So I realised quickly that when you interview artists that you are a fan of you come over like some gushing day time TV host - I tried to avoid sounding like a sycophant, but hey what can I say I probably failed.
I discovered John's music when he fronted The Love Scene, a band that initally bore a strong resemblance to 60's pop groups like the Kinks on their first EP, their stonesy second EP and then the more muscular and fully realised final album. From there he next appeared in House & Parish a supergroup of the underground post-hardcore scene (im sure they would cringe at that description) with a line up made of former members of Texas Is The Reason, The Promise Ring, The Gloria Record and with a little help from Ian Love (Rival Schools) thrown in it had the promise of great things and it lived up to it in no uncertain terms. Now John is also doing Atlantic/Pacific and plans are in motion. With snow thick on the ground outside, my breath visible in my freezing flat I sat down for a phone chat with John this past Tuesday to discuss his career and future plans. Thanks to John for doing this interview apologies to him because I was a tad jaded after a long day at work, he was gracious enough to allow me to bumble round the questions.
S: Where are you from, where did you grow up? How did you get into music?
J: Well, I'm originally from New Jersey, I have lived here more or less for the past 20 odd years. I grew up with err...I went to school with Chris Daly (from Texas Is The Reason) we have known each other since we were young kids and he and I and another group of friends from here went through all the phases together, first it was punk then hardcore came about and we...basically grew up going to hardcore shows in and around the New York area and that's how my interest in music got started. I know he (Chris) got out there a lot earlier than I did he played in a bunch of bands: Lifetime, Resurrection, 108 and these were all bands we had spent a lot of time with either in New York or here...just being around that environment kind of pushed me into it.
S: So I'm guessing you followed the usual bands that were around at that time, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today?
J: Yeah that was it. All those bands: Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Bold, Side By Side, Judge, Wide Awake..I don't know if you are familiar with them?
S: Yes...
J: Yeah those were all out favourites growing up, they used to play almost weekly in New York or Connecticut. Every week you could find a show, my first show was Sick Of It All, Krakdown and Maximum Penalty at a place called Wallys Place in Pennsylvania.
S: Did you get into place music at that time? Were you looking to be part of band?
J: At the time I was not. I was just going to shows, listening to the music, collecting the records. But I didn't actually begin to play music until the mid nineties I would say. Well after all that was finished.
S: You obviously play guitar, had you already learnt to play or did that come later as well?
J: That didn't come until almost the same time for me, I hadn't played guitar. The first band I was in I was strictly just the vocalist. I didn't play the guitar at all, the guitar was more or less a distraction from being horrified at just singing so that's how I came to that.
S: So why did you come so late to that? What was the catalyst that kick started you to do a band?
J: Well...just feeling that..err, I don't want to say do something a little better but at the time the music I loved was all based out of DC, Rites of Spring, Grey Matter...that whole area and we up in the North-east didn't have a lot of bands doing music like that. There were a lot of pretty harsh and severe vocalists. There were obviously the exceptions, Absolution, Gorilla Biscuits, but a lot of it was in the direction of yelling and screaming and I felt I wanted to follow something that was a little more melodic and that's what sparked me to do a band. That and the fact there were people trying to talk me into it.
S: What was the first band you did?
J: There first band I did was a band called Trigger, with Chris..Chris Daly on drums and a guy who actually went onto to play in The Love Scene called PJ and my friend Mark played bass in that band as well. And that was it, that's how it started.
S: What sort of style were you doing at that point?
J: It was weird, almost metal. Well the two guys, guitar and bass were ex metalheads. They were the writers so they wrote us into a metal corner and that's where we remained.
S: How long did that last for?
J: Well that lasted for..well, Daly quit to join Texas Is The Reason so err we only did that band very briefly, maybe not even a year I think maybe we played a show or too and that was the end of that.
S: And am I right in thinking you went on to do something with Texas Is The Reason, were you road crew or tour manager?
