An INTERVIEW with OLLY MITCHELL of
JOHNNY TRUANT Part Two |
| How does the music writing process
work within ‘Johnny Truant’?
Stuart is the main songwriter in the band without a shadow of doubt. Everyone helps write the songs obviously, but Stuart is the songwriter, he lays the base down and we all add around it. Only because we get along so well, and I know what he is going to write is going to be good. I actually live with Stuart, so it’s easy for me to fit in and play around with stuff before anyone else does. We all just kind of get together in practice and Stuart will convey it across and we sort of see what comes out of it. A lot of the time, Stuart will write a whole song and bring it to a rehearsal. From there it could turn into a completely different song once everyone else adds their ideas.
What about the lyrics? I write all the time. I write a lot of poetry and I might write ten songs in a month and take them to rehearsal and none of them are used, but I’ll write another during rehearsal. The lyrics are really quite a funny thing. Normally they are the last things to go on and I don’t like putting vocals on until I know exactly every single part of the song. I’ve got a bit of a funny thing with that, I won’t put vocals down until a song is finished. Then, if my vocals don’t work, we will start to work the vocals into the tracks by moving stuff around, sort of playing with the rhythms and the different parts of the songs so I can put my bits in.
Does the style of the music itself influence where the lyrics fit or is the lyrical content purely arbitrary? The sound of the song does very much reflect on the lyrics. We are not that much of an aggressive band lyrically. Our older material is, but our newer stuff although it sounds really aggressive isn’t actually aggressive in what it’s saying. It really is a case of what has happened at the time, more than a vent of aggression. It is far more a release of an emotion that we were feeling at the time.
It’s maybe experiences and things that you just want to get down? Yeah, I mean without any shadow of doubt women have been probably the biggest influence in writing for the band, with relationships and love. A lot of the time we are not an angry bunch, we love life, we love our band, we are happy apart from the run-of-the-mill shit we all get. We haven’t got anything to fucking worry about or anything to be nasty about, we are using our band to show people how happy we are. Now we are having an awesome time, but in other ways you know if a subject has really angered us or pissed us off, then yeah we will vent that as well. We think it is far easier to convey an aggressive song than it is an honest feeling. So many metal bands can sing a song and say fuck a hundred times and how much they hate somebody, and use as many swear words as they can. I make a point of trying to steer away from that, try and be far more honest with my lyrics and say what is making me feel the way I did at the time. We have songs that are about seriously harsh stuff and songs that are about our friends and girlfriends, songs about the evolution of man, all sorts of weird stuff. I just think it is good to vary the things that you’re writing about. It is so run-of-the-mill just to shout about how pissed off you are all the time, when there are so many different things to be happy about.
I think the automatic thing to write about is the angry subjects with an aggressive style, because I guess they do fit with a vocalist that is normally shouting and looking pissed off. You could be forgiven for thinking that they would be talking or singing about pissed off things. But that doesn’t mean to say you have to do that all the time, as that would really be staying within the confines of the genre. What do you think? I mean, that is one of the reasons I love heavy music. I can stand in front of a room full of people and scream and look like I am telling everyone how much I hate them, when in fact I am telling everyone how much I love them or how much I’m having a good time or whatever. And that is one of the reasons I am so attracted to this music and why I love the band so much.
Last year, ‘Transcripts From The Downtuned’ (www.downtuned.co.uk) reviewed your second EP ‘Insecta Evolution’. I have to say that for me it was absolutely fucking excellent and I’d love to know more about it. Tell us about that EP, for instance it appeared to be self-financed? We decided to do ‘Insecta Evolution’ when we were around with Matter, they were talking about going to use Dave (Chang). We were also around Landmine Spring who were also using Dave at the time and we had heard how good something could sound if you were able to go and use a good producer. And really it was a case of, we decided if we are going to take this somewhere, the songs had changed and we had advanced so much, we needed to put something into it. It was a huge self-financing thing, it was devastating hard to save up for and we really pushed the boat out to afford the record. We actually only had two hundred copies of it made and it has never been mastered (and we still have fifty of them).
