A.
Jonathan
Anderson

A. Jonathan Anderson is a singer, songwriter, lyricist and writer whose work starts on the page: lyrics are written as text before they become songs. He writes, sings and directs his records and, credited as President Anderson, produces, mixes and masters them.

He wrote lyrics and songs for a decade before deciding, in 2026, to release the bulk of his work, after his coach Peter Defreitas convinced him he was ready. His album Every Rhythm (2026), eleven songs, was released on Impact Narrative Records. Since 2024 he has released 26 singles as President Anderson, including If I Stand Still My Demons Catch Up and Toujours Dans Mon Coeur. As an author he is writing 101 Ways to Die in a Hostel, a 103-book series of darkly comic thrillers set in hostels around the world (rolling out 2026–2027), and Le poids du silence.

Music runs in his extended family, which includes the singers Lennie Gallant and Patsy Gallant. His history in front of the camera began early: he worked as a model and extra in Montreal in 1984 and appeared as a teenager in the National Film Board of Canada documentary series Listen to Us… (1991). In the 1990s he briefly worked as a lip-sync technician in audio dubbing and post-synchronisation at Softimage, the Montreal animation software company later part of Avid. He also worked as an ADR director at Cinélume in Montreal. He trained in voice with Gabrielle Guay at Studio de musique Claude-Debussy on Montreal's South Shore and with the Colombian-Canadian tenor Rodrigo Ocampo, whose stages include the Opéra de Québec, and who became his inspiration, mentor and singing professor. He studied business administration at Audrey Cohen College (now Metropolitan College of New York) from 1999 to 2003, and tango at Paul Pellicoro's DanceSport in New York. His coach, Peter Defreitas, also designs his clothes and costumes. Beyond that, he is self-taught: the business, the production and the software he learned by doing. In 2023 he survived an attempted murder: he cut three tendons in his hand taking the knife from his attacker. Playing the piano and string instruments became much harder, so he turned to his voice. He turned the suffering into art: during his recovery he dictated the stories that became 101 Ways to Die in a Hostel. Away from the studio, he is the founder and owner of several ventures: the life-transformation platform Phoenix, the hospitality talent marketplace Bunkmate, PVT Hostel, a grassroots hostel in Montreal, and the Montreal mobile-mechanic service Mécaniciens Mobile. The film No Safe Country is in pre-production, with a target release in 2027.