INTERVIEW: Johnny the Boy

Andrew: I am honored to be here chatting with you all. Let’s talk about the name. It used to be World War, and I am assuming Johnny the Boy is a reference to Mad Max…

Belinda: Ding!

Can we discuss the process; who came up with it; any argument; was it an immediate “that’s gotta be it”?

Justin: Correct. The World War thing got old pretty quick. It has progressed and evolved into something more than what it was when we began. We didn’t plan anything, because we always do everything just the way we want to anyway, but I think that headspace was from wanting to do something really nihilistic and cold at first, but we just ended up doing what we want so that’s why the name change. But yeah – Johnny the Boy, of course it is taken from the character in Mad Max, and to be honest, I can’t tell you why I wrote it down. We got to the point to the point where we came up with some cool names and they were always taken.

Belinda: Always taken! Everything is taken!

Justin: They’re always taken by some guy in his bedroom who has just made a Facebook page.

Belinda: That’s how you check out what’s taken, you see if there’s a Facebook page. You’ve gotta keep looking – I was looking in books and poetry and it’s always taken. But this one felt right, he [Justin] came up with Johnny the Boy and I was like “Hell yeah!” And I am Australian, I was born in Australia, so it feels close. And then we have Johnny the Boy the character, who is like *makes cuckoo sounds*.

Justin: And that’s it, it ended up on that list, I didn’t know how the other guys would take it, I was just like “Johnny the Boy?”

Matt: That was it. Literally a text came through “Johnny the Boy” and I was like.. “huh.” Then a day later it was like “Yeah, got it. This makes sense.”

Belinda: We also wanted a name that doesn’t scream what kind of music it is. Like you said, this name that you can hardly read what it is, or a really dark name that’s really “black metal,” we wanted something the opposite – you don’t know what you’re going to get really.

And I think in this extreme metal world you’re gonna have people that either go “what the fuck is this, it doesn’t sound metal at all” and they’ll swipe left.

Justin: They’re the ones losing out.

Matt: A few guys online say they’d have given it a pass but absolutely love it, and the complete opposite as well… it’s great that it’s conflicting.

Justin: And it’s stupid in a not stupid way, it’s like seriously stupid.

Belinda: It rolls off the tongue… Johnny the Boy.

Andrew: Let’s talk influence. Crippled Black Phoenix is obviously dark rock, heavy at times but ethereal and beautiful to listen to. Johnny the Boy on the other hand, calls more Full of Hell sounds right off the bat, but then changes and slows down. I am so curious – what do you all listen to?

Belinda: A lot of the time I listen to silence. I’m not influenced by music in music, I’m influenced by film and the human mind. I’m not influenced by anyone vocally… it’s never been an influence in music itself. Next!

Matt: Listening to a band called Tides of Nebula at the moment, they’re really good. They’re Polish, instrumental. They’re just fucking awesome, their last album’s absolutely fucking great. And I like a lot of ambient stuff, you can just kind of get on with your day without giving it too much attention. And then podcasts, like with Belinda, to have other people talking to you in your head, in your ear pods, that’s what puts me at ease I guess rather than kinda listening to music. It’s hard to say “oh I am in a sexy mood” so you try to find something specfic – I’d just put a podcast on.

Justin: I’m influenced by Conan the Barbarian. Like Belinda said, I am a lot more cinematic, I take my influences more from outside of music. We just care less about that sort of thing these days, we just do what we need to do. It’s more influenced by life and what we see.

Belinda: We always have, Crippled has done the same thing.

Andrew: There is clearly overlap between Crippled Black Phoenix and Johnny the Boy, some subtle and some not so much (“No Regrets”). How do you decide when to write for what group?

Justin: I can’t help it, there’s always gonna be crossover when we make the demos. “No Regrets” is actually a Johnny the Boy song, and at the time we were World War, and that’s actually why we made the album. There’s obviously gonna be a crossover that can’t be helped, but we still treat them as two different entities.

Andrew: Right – so as you sit down to write a song, do you need to consider which group the song will be for, or do you just let it flow and see where it fits?

Justin: Hmmm… probably don’t think about it that much.

Matt: When we were in tracking, there was something we started working on and ended up not being on this, and will likely be a CBP thing, it’s not a Johnny the Boy thing. That was more influenced by a political thing. The thing with Crippled Black Phoenix as a fan, there’s always been tickles of heavy but there’s never been a real riff, you know like a proper grinder that makes you go “fuck yes,” there’s always just been a little bit that’s brilliant then it’s done. I think this [Johnny the Boy] is more of a continuation of that, which is great – it tickles that itch.

Belinda: I felt that the extra song that didn’t end up on Johnny the Boy was more of a Crippled song at the end of the day.

