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Have you toured Europe a lot in the past few years?
"Yeah. [To band:] How many times have we been over here? About seven or eight times?"
Kim Sherwood-Caso [vocals]: "Four."
Is there a big difference in your audiences over here in Europe as opposed to back in the States?
"Well, there's more of them here. That's the main thing: quantity."
Do they also react differently? Is the music appreciated more?
"I think that people that come to see us appreciate us. The more people come, the merrier. We
have real good crowds in some places like Chicago and San Francisco."
Is that possibly because they're towns with more of a scene geared to your type of music?
"I don't know what it is. I think we've got some radio airplay in a few towns and big cities,
and that really makes a lot of difference. Then we just have a little bit of a name. We have a good
crowd in Chicago, a good crowd in San Francisco, and a good crowd in Austin."
I guess with the airplay they know more where you're coming from musically?
"Right. It's really hard to get to those places, because they're all so far apart to hit them
very often. As soon as we get back we're touring down to Texas, down south, New Orleans..."
Is 'Temporary Shelter' out over there?
"It'll be out February 14th."
A Valentine's present from Johnny.
"Oh, I wonder if that's a coincidence."
Nah, it's part of the image.
"[laughs] Right! Great marketing strategy!"
How did you hook up with the guys in your band?
"Oh, different ways... Brian [Wilson], the drummer, used to work for me in my trucking company.
He's been drumming for years, and then he worked for me for a while, and a few years ago we started
playing together. I was in another band for years with Kim about ten years or so."
Neon Baptist?
"Yeah, Neon Baptist. And Justin [Asher, guitar/keyboards] We got his name out of the paper.
Our other keyboard player quit, so we're used to giving auditions and stuff. He lives in New York, so
that worked out really good. Amazingly, considering we didn't know him from Adam."
'Wrong Side of Memphis', your first album, had murder, sin, and religion as its underlying themes,
whereas 'Pictures from Life's Other Side' explored the darker side of love. 'Temporary Shelter' could
be construed as your "memory album". How did you go about writing the songs, and what fragments were
important to you when putting the album together?
"It was more about just having a whole bunch of songs and picking the ones that fit together
musically and with the theme, rather than having the idea ahead of time. It was more like doing it,
then looking at it, and then saying: "Well, this is what we did." That kind of thing. A lot of the
songs on this are different because we kind of worked them out. Brian and I particularly worked them
out ahead of time while we were touring. It was a lot more of a band album than anything I've ever
done. I've always either done it myself or presented it as a complete thing. This was a lot more of a
band project. In my mind which is not what you would hear the theme was getting this particular
band at this particular time. We kind of did that on the second album, but the band was a lot less
organized. It was half just stuff I did on my own and half stuff we did with the band."
The sound on 'Temporary Shelter' is a lot different as well. It's a lot less country and a
departure from the previous album. Brian basically played the bass parts on Moog pedals? Was there a
certain feel you wanted to create on the album?
"It's a rock'n'roll band, so we wanted to make more of a rock'n'roll album. It's not lo-fi,
because I went to a nice studio. It's not like I have any kind of moral thing about lo-fi. I have
another album that I did just after I did this album called 'Down in the Valley' [only sold on tour]
that I would call lo-fi, because it was just on cheap equipment. That's what I had, and that's what I
used. I don't really have a plan. I've got a limited amount of time probably to do this kind of
stuff, so I've got to switch each time and try something different. I'm not really looking for
consistency."
So, the next album might be something completely different.
"One day I'm thinking I want to do something with just acoustic guitar, the next I want to do a
horn section. It's just a case of what's happening at the time that I've got to do it."
In almost every piece written about you there are references to the weirdness, both in your music
and in your persona. Doesn't that start getting on your nerves?
"It did at first, because people want a little bit to be what they see your image is in the
music or something. I could tell in some interviews that people were disappointed that I didn't reach
across and throttle them. I'm too old really to have an image. If I was 19... When I was 19 I had an
image, but when I'm 50 I just am this thing [laughs]. It would look ridiculous when you try to be
anything else, so I'm whatever it is I am."
So you're not going to pop out the pyrotechnic laser show for us tonight?
"[slyly:] Well I'm not saying thaaat..."
Kim Sherwood-Caso: "I wish there was one!"
Justin Asher: "It'll be the closest thing we've come to, let's put it that way. We actually have
lights that can change."
"I might set the drummer on fire or something..."
OK, we'll hang around for that one... What other stuff do you listen to privately?
"I listen to mostly what these guys bring on the road. They've all got a million CDs. I don't
listen to very much stuff that I'd say is sort of like what I do. I guess I'm kind of a
singer-songwriter. Mostly, if I'm choosing, it'll be something instrumental, because I'm so involved
in my own words. If there are lyrics either I'm thinking "Aw shit, I wish I would've said that", or
I'm thinking "That's so stupid. How can you say that?" I can't just enjoy it, so I listen to more
stuff that I couldn't possibly do. Instrumental jazz stuff, drum'n'bass? We listen to quite a bit of
rap, stuff I couldn't really approach. Anything that's close to what I do, I get too mentally
competitive with it."
Well, lyrically you're not a million miles from some of the subject matter in rap. Of course I'm
not talking about the gold-chain, big-assed ho school of lyrics...
Brian Wilson: "[drily:] Hey, there's nothing wrong with a big-assed ho, let me just say that."
Oh no, all respect and props to Sir Mix-a-Lot.
"[laughs] Well, I identify lyrically with that a lot more. I've been compared to Tom Waits a
lot, which I don't really see. I hear more like conceptually/lyrically more rap stuff. I think that's
partly because I don't really sing melodies that often."
That's just lazy journalism though, when people compare you all too readily with other musicians.
"Yeah, with stuff they like. They're saying "Hey I like Tom Waits, so I like you." I mean that's
cool, but... Tom Waits to me is a whole concept. He is an image, he's an actor. I don't really have
that kind of thing together, and I wouldn't even want to. It's just alien to me to be that organized."
Are you able to write on the road at all?
"Yeah, I wrote a nice little poem for Holland. Unfortunately I threw it into the audience.
[laughter] I usually try to write one or two, because you get kind of bored with the songs. At least
I'll rewrite the lyrics to a song, to keep everybody interested."
Are you able to keep enough variation in the live performance to not get bored?
"Yeah, it's a lot different than the recorded stuff. I don't really try to recreate. To me when
recording you can use a string section, and you do it live with an acoustic guitar. I'm of the Bob
Dylan school Just do the same song completely different each time if you can. I don't think we're
doing it that radical, but I would."
You're not going to do the "Neverending Tour"?
"Not playing the same songs the same way. I don't want to do that. I'd like to do them even more
different than we do."
OK Johnny, take care out there, and watch the stagediving!
"Just don't spit on me."
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/johnny-dowd/johnny-dowd/480/
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