Jarvis Church

Jarvis Church is the pseudonym of Gerald Eaton, a Canadian-based artist who already had a couple of impressive musical coups to his credit before he put out his own solo debut, Shake It Off, in 2002. He was one-half of the production team behind Nelly Furtado, the Canadian singer/songwriter whose recordings accumulated extremely healthy sales figures and raked in an impressive tally of honors, including a handful of Grammy Award nominations, among them one for Eaton as Best Producer in 2002, and almost as many Juno Awards. He also performed as lead vocalist with the Philosopher Kings, a Toronto-based outfit that he established with Brian West, who would later team with him in the venture Track & Field Productions, and four other musicians from the Ontario city. Sony Music Canada offered the group a contract in 1993. With the Philosopher Kings, Eaton went on to earn gold status for the group's eponymous debut album, as well as a slot in the Top 10 with the single "Charms." More Top 10 hits and a platinum album followed. When he later started performing on his own, he devised his new stage name by combining the names of two Toronto streets.

As a youth in his native Jamaica, he got an upfront view of the power of music when he was seated in the Kingston audience for Bob Marley's One Love concert in 1977. At the time, Jamaica was a troubled political hotbed of unrest. As the son of one of his country's civil service leaders, Eaton was particularly aware of the political climate as he watched Marley bridge the gap between political parties in front of the stadium-sized audience of 80,000 people. When Eaton was 13 years old, he followed in Marley's footsteps and started playing with a succession of different bands. He had relocated to Canada at the age of eight.