A DALES farmer has exchanged fish scales for musical scales with the launch of his first album.

Fish farmer and pianist Jonathan Jowett, who lives in Upper Wharfedale and records his own music under the name Jonny Absolute, is hoping for his big break in the music industry with his album - Naked.

Born on a Dales sheep farm, Mr Jowett, 42, studied zoology at university before setting up three trout farms at Grassington, Cracoe and Pickering.

However, after finding his talent as a pianist at a young age, he always had a burning ambition to further his musical career.

With the help of a couple of friends, Mr Jowett decided to take the plunge into the music business and set up his own company - Phoenix Creative Media Ltd.

He has already invested about £250,000 into the new venture and has converted one of his barns into a purpose-built recording studio housing his piano, a sound-proof booth and some of the latest technology.

As well as Mr Jowett's album comprising "unforgettable love songs, right through to contemporary dance tracks", the company has signed up with three record labels.

It has a huge catalogue of material, and also has a diverse range of work in the pipeline with input from some of the best artists in the business.

The music production and writing side of the company is headed up by established composer and producer Nigel Mullaney, who is also supported by fellow Dales guitarist and songwriter Chris Foster.

As well as the albums, the company also concentrates on producing soundtrack CDs for advertising campaigns and has already recorded the soundtrack for a film on Maiden Television entitled White Sails Crowding following the Tall Ships race.

Talking from his studio, Mr Jowett, said: "It's a pretty daring album as many people do unplugged albums only when they are famous.

"People don't hear real music anymore, especially when we've now got technology like this around."

Mr Jowett, who currently shares his time between his trout farms and his music, told the Herald how difficult it was breaking into the music business being located in the Dales and not in London.

He added though that he planned to do some touring in the near future.

Mr Jowett will be playing a gig at Grassington's Bubbles Restaurant on Friday June 1.

His CD Naked is available from Mix Music in Skipton or can be ordered through the web-site: www.pcm-online.co.uk