Jonathan (né Hughes; he took his wife Vanessa’s Croatian family name in the mid-2010's to preserve it) has worked in and around music for more than 30 years, starting his career in production, promotion, and marketing roles for PolyGram Records New Zealand (now Universal Music) working on artists as varied as Def Leppard, Run DMC, Elton John, Metallica, and Jerry Harrison (Modern Lovers, Talking Heads); New Zealand gave Jerry his first solo gold record, and Jonathan gave Jerry 20 dollars, but that’s a story for another time.

Jonathan's record company experience also includes time in marketing roles with Warner Music New Zealand (his personal highlights include work for Red Hot Chili Peppers, k.d. lang, Tracy Chapman, & The Cure, and a memorable dinner with Sire Records’ Seymour Stein) and Festival Mushroom & Flying Nun Records, where he worked closely with New Zealand artists including P Money, Scribe, Dimmer, The Phoenix Foundation, and The Mint Chicks, and had a memorable dinner with Tom Jones and Michael Gudinski.

Additionally, he has worked in artist management, working on day-to-day affairs and marketing activity (for the world excluding North America) for Fine Young Cannibals (FYC) as part of the inestimable John Mostyn’s management company, Mostyn Music, based in the UK, followed by representation for FYC’s Roland Gift directly.

In the early part of the 2000's, Jonathan began focusing on his dream job of music supervision, licensing, and music publishing, working with Mana Music and consulting with Native Tongue Music Publishing in New Zealand.

In 2009, he helped co-found and later went on to run the music and sound post-production facility Franklin Rd, based in Auckland’s Freemans Bay. (Jonathan operates out of the offices and studios of Franklin Rd.)

Jonathan has song-searched, negotiated, cleared music and recordings, and produced re-recordings and original compositions for advertising agencies and their clients in New Zealand and around the world, including DDB Aotearoa, DDB Sydney, Colenso BBDO, The Monkeys, Saatchi & Saatchi, Special Group, TBWA (New Zealand and Los Angeles), YoungShand, Clemenger BBDO, and Dentsu.

He has music supervised and contributed licensing work to many New Zealand films and TV series including Boy, Outrageous Fortune, The Breaker Upperers, The Changeover, Stray, Pirates of the Airwaves, Jean, The Gulf Season 2, Juniper, and Florian Habicht’s incredible body of work, including James & Isey, Love Story, and Pulp.