| J. R. Richards | |
| Birth Name: | John Robert Richards[1] |
| Alias: | JR |
| Birth Date: | 30 April 1967 |
| Birth Place: | Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
| Instrument: | Vocals, piano, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, clarinet and programming |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Occupation: | Singer, songwriter, producer, musician, engineer |
| Genre: | Alternative rock |
| Associated Acts: | Dishwalla |
John Robert Richards, later Reid-Richards (born April 30, 1967)[1] is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and television and film composer. Prior to his 2005 departure, Richards was the original lead singer and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Dishwalla.
Richards began his career as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Dishwalla. The band released their debut album Pet Your Friends in 1995. The album scored Dishwalla a #1 hit in 1996 with the Richards-penned "Counting Blue Cars", which won Richards a Billboard Music Award for Top Mainstream Rock Track of the Year.
Dishwalla produced four other albums with Richards as lead singer and main songwriter, including And You Think You Know What Life's About (1998), Opaline (2002), a live album called Live... Greetings from the Flow State (2003), and Dishwalla (2005). Following the completion of Dishwalla, bassist Scot Alexander and drummer Pete Maloney left the band. The band broke up shortly after their departures. In 2008, Dishwalla reformed without Richards.
Richards’ debut solo album A Beautiful End was released in 2009 and debuted in the Top 50 on iTunes. In 2016, Richards released his second solo album, Honore et Amore, as well as an all-acoustic album of songs he wrote while in Dishwalla, Stripped. Richards has released two albums since, the holiday EP "Angelgold " in 2018 and an album of covers called "Under The Cover" in 2019.
In January 2011, Richards co-created the 20k Watts project. 20k Watts is an eco-alliance which aims to bring sustainable clean energy to developing communities in need. In 2013, the city of Los Angeles awarded Richards a proclamation for dedication to enhancing the lives of families in extreme poverty for his work in El Salvador with 20k Watts.
Richards has been producing since the 1990s and, along with Dishwalla, has gone on to produce other artists including Dom AD, Amy Grant, boudwin, Paddock, Awi Rafael and the British band BritRoyal. He also produced his solo albums as well as songs for various television shows, including One Tree Hill (TV series) in 2009, How I Met Your Mother in 2012, and Criminal Minds in 2013. In 2013, he wrote, produced and performed songs (including the theme song "White Light"), for the TV series SAF3. In 2017, Richards wrote and recorded twenty songs for the newly re-booted version of "Baywatch".
Richards has appeared as an actor in the films, Charmed, Almost Anything,[2] 2:13[3] and Morning[4] (which he also scored).
Richards graduated from Santa Barbara High School, where his father was principal.[5] He is married to British director and sculptor Min Reid-Richards. The couple have four children.