J: Yeah I did a number of things with them but the US tour with The Promise Ring, I was lugging gear around, selling T-Shirts, doing that whole thing. Anything local I was with them. There were a few nights where Garret (Klahn, TITR), Scotty (Winegard TITR), Jason (Gnewikow, TPR) and I had a side project know as the Cross Fire Hurricanes, I think we played twice.
S: What sort of stuff was that along the lines?
J: (Laughs) Horrible. Absolutely shit stuff
S: That obviously didn't last very long then?
J: Nah, two shows. One song each show.
S: How did The Love Scene end up coming about?
J: Well we carried on after Daly left (Trigger) and we got a new drummer a guy called Matt for a few years, we made demo's, played local shows and I kind of cant remember what we called that band...but it was right before The Love Scene began, our bass player Mark quit and started a company, Pete moved to bass and that's when I started to play guitar. We just started playing as a three piece and our first show was with Jets To Brazil in Philadelphia which was with another band at the time, Ari Katz's (Lifetime) old band...Zero Zero and after that we err...we had so much early momentum just based upon our friends and our ability secure decent shows. From the beginning it was pretty promising but err...it didn't turn out...
S: What were your early musical influences with The Love Scene, stylistically it was very different to what was around at the time?
J: Yeah. There's a hug gap in the history we are discussing right now. The band before The Love Scene carried on for at least 5 or 6 years.
S: Oh ok...
J: A good part of the nineties and that was when we got the wave of Britpop that came through. Well I grew up with...my parents inundated me with The Beatles, so that was always hanging in the back of my mind but in the mid nineties it was all The Stone Roses, Oasis, Charlatans, Blur the whole gamut of British bands at the time...The Smiths. So at the the beginning of The Love Scene when you mixed all that in with what were getting into at the time, I remember it being like...The Zombies, The Rolling Stones, Early Rolling Stones, late sixties British invasion stuff really fuelled the early days of The Love Scene.
S: Yeah that first EP “In A Real Country Dark” when I first got into it I fell in love with it, it took me awhile because it was so different to what I was listening to at the time after being into hardcore that along with The New Rising Sons. I still listen to that EP loads even now. Brilliant.
J: Nice of you to say, thank you.
S: What I really liked about The Love Scene was such a development with the band on each release, there was something quite unique for me about each record you put out.
J: Well thank you. The issue with The Love Scene was err..that first EP was the product of the three of us writing and we were picked up after that EP, well we toured with Jets To Brazil and the end of that tour we met a guy called Mark, he was a great guy he was A & R at Geffen for Nirvana and Beck, he's the guy that started Grand Royale and he left California and he moved to Boston and there he started a new record label called Fenway, he was the guy who signed Blake, when Jawbreaker was still a band.
S: Ok, cool...
J: He came to see Blake play at The Middle East I think in Boston. We got talking to mark and this was a fledgling label it was just starting and he was looking for bands to release. We ended up working for Mark for the second EP. And eventually the album. But in the interim we had picked up a new guitar player, his name was Mike so now we were a four piece and that's when the writing started to evolve, started to change there's a lot of Mikes influence especially on the album, not so much on the first Fenway EP. There was a conscious decision to move away from the direction we had been heading in. Thats probably why it sounds as different as it does.
S: What was the deal with the album then, because it was never physically released, I know you can buy it as a download but only in America?
J: Well the deal we had with Fenway we had a long drawn out contract and they owned the release universally, that included territories outside of America...honestly in the contract outside of Earth (laughs) we didn't have any leverage in releasing the album off the continent. So once they decided to sit on it there was nothing we could really do about it.
S: God.
J: Yeah its unfortunate.
S: Did that cause...did that lead to the break up of the band?