It is fairly common knowledge now that you guys are working with Undergroove Records and you have already mentioned them. How did that come about and how happy are you about it? In the process of giving out the EP and people buying them, we met Darren (Sadler) and we decided to stop giving or selling the EP because tracks were going on the album. So, we did those three tracks with Dave Chang which was really exciting, and people were really shocked at how much we had come along from the first recording. We took it from there and Matter was starting to talk a lot about Darren and about Undergroove, and we wanted to see if someone liked the material who was going to put it out or whatever. So we started to send it out to some Zines and the feedback we got was awesome, from you (www.downtuned.co.uk) and Fury, the Subterrain in Brighton loved it. We had loads of really good responses and really it was a case of we didn’t know where the hell to go with it. We have a huge debt with Matter. They have been a huge inspiration to us and really have been a driving force. Without them I don’t think we would be a far as we are today. So our respect goes out to them. What happened was, they were doing stuff through Undergroove and Dom and Jim (Matter) were already into our EP and because of the attention we had built up in Brighton, we wanted to stick together a lot. They were really into the idea of passing on our record to Darren and they really wanted him to hear it. So we mini-disked it and passed to Darren and in a fit of excitement I ended up emailing him and introducing myself. He really liked the stuff, we got some great feedback from him, but there was no talk of us doing anything with him at all. Then he wopped the EP on his ‘Decks Of Death’ in Rock Sound and we were like Woohoo! And we talked with him about it and explained that we really weren’t interested in doing anything with anyone else because we had heard how good his and Undergroove’s reputation was. We so wanted to go down that route. He said to us that he was really interested in doing it and he was well into the record, so we just said yeah, we’d do this album through Undergroove. We are absolutely psyched about it and couldn’t be happier, we love the ethics behind the label.
Please tell us about this new album, because I can’t wait for it. Yeah, I would love to tell you what the title is Rigsby, but we don’t have a title yet! But first off it is heavy, the new songs are probably heavier than the songs off the EP, but in parts they are a lot more melodic and sort of calmer. We have written an instrumental, which is a huge difference, we wanted to do something different to what everyone else was doing, its called Puparia. It was a big deal doing the instrumental and it is something that everyone who has heard it has been shocked and inspired by it, and they have realise that there is really another side to the band. And it just shows that you don’t have to be heavy all the time to be really effective in music. The instrumental has been a really good thing on the album. What’s so funny is that, I mean, I’m the vocalist and I don’t sing on it. I do the sampling on it but very minimal amounts. We wrote the instrumental together and it’s one of the songs I am most excited about other people hearing because I really think it shows another side to the band.
What sort of format is this recording in, is it a mini-album, full album or EP? It’s a mini-album, but it definitely could be a full-length album because the new songs are so much longer. How the songs have got so long, I really don’t know. But that’s just the way they came out, if they are going to be long they are going to be long. The songs write themselves, the instrumental is a good ten or eleven minutes long and the last track on the record, ‘In The Name OF Bleeding Hearts’ is also about eleven minutes long. So they are long, but they are not tracks that feel long if you know what I mean, they need to be that length to be right. The album hasn’t followed any particular theme at all, it’s just issues that we are bringing up. The album deals with so many things, it deals with love, hate and life for example. Probably the most important track on the album is ‘Seven Days At Knifepoint’ which is from the EP. That’s the track that Darren has fielded and put out there, it’s the track that most people really liked on the EP. And that’s got a lot of meaning behind it. That song’s about our friend that got stabbed and he was in a coma for a long time and he was very close to death. It’s quite a taxing song, it’s a song that brings everyone together because everyone down here knows what that songs about and it’s a special song. That song deals with a bit of anger, but now we have songs like ‘Subtracting The Apex’ and ‘In The Name OF Bleeding Hearts’ that really deal with far more close to home, being in love sort of issues. Then we have Tim from Charger guesting on the record, which is awesome. He sings on ‘Consider Us Dead’ which is a song about how crap the metal scene is at times and it’s a song about how everyone just needs to get on and do what they want to do.
