Lots of bands say they're committed to working as hard as possible and that they're hungry to break through to a mass audience, but one look at their actual itinerary illustrates that they're still working well inside a leisure industry paradigm; things get accomplished at a rate favoring comfort over deadline adherence and so, while some bands might break on a grand scale, it still usually happens on someone else's terms. Such laissez-faire productivity may suit some bands just fine but, according to Johnstones drummer/singer Ryan Long, it does not fly with him or his bandmates. “This is this band's philosophy: we should never not be doing something,” says Long with a laugh that implies he's only half joking. “Sometimes we work the way we do because we get bored quickly so want to move on to the next thing [laughing]. Jarek [guitarist/singer Jarek Hardy –ed] and I still do our podcast on the internet – which is available for free through iTunes – and we're always coming out with new videos. We're also putting out a new single every couple of months and trying to stay visible with touring and playing a lot of shows. That's how we're comfortable working.
“We're really trying to work as hard as we can to keep the momentum that we have going strong,” continues the drummer excitedly. “We've been doing a lot of touring lately, but the biggest things that are happening right now are that we just had another single for “Gimmie Your Love” go to Muchmusic, we released the Gimmie Your Love EP and now we're going on tour because we have our new DVD, Get On Board, coming out.”
Wait – what? That The Johnstones – who only formed in Ajax, Ontario in 2002 – already have a video document is one thing, but the size and scope of it is something else entirely. According to Long, Get On Board centers around two separate performances: one captured at a sold-out show at the Mod Club in Toronto and the other an intimate acoustic performance at the Gibson Showroom done for “a crowd of about one hundred people.” The Mod Club set includes the 360-degree Johnstones experience which includes five costume changes and choreographed dance captured by five cameras and recorded and mixed in HD. In reading it in print alone, one can understand how it's a very big deal for the band but, in listening to Long talk about the process of making it, all doubt gets completely removed; in conversation the normally excited drummer begins to positively motormouth himself when the subject of Get On Board comes up. “It's really cool because when we decided to make it, we wanted to get an idea of what might be good to include as extras and things, so we did our homework and watched something like twenty-five DVDs. We pulled them all apart and decided the best things we wanted from those, that we thought would be cool for us to do,” explains Long of the research that The Johnstones put in before shooting took place. “We ended up being able to cram three hours of stuff onto it; there's the two main features and, in addition to that, we've got six music videos on there, six sketch-com bits that we've done and a tour diary that we shot which includes interviews with everyone in the band. We mixed it as if we had mixed a live album too so the same guy that did both our studio albums mixed this one for us so it sounds as good as anything I've seen out there. Like, we didn't have the same budget for a live show that bands like Billy Talent have but, as far as the rest of the stuff on there goes and the actual production quality of the show, it's pretty up there; in terms of all the different music DVDs that I've seen come out of Canada, this has the most stuff and is comparable in quality so we're pretty excited about it. It's even more exciting for me, because I directed it [chuckling] and I'm really pleased with how it turned out; I got exactly what I wanted.”
That's no small praise from a band who, while they've never characterized themselves this way exactly, have a remarkably high standard set for themselves and anything they release. The hots keep on coming too as, riding the excitement of his announcement, Long lets the details of a few other upcoming projects slip, and some other work that's being done. As stated earlier, The Johnstones recently released a new EP but, according to Long, there is most definitely more loaded in the pipe. “We've got the new single out and that seems to be doing pretty well so we're going to hit the road but, after we get back from this tour, we're going back into the studio to start working on some more demos,” says the drummer in an uncharacteristically serious tone. “We put out our last full-length album, Can't Be Trusted, last September so I'd love to be able to do a release no later than this coming September so we have a maximum of a year between releases, but we'll see how things shake down. So far, the possibility of another album coming together is looking pretty promising. I don't want to drop any names, but we've been talking to a couple of producers and we're pretty hopeful that it can all come together. Basically, I have a list of guys that I've been trying to get to work with us forever and now we're at the point where we have the name and some of the money we'd need to make some of these things happen. Nothing's confirmed yet though.
“I don't want to jinx it because we're really starting to see the work pay off,” continues Long, as he inadvertently betrays some ambitions that, in turn, illustrate just how self-aware the band actually is. “We have been getting more and more notice and some of it has been coming pretty quickly. To put it into perspective, when we played the El Mocambo [a historic Toronto concert venue –ed] about a year ago, we didn't sell it out but, when we played the Mod Club six months ago, we sold it out and when we played The Opera House for the DVD release, we sold that out too; so basically in a year's time we've gone from three hundred people to six hundred people to nine hundred people now. It might not be on the exact same scale, but we're seeing that everywhere; we just played Fanshawe College not so long ago and it sold out before the first band even played and stuff like that just didn't happen for us a year ago. We haven't ever had a big hit on radio or anything like that, but our fan base keeps growing and everyone keeps paying attention to us and really telling us what they like and at what shows they had a good time. It would be nice to have the radio or video hit but, the way I look at it, I see all these bands on Muchmusic and hear them on the radio, but we're playing bigger clubs than them so, while we're still on the fringe a bit, we're pretty happy with how it's all going and I'm really hoping it keeps up; we're still working through a few ideas that I think will really blow people away.”
Artist:
www.johnstonessex.com/
www.myspace.com/thejohnstones
Further Reading:
Johnstones Interview In Support of Can't Be Trusted.
Album:
The Johnstones' Get On Board DVD is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