J: Yeah, that was murderous, that situation was the end, that and a string of events that if you have a belief in karma it might point you in that direction. We had left SXSW and we had a bus a little yellow school bus that we used to tour in and it was horrible we bought it off a school for $100 and we built a loft in it and it ran well but the money it took to keep it running was astronomical. We left for SXSW and about an hour into the drive our drummer Matt got a call about his grandfather passing away and we decided to get him back in time for the funeral which was in 3 or four days so we were going to do the run at least to South which was DC, Richmond and Atlanta which we made, Once we got to Atlanta we were going to run around and start driving back as were driving back the drive train fell of the bus and stranded us in the middle of Virginia somewhere, so that took a day/day and half to fix, Matt missed the funeral, we decided there was no point in going home so we are going to press on to Austin Texas, the next day we were in Tennessee, the fuel pump blew in the bus so we are stuck for another day, the day after that we ended up in Memphis as a side note I had a girlfriend who was living there at the time and that didn't go so good. So..on the way out of there a lorry had a tire blow out and that smashed through our front wind shield. So we finally got to Austin, it was an amazing time, saw a bunch of friends...but we had a show in Dallas that night so we had to leave Austin and go play with a band called Retisonic as we were driving to Dallas...we were on time for the show I guess..suddenly the bus started driving really nicely no rattling, no issues then in the next 30 seconds the engine exploded. We went flying off to the side of the road, the fire department came, horrible, Retisonic came to pick us up, after the show we hitched a ride to Austin. That kind of sealed the deal for the band. After we got back it was just too much, people started to lose interest at that point. I was $10000 in debt after that trip.
S: The signs were there huh?
J: Yeah, we tried to carry on after, that was in the middle of recording the album. PJ had decided he didn't want to tour anymore and then Bones(guitarist), after the record was finished said he wanted a solo career which he did, he's doing he's actually over in England right now, he's doing a lot of work in London, its really good interesting stuff. Once he quit that was it, we had already lost PJ. We tried to replace Bones for CMJ but it just didn't work. This was 2005. It was just after the album was finished which was another reason the album never made it, we just didn't have a band. Couldn't tour or promote it. I feel bad. Sorry for the long winded story.
S: Thats ok
J: This was our first experience of this, when labels offer you money and want to put your record out, we were a little wide eyed and thought we deserved it. Our fatal flaw was we started to expect things and we didn't necessarily deserve them.
S: So when that ended what did you do after that, were you done with music, did you go get a job?
J: I have had the same job for the past 12 years, but the luxury is I can work from home, I can travel I have been working through the last three tours I have done so that's great.
S: You're in quite a lucky position then?
J: Yeah, I mean the goal is to not have a job and not worry about working I aspire to do that some day, to not have to work.
S: So that's 2005, how did House & Parish come about?
J: It was something that started in a form while we were doing The Love Scene album. Originally it was called My Sherpa and originally it was Jason (Gnewikow), Scott (Winegard), Chris Daly and this guy called George and myself. And another guy called Carmine, who started playing music, it was interesting but it wasn't my priority, I think there was some bad blood because of that so that split up but I managed to somehow resurrect communication with Jason, I was living in Maryland at the time and I was driving up at weekends to record demo's with him, that happened after The Love Scene split up so we started working on new stuff. Just he and I in his bedroom working on stuff, eventually we pulled Daly into the mix and we recorded the first EP which was three songs with Daly, that was never released though. The Daly quit again and we got (Brian) Malone in.
S: Why did Daly quit?
J: No one knows (laughs). He's his own creature.
S: What attracted you to working with Jason then?
J: Jason, we have known each other since the early nineties, he's been a good friend, we have very similar taste. We wanted to do something that was right online with our interests and that continues today, we are trying to figure out when we can next record. Pretty much all I do all day is trade music with Jason back and forth.
S: So House & Parish is still a going concern then?
J: Yeah, I would have to say yes it is, well at least for Jason and I it is, we will have to see what the others think.
S: When I first heard House & Parish it blew me away, again it was different, its good to hear its still going.