Are all the tracks from the EP on the album? And how many tracks are there going to be altogether? Yes, all the tracks on the EP are there - they have been remixed. And it’s going to be seven or eight tracks on the album, because we have got a few interlude parts on the record where we have instrumentals going on and beats, and stuff and weird sort of sounds and noises and stuff like that. We don’t know if we are going to track them or not. The record is still deep in the production phase at the moment because it hasn’t been mastered and we are still wondering if are going to get parts of it remixed. The base is there and it is recorded now but we are still sort of playing around with it, but it should be seven or eight.
Can you give us an idea of just how much work is left on there? It’s very hard to say. We have had to be really patient with it. The writing of the album took a long time, it took a lot longer than expected and I don’t work very well in the studio. I don’t like the atmosphere in the studio and we had a few hiccups laying vocals down and stuff, so it took a lot longer than expected. When we had Tim come down for example, it took a day just to get Tim’s vocals and a part of mine down. We had to go back and the time we were there was very much divided. We weren’t up there in one huge chunk, we went up in three day sessions. Then obviously the name thing really set us back as well. We were originally aiming for a release round about now, but obviously Matter was Undergroove’s first priority, and now that Matter’s album is out we are next in the hot seat. We also have the artwork being done and stuff like that and the albums untitled, so there is a little bit of work to be done. I think we are looking at the start of the summer hopefully.
Moving onto the live environment is the band essentially more of a live act or are the efforts fairly evenly split between gigs and recording? It’s a funny sort of question that. They have both got their priorities, you know it’s very important that it sounds right on record and it’s important that it comes across right live. First thing I would say is that live we are a lot heavier than on record. The record is a little tamer, I think that would be fair to say. It is really important to us that the live show is right and we are still learning the live show. I don’t think the live show is ever going to be perfect in our eyes, we are always trying to better it because there is nothing better than seeing a band that just blows you away. And that’s the sort of band we want to be. When you go to a show you don’t just want to see someone standing there just belting it out.
Last time we talked, I can remember you mentioning the visual appearance of the band in a live performance acting as an additional shock factor. Do you use it for the shock value or do you have any stage garbs that you use? I think the visual importance in a band is one of the most important things, especially in a heavy music. In other styles I think it can be different. A lot of it is for the shock value, there is nothing better than seeing a band that really go for it and impress you. It’s good to see a band that can really move around when they’re playing and it’s bloody difficult to do. Especially when you have decked back twenty-four cans of beer or whatever. We don’t look like a metal band at all. Image wise, when we play we look more like Weezer than we look like a metal band and I think that’s a lot to do with the shock value. James on Bass is the most metal looking in the band because he is very pierced, and he likes his metal and that’s great. Our drummer’s been known to dress up as a cowboy and I have been known to give myself the odd side parting now and again. I think image is important but I also think it’s not. I don’t really think it matters to us, I think it’s just a nice shock when you see just a bunch of run-of-the-mill guys that don’t look like there going to play anything nasty, then come on and we play like we do.
Don’t you think it’s a balance? I’ve seen bands that I would class as image over content and as a person going to see the band you begin with a hyped image and end up disappointed when you realise that is all they’re about. Yeah, there are a lot of image based bands around. I mean you only have to look at Slipknot and stuff, but at the end of the day it sells, doesn’t it, and who am I to turn round to Slipknot and tell them to not wear their masks? I think it’s do what you want to do, if you want a huge image in your band then go and do it. It’s important that you are who you are, that’s the way we are in our band. Paul our drummer is just never going to look like a metaller and he doesn’t want to look like that, so he isn’t. But, if James wants to look really metal then he can get his horns out and do all that sort of stuff.
What are the future touring plans for you blokes? It’s been a dream for us to tour with Matter, ever since we began playing in Brighton. That’s something that’s going to happen relatively soon, it’s something that’s in the planning stages at the moment. They are promoting the release of their album and hopefully it will tie in with the pre-release of our record. We are hoping to get out in the summer to do something a bit bigger, but it’s still in the talk phase. The tour we are planning with Matter is going to be a sort of four days on, four days off sort of thing. It’s very important to both bands and I think it’s quite important for Darren Sadler as well that we go out with Matter, he knows how badly we want to go out with them. It will be a real fun couple of weeks, going out with them and having a good time. Our time will come, probably in the summer once we have released the record and we have got something to back the tour with. There is little point in us going out and touring our knackers off without anything to back the tour up. We want the record to be out so people can buy the record or hear the record and that way they are going to be more interested in it, and hopefully we will get more people coming to the shows. That tour will be with another band, just who that is going to be is yet unknown, hopefully it will be a band that will complement us and vice versa. It’s going to be a really exciting couple of months and we are looking forward to doing stuff with Matter... they're legends!
