Jon Hopkins was born in 1979 in Kingston upon Thames and grew up in nearby
Wimbledon. He first became aware of
electronic music after hearing early
house music on the radio at the age of seven or eight, and also became a fan of
Depeche Mode and the
Pet Shop Boys. These records inspired an early fascination with
synths. At the age of 12, Hopkins began studying piano at the Junior Department of the
Royal College of Music in London, where he continued until age 17. The composers that were greatly influential to him whilst studying were
Ravel and
Stravinsky, and he eventually won a competition to perform a concert of Ravel's
Piano Concerto in G with an orchestra. For a time Hopkins considered becoming a professional pianist, only to decide classical performance was too formal and unnerving to pursue full-time. As a teenager he also listened to
acid house, early
hardcore,
grunge, as well as
electronic artists such as
Acen,
Seefeel, and
Plaid. When Hopkins was 14, he got his first computer, an
Amiga 500, and started programming
MIDI material. By the age of 15, he had saved up enough money from winning piano competitions to buy a low-level professional
Roland synth, and on this he began creating his first full-length electronic compositions. ==Career==