Jerome Fontamillas

Jerome Fontamillas (born June 20, 1967)^[1] is an American musician. Fontamillas has played in several bands, notably with industrial rock^[2] band Mortal and alternative rock band Fold Zandura, with longtime musical partner Jyro Xhan. Since 2003, he has played the keyboards, the guitar, and other instruments, as well as sung backing vocals in Switchfoot, with which he has released eight studio albums.

Jerome Fontamillas
Jerome playing guitar for Switchfoot
Background information
Birth name	Jerome Earl Fontamillas
Also known as	Romey, Music Chef
Born	(1967-06-20) June 20, 1967 (age 55) Pasay, Philippines
Origin	San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Guitar, keyboards, bass
Years active	1989–present
Member of	Switchfoot
Formerly of	Mortal, Fold Zandura

Early life and education

Fontamillas was born on June 20, 1967, in Pasay in the Philippines. When he was three years old, his family moved to the United States, where they lived in Chicago and then California. He started taking piano lessons when he was a child.^[1]

In 1985, Fontamillas graduated from Monterey Bay Academy in Watsonville, California.^{[citation needed]}

Career

In 1988, Fontamillas, Jyro Xhan, Ray Tongpo and Wilson Peralta released a six-song demo tape, titled Wish Fifteen, on Blue Genius Music as Mortal Wish. Four years later, they signed with Intense Records and changed their name to Mortal. Fontamillas would continue to play with Mortal until 1996 and played in Fold Zandura, also with Xhan, between 1995 and 1999.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Fontamillas quit his day job and started touring with Switchfoot shortly before the release of their third album, Learning to Breathe. He became an official member of the band in 2003. His first release with Switchfoot was their 2003 break-through album The Beautiful Letdown.^[1]

In 2002, Jyro and Fontamillas released a Mortal reunion album, Nu-En-Jin.^[1]

Fontamillas is also a producer for the following independent acts:^{[citation needed]}

• The Echoing Green, Echoing Green (1998)
• Starflyer 59, I Predict A Clone (1994)
• March, Velvet Blue Music, (1999)

Personal life

Fontamillas is a Seventh-day Adventist.^[3]

He married his wife Kristi, who is a photographer,^[4] in December 2005. The couple have two sons, Parker Lennon (born in January 2010)^[1] and Jackson (born on October 2, 2013).^[5][6]

On December 20, 2018, Switchfoot announced that Fontamillas had cancer and nine days later they stated that a tumor has been removed and it had not spread or attached to any organs.^{[7][non-primary source needed][8][non-primary source needed]}

Discography

Mortal Lusis (1992) Fathom (1993) Intense Live Series Vol. 5 (1993) Wake (1994) Pura (1995) Mortal (1996) Nu-En-Jin (2002)

Fold Zandura Fold Zandura (1995) Return (1997) The White 7" (1997) Ultraforever (1997) King Planet EP (1999)

Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown (2003) Nothing Is Sound (2005) Oh! Gravity. (2006) Hello Hurricane (2009) Vice Verses (2011) Fading West (2013) "The Edge Of The Earth" (2014) Where the Light Shines Through (2016) Native Tongue (2019) "Covers" (2021) "interrobang" (2021)

References

1. "Jerome Fontamillas". Land of Broken Hearts. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
2. "Nu-En-Jin Overview". Retrieved July 2, 2008.
3. (Press release). cqbiblestudy.org. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
4. "Kristi Fontamillas Photography". Retrieved September 5, 2013.
5. "Twitter / switchfoot: Huge congrats to Jerome - he's ..." Twitter. September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
6. "A New Addition to the SF Family; Fading West Tour Preview; LOBH Interview". Land of Broken Hearts. October 7, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
7. "Switchfoot Announces Jerome has cancer". Switchfoot. December 20, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
8. "Switchfoot Announces Tumor removal". Switchfoot. December 29, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.