Are there any bands that you would really like to tour with? There are too many bands. There are bands like Dillinger, ISIS, 5IVE and anything from the Hydrahead label, we have a huge respect for them. They're bands that have inspired us, we are big fans of the stuff coming off Hydrahead Records.
A lot of those bands are coming to the UK now with the increased interest in rock music over here and it has happened with Matter getting the Candiria tour, so you never know, it’s possible. The scene is looking up and it’s getting exciting, this sort of music is starting to get a lot more exposure. Undergroove and Darren are very clued up as who we want to be playing with and we have got our trust in them, he’ll sort us out a cracking tour and we know we are going to have an awesome time. We just want to get out there and play.
Talking of Darren, he has played a reasonable part in the bands progress and is very much part of the rock media. Do you think the media is important, or is it more a matter of making good contacts and more generally how do you think the music press deals with this style of music? I think honesty is a lot of the press and is something that’s different and tends to skip around. A lot of the bigger magazines like Kerrang! I don’t feel they really expose the younger and smaller bands around. It would be nice to see bands getting exposure especially newer bands, unsigned bands. I just don’t think they give the exposure. I think it’s really great with Rock Sound, that what they are doing is really good and that is one of the reasons that we get on with Darren so well, because of the philosophies behind what they do. I think the fanzines that are around at the moment, like yourself (www.downtuned.co.uk), I think that’s where a lot of the honesty comes from and I will trust a fanzine review. I think the media has a huge part to play but it’s a difficult thing to get in with.
The mainstream media are worried about selling papers at the end of the day, aren’t they? If they haven’t got Limp Bizkit or whatever on the front cover, then they’re not going to sell enough copies. Yes, very much so. There isn’t really anyone in England that is going to sell like that. Being in a band in England you are always competing with the US and it’s not getting any easier, it’s just getting worse because heavy music is getting bigger and bigger by the day. Heavy music even a year ago wasn’t mainstream but now you go into town and every other kid is wearing a Korn or Slipknot tee-shirt. With Papa Roach and Slipknot in the charts, everyone is creeping their way in and it’s starting to get bigger. I think it’s only a matter of time before kids start searching for the next hit and that’s when I think heavy music is really going to take off. It’s a great time to be in a band, it’s a great time to be in a heavy band. The stuff that we are doing, because you know when you get into heavy music you are always looking for the next heavier thing, it’s only a matter of time before Dillinger are at number one! (Laughs)… I mean you can slag the media off but there’s no point in being in a band if your going to be effected by what the media say, because not everyone in the world is going to like your music. Unless you adopt the philosophy that you’re always going to be on the defensive. There are going to be people that hear Johnny Truant that ain’t going to like it, people who review it one day that are going to hate it, but for everyone that hates it there is going to be someone out there that really likes it.
That’s the printed media. What about your thoughts on other formats like the Internet? The Internet is great. I am very pro the Internet, the music I buy is very much what I read about on the Internet. There are some fantastic sites out there to find out about bands. All the music I buy from the US, I find out about the bands from reviews on the Internet. There are sites like yours (www.downtuned.co.uk) and Fury and stuff that are promoting new bands. There are always ways of finding out about stuff, there’s theprp and lumberjack and instrife is another really great one. Getting on the message boards is just a great thing as well, there are so many around and you can talk to people about what they like and if your in a band it’s a way of getting you message across, getting your mp3’s and getting people to listen. It’s a great way of doing it basically without having to spend any money.
Olly, I’m going to wrap this up now mate, I would like to thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing much more from Johnny Truant, particularly the new recording, cheers. Is there anything else you wish to add just to sign off? Just thanks for Downtuned man it’s great what you’re doing. And thanks for getting behind us and stuff, and I just really hope that everyone digs the record. Big thanks to Matter and Darren. Hey, we’re here to dance and we’re fucking dancing…
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