J: Thanks, that's really helpful, thank you so much, we will try to work out in the next few weeks what we are doing, we have piles and piles of music that needs arranging and recording just having it all done and finished. Everyone's working, Jason owns a bar, he bought a house upstate so he's rarely in the area.
S: Is Scott still involved?
J: Yes absolutely, it was his birthday yesterday so we all went out, Garrett and Daly and a couple of other guys.
S: You also now do Atlantic/Pacific and I know I'm in danger of sounding like a total sycophant here but...
J: (Laughs)
S: The inquisition is such a brilliant song, stupidly good. How did this all happen.
J: That song is what got me started on this band. I was talking to Garrett discussing making some music and maybe sitting around with acoustic guitars, I had a bunch of songs that we recorded with Ian Love, we just spent a day in his studio and did...there was a catalogue of songs that didn't fit
with House & Parish. Garret and I sat down one day played for a few hours and decided to call Philip who was out booking agent in Germany and book a tour. See if he would consider booking us as an acoustic duet, we had the idea of bring Sergie (Loobkoff, Samiam, Solea) in. Thats how that happened.
S: It appeared to come together very quickly?
J: It did, has and continues to do so. Garrett and I are trying to finish this album, most of the tracks are written we are just getting the money together to record and we will probably start in a week or so. This situation is on fast forward, never done anything that's picked up speed as quick as this, I don't mean as in fans or interest just...we played a two week tour of Europe and it was fantastic, we did TV, radio interviews...we are involved with a label called Arctic Rodeo over there run by a guy called Frederick and he works non stop for his bands. Its such a privilege to work with him, he's phenomenal.
S: Will he release the album?
J: that's the plan, one of the reasons we are rushing is we need a three month press release time and we go back to Europe in July, we will tour in the fall. Its about having the time too.
S: Well Garrett appears to have 2 or 3 other things going on too?
J: Yeah that's true.
S: You must be busy?
J: yeah but its good.
S: Just to back track for a second, when House & Parish first played out I noticed Ian Love was in the band at that point, what happened there?
J: Ian, we did the record at his studio, he played guitar, keyboards, was singing all over that record and it was just a logical answer to have him fill a whole we had. He did local shows, he has his own solo thing, now he has Rival Schools...but Ian is such an incredible musician and he is superb at playing, having him involved made it a lot easier for us. When we got the European tour with the Weakerthans we didn't have space for anyone else so it was just the 4 of us. I'm sure once, when we settle on dates for the new stuff Ian will be involved. Garrett and I are most likely to record with Ian too.
S: How was that European tour for you?
J: Yeah it was probably one of the best times of my life. The shows every night were amazing and I got to travel around for a month and a half with three of my favourite people playing music every night you know you cant beat, so many great memories and stories.
S: Do you think House & Parish will tour again or is that getting difficult now because of you lives?
J: Well for me any opportunity and I'm out the door, I'll do it. I know Jason would like to do it, they would all like to do it, its just a matter of the availability and getting things lined up so that its a possibility for us. Maybe not this year the goal for me is...we are doing a residency in Berlin Garrett and I for the month of July. It should be fun, just the opportunity to live in Berlin for a month and then we plan in the fall to do a month and a half to two month tour into the winter to support the album we are currently working on. I don't know that that leaves any room for House & Parish to do any touring, however, if and when the rest of the guys decide they do have the time then yeah I'm all for it. Would love to do it.
S: Wow, so Berlin for a month sounds amazing?
J: Yeah the last I heard a specific venue hasn't been set but the intent is there Philip is in agreement, Garret and I are definitely both in agreement. So it should definitely be happening.
S: Does Garrett work, is he able to stop things and just go and do this now?
J: He works, we both work I'm an engineer and he works for a production company in Manhattan, but they are very understanding of his situation.
S: Any plans for AP to come here?
J: one of the plans is for us to play Truck festival in the UK, I played there last year, it was fun.