Justin: That’s the difficult thing, we did this song and tracked it, and the first half of the song is the heaviest thing that either band, that Johnny the Boy could’ve done. It’s really heavy. But it’s really doom as well – like classical doom. Then the end gets kind of euphoric, so it’s like a CBP song but it’s super heavy so it’s like a Johnny the Boy song… now it’s just floating about.

Belinda: You’ll rework it at some point!

Justin: When Matt says it tickles an itch… we could go back and show our age, especially me and Belinda, we were in really heavy bands going back a long way so its always been there… in order to understand CBP, you have to understand that I go back even to hardcore punk influences and that’s still in CBP… if you understand that you understand Johnny the Boy.

Andrew: In your lyrics and themes, there’s a lot of resentment with the music industry, the state of the world, Brexit, etc… can you speak to the challenges of being a recording band in today’s climate? What should listeners know?

Matt: There’s always fucking something.

Justin: As far as the music industry goes, it’s been down the shitter for a while, but maybe worse than ever now. I think the Internet is to blame for some of that, obviously streaming platforms, Brexit has put an end to it in the UK… so many forces. Corporation style booking agents… they’ve fucked us royally. But let’s forget the outside world for a moment… for the music: we know it’s tough, but we’ve taken a real kicking. It seems like the big boys – the record companies, the agents… they’re the ones sticking the boot in as well. Now we’ve got travel restrictions, we can’t be outside of the country for more than 90 days…

Andrew: Really?

Justin: Yeah – we’ve no longer got freedom of movement, it’s as simple as that. We can’t get around getting double taxed, we need travel visas, it goes on and on. And now you’ve got this new style of promotion, basically it puts all the pressure on the band, so they’re booking a show and see your costs have more than doubled, but they won’t double the payout.

Belinda: Not all booking agents… just some of them.

Justin: Yes, not all. We know some great promoters, but a lot of time we don’t have a personal relationship with promoters… they just expect the band to bring in the crowd, so they’ll do presale, but the fans don’t buy presale so much because they don’t know the gig is going to happen!

Matt: Like the pay-to-play stuff that kicked off on a grassroot level 10-15 years ago, that’s become industrial scale and taken over the industry. From my point of view, I work in venues, and we’re finding it really fucking difficult as well as a host of shows to make money. There’s the argument for sales tax on merch – some venues take 25% of the profit! The bands are suffering, the venues are suffering, but someone is making money somewhere.

Justin: Everything costs more for the fan, so they’re getting ripped off – it’s like who is making this money? Say the venue takes 25% for merch. At some point, and what we argue, the bands have to say, especially the big bands like Gojira, they’re the ones that bring thousands of fans, they’re the bands that have to say no. We’re not going to do that, we’ll sell our merch in a van outside or something… but they don’t. They still do it, charge $200+ for autographed things like drumsticks and keep the industry rolling along.

Belinda: The most embarrassing thing ever – I’d rather jump off a bridge than do this – are these meet and greets. How embarrassing to charge $100’s for meet and greets!

Matt: Well I think that came as a response to bands losing money on tours, they were like well “if we can make money doing this and people will pay it,” I guess, ok? I don’t think it’s ok but…

Belinda: But they’ve been doing it for years, Madonna and all, everyone’s been doing it! I just think it’s horrible, we’re not talking fifty quid, it’s hundreds! It’s embarrassing.

Justin: But even if you felt compelled to do it because you’re losing money, you’re not charging these…

Belinda: Oh, God! To meet the fan. The fan has to pay to kiss your hand – fuck no!

Justin: It’s exploitative, anyway, exploiting people who have already paid a lot of money to support you.

Matt: Bands like Gojira should be leading the path, making this change for others, they’re so influential – so they need to put their fucking money where their mouth is, and step up and set the precedent.

Andrew: It’s challenging as a fan to navigate this, right? If I say “I want to see Gojira” this year – buying that ticket and everything with it is my only option.

Matt: We were going to Holland and discussing the Gojira stuff – they aren’t bad guys! They advocate a lot and sing about veganism, I quite like Gojira, but they’re off the mark. If it was like, 20% of the profits go to this cause or such, that would be a start.

Belinda: Agree – I’d be cool with it for profits to animal rights, etc.

Matt: And it’s not everyone. I went to see Devin Townsend in April – a t-shirt was fifteen quid, and a hoodie was thirty which is what you’d expect. Now the designs were shit, so I didn’t get one… but the prices were about what you’d expect. And he’s no better or worse a person than the guys in Gojira – that’s not an industry problem that’s a band problem.

Andrew: So as a band, growing in size and trying to stay true to who you are as great people and honor your fans – how do you navigate the feeling of “I gotta eat too?” You have a lot of people to pay.

Belinda: The big problem is there’s eight of us in the band live, so you can imagine how fucking hard it is for us to go out on the road. That’s the biggest problem… isn’t it Justin? You can’t do DIY anymore.

