the local music scene and the band looks forward to all future gigs.

Michael Shawn

Michael started playing drums — that is, pounding on everything — at age 5.

At age 8 his first band played a pizza parlor. The playlist for that night was “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Sunshine of my Love.”

Michael was the only long-haired Zeppelin fan in band class in 8th grade and all the way through to 12th grade. He did it just to learn to read music.

Michael moved to Los Angeles after being accepted as an intern at Premonition Studios in Van Nuys — a 25,000-square-foot rehearsal hall with two stages and a 25,000-watt amplification system where he interned for two years, learning to be a sound engineer from Tom Wright.

Then in 1984 Tommy told him go to the Troubadour–  he had a job for him to do. Michael worked as a sound engineer at the Troubadour for eight years, then life intervened.

Eighteen years later he met Jonathan.

Neil Peart and Keith Moon are the biggest influencers in Michael’s music. He owns a Simmons five-piece with some modifications; it’s not the average look for an electric kit. Michael went to the electric kit because of its diversity.

People ask: Does he know how to play an acoustic kit? Well, he is 57 and they didn’t have electric kits back when he was a kid.

Stoner is only a year old, but Jonathan and Michael have been creating music for the past 15 years together.