Justin: Before internet, a bag of loose change for the telephone box and handwritten directions to the venue, back of vans with no seats. It’s difficult really, it’s definitely doing it the hard way if you want to stay true to yourself and keep some integrity. If you don’t want to be treated like a bitch, and most bands are treated like bitches, and you become desensitized to it so bands just think that’s the way it is… that’s what keeps it all going, just beats up bands and treats them badly. If you’re one of the few that say hold on… no actually we’re not going to lose money on this venture, people come to see us because of the music we make and we’re not losing money because of that. Like Belinda says, a live band is eight people, we have to accept it is difficult for us. We’re not a huge band by any means, some years we do well and others not so well… it’s just doing it the hard way man, just get in the trench and be prepared to stay there. I wish it wasn’t like that.

Justin: Hey, you say you’re from Denver – sometimes I wish I lived in Denver because I’m really into Slim Cessna – and you’ve got some really nice places to go biking as well.

Andrew: Yes, Denver is such a great place. Really great venues and good metal scene, and can’t beat the outdoors. Justin – you’re headed to Italy for a gravity bike race?

Justin: I am, after these gigs, yeah. Doing the World Championship. My last hurrah – I am getting too old.

Matt: You’re going to have to defend your world title next year!

Andrew: Johnny the Boy, you haven’t toured yet, would you consider coming to the United States?

Belinda: Of course!

Matt: Absolutely! Fucking hell, it’d be awesome.

Justin: Hell yeah!

Belinda: We’d only be five people on stage, so it’d be a lot easier. Yeah we definitely want to play.

Justin: Make it happen! Get the word out. We’re a new band, nobody knows us, we don’t expect anything because of our other bands – we need to get the word out there and play some shows.

Belinda: And find a booking agent!

Andrew: Are you familiar with Psycho Las Vegas? I think Johnny the Boy would be a perfect fit for that festival – shoot for 2024, I think you’d really kill it there.

Justin: They had CBP booked a few years back, but it fell through. Never got visas (not our fault). A lot of festivals want this exclusivity thing, so you can pretty much only play that festival in that year, nowhere else. But anyway, we’d be there in a flash.

Matt: A friend of mine was well into the album, and he said “Johnny the Boy” would go well with Voyager, on Season of Mist as well.

Belinda: Fuck no, Voyager??

Matt: I’d love to play anywhere, we’ve got to try to generate some buzz – playing with a label mate might be easier.

Andrew: If you were to play a show with You, one record and eight songs, would you play all eight or mix something else in?

Justin: We’d play six songs – less songs.

Belinda: We’d maybe throw in that song we’re gonna cover, Justin, where we maybe was a member once upon a time…

Andrew: Iron Monkey?

Belinda: Ooo-ooo-ooo!

Justin: Yeah we’d maybe throw in an old Monkey song for the nostalgia, out of respect, because I’ve said I didn’t want to reform the band and leave it with respect – but that got ruined anyway, so we might as well do it. When Belinda did her vocals, some of her vocals took me back to when I was playing in Iron Monkey, she has that really natural raw spite, that raw venom that I think is really rare. She just shreds on people, and there aren’t many people I come across that have that genuinely and naturally. So I think from doing a Monkey song, nobody should ever sing that, but for Belinda it would be ok to do.

Andrew: Belinda, would it be difficult to sing a Johnny the Boy set for an entire tour?

Belinda: This type of singing – this is my natural singing. But I’ve never toured, so I don’t know, but my voice doesn’t get affected by singing that way. I think with a really good sound engineer we could make it work, because the heavy music might otherwise overpower it. Physically? No problem.

Justin: We’d just have to sort out a drummer. Matt would play second guitar when playing live, since Matt played bass on the record, and we’ve got a friend who has already thrown his hat in the ring for drums. Someone from Norway, I won’t say anymore…

Andrew: Justin, would you ever play drums in a live performance with Johnny the Boy?

Belinda: I wouldn’t want him to play drums – but maybe the drums on the Iron Monkey cover? He’s left handed is the issue.

Justin: I don’t know – maybe – I’m not saying never, but I’ve not played drums live for a long time. Yeah I’m guitar now. But I still record drums, so that’s nice, but yeah.

Belinda: On Crippled albums too, what a good drummer you are.

Justin: Not like I used to be. I played with a Norwegian band once, Borknagar, and did a tour with them – I wasn’t the best but I could do everything – the blast beats, double kicks, etc. and now with some Johnny the Boy songs I’m thinking “fucking hell” and trying to keep up, I was surprised I couldn’t do Motorhead speed anymore, but anyway.

Andrew: Justin, Matt, Belinda – thank you so much for taking the time with me and chatting, I truly enjoyed our discussion and look forward to keeping in touch and watching for that American tour!

Belinda: Thank you, and we’re really happy you wanted to talk to us!

Justin: And we’re going to make that tour work!

Matt: Cheers guys!