Johnny Stevens (Highly Suspect)

Johnny Stevens is the guitarist and lead vocalist for the rock band Highly Suspect. The band has a new album out “As Above, So Below” available for preorder now. We discuss the new album, touring with Muse, happiness, health/diet and more! 

00:00 - Intro
00:14 - Zoom Meetings & Technical Issues
01:25 - New Album & Exploring New Genres
02:40 - Co-Producer Aleks Von Korff
05:40 - Hard Work in a Band
07:10 - How the Sound Has Evolved
09:55 - Playing the Songs Live & Tracks
12:30 - Being Happy & Admiration
14:50 - "Champagne Funeral" & Relationship
16:35 - "The 8th of October" & Near Death Experience
22:30 - Health Tips & Happiness
26:44 - New Album,  Vinyl Print & Singles
29:55 - Playing Late Night Shows & Touring
32:50 - Learning from Muse
36:00 - Outro

Highly Suspect website:
https://www.highlysuspect.net/

Chuck Shute link tree:
https://linktr.ee/chuck_shute

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:00

Hey Johnny, what's happenin? Hear me and see me?

Johny Stevens: 0:16

I can about you.

Chuck Shute: 0:18

Yeah, awesome. Great. I love the studio you got is that I'm assuming that's part of the studio are you it's

Johny Stevens: 0:23

just in my apartment. It's like my own little creation room away from the rest of my apartment where I stream and make music and shit. Am I late? Because this zoom thing just said four o'clock, but my email is 410 Oh, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 0:36

no, I for some reason, I don't think you can set it to 410 it only gives you 15 minute increments. So no, no, you're fine.

Johny Stevens: 0:43

Okay, just making sure I didn't I didn't want to be like, Oh, wow, that's actually

Chuck Shute: 0:47

very considerate. Yeah, most people don't like it. No, show it all the time. And I don't even get apologies. I'm just like, Alright, I guess that's the way it goes. Now

Johny Stevens: 0:54

that Ami I got no show today to So did

Chuck Shute: 0:57

you like an interview person didn't show Yeah, yeah. Wow, was it was it a big outlet?

Johny Stevens: 1:03

Or? Yeah, a decent, but I though they'll remake it? I guess their Wi Fi went out or something? And then yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:09

that happens sometimes. Yeah. I've had to do interviews like on my phone sometimes it just like, but now I think I can use my phone as like a hotspot and it actually works. Okay, so it's like a good emergency. Unless, like, Verizon is down then I'm fucked. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So new album. This is exciting. I if I got a copy, advanced copy, so I hope we can talk a little bit about it without giving too much away. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, the latest songs already out the summertime voodoo, which is really cool. Like, I like what you guys are doing. You're kind of doing like different things and exploring. And to me, I love that. I'm assuming that you love that too. As an artist. Yeah.

Johny Stevens: 1:47

100%. I mean, it's not that I like technically try to go out and explore on purpose. But just do what feels right in the moment. Like I try to make things that are pleasing to me at any given time.

Chuck Shute: 2:00

Right, but having that variety of different kinds of music and genres, like I always use that example like Guns and Roses. Like I love appetite. That's a great album, but they use your illusions are, they're really fun to me, because it's all it's all over the place. There's acoustic stuff, and there's like industrial and, and I feel like that's kind of what you guys do with this album. It's like they're exploring a lot of different genres.

Johny Stevens: 2:20

Sure, and yeah, I don't like I I'm not the best person that breaking down what exactly the music is, I'm just better at making it. So, you know, a lot of times people are like, you know, well, what, what do you think this is? Or that isn't like, I don't know, that's not for me to decide, you know, we just played what we thought was fun and decent at the time, you know? Well, who

Chuck Shute: 2:39

would who produced this? Did you guys produce it? Or did you hire somebody to produce it? No,

Johny Stevens: 2:43

we produced it. And then about halfway through the process, we realized that there was a shining talent in the room, which was the engineer, it was just us and one engineer and we decided to keep it no outside of songwriters. No, just us in our fucking room, playing our instruments and having some beers for 12 hours a day for three months, and really locking in and we didn't want any outside influence. But our engineer who has become one of my best friends now he's such a cool, dude. He was just so talented. And we were like, Why don't you co produce like, you've got so many great ideas. You know, when we get stuck, you'd be like, Well, why don't we try this? And I'm like, That's the definition of CO producing this puts you in the credits, you know. So now we didn't like hire or outsource any producers for this album. It's just us just kind of like the first albums were. But yeah, CO produced by Alex von Korff, who was also worked with for engineering for Muse and for Lady Gaga. And for Coldplay and shit like that. And obviously, this album does not sound like muse, Lady Gaga, or Coldplay. But, you know, he's an accredited engineer, and we said, what's up, fucking keep giving us suggestions, and we'll throw on his co producer. So that's how that worked.

Chuck Shute: 3:57

That's awesome. So what kind of suggestions? Is it more like technical sound levels? And things like that? Or is it more like arranging arranging the songs as well?

Johny Stevens: 4:06

It's both. I mean, he, the project again, just as somebody who I thought initially would press record, and why are the mics, but there are times when he would say, you know, we would get stuck on like a snare sound. I mean, they're just not quite right. And he would bring out a different snare and tune it differently. Or there are times when we'd be like, Hmm, is this intro too long or too short? Or, you know, so arrangement he would help with to me was just like the fifth Beatle he became a part of the project and a great backboard to bounce ideas off of and, you know, not every idea he had was amazing. There were some times like, not that Nope, you know, but then other times, he'd have an idea. We'd be like, Oh, that fucking make sense. And none of us thought of that. So let's use it, you know? Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 4:47

Does he act as like the tiebreaker to like you guys ever have disagreements and you feel strongly about doing a song one way and somebody else feels a different way? And then he comes in as kind of the mediator. Yeah, yeah,

Johny Stevens: 4:59

almost every fucking In almost every measure of a song, I mean, there's five of us. So usually we don't need like a tie breaker necessarily, but there are times when he becomes or became the voice of reason, because we would get emotional and you'd be like, Man, I guys relax, you know, like, how about this? How about we take a day off, watch a fucking movie, we'll revisit this with fresh ears. He's just a very patient, human. And because he's not like inside inside the band. He's got a really cool outside perspective, that is, you know, a fresh set of ears that maybe we wouldn't have. But yeah, he's also since like I said, he's become one of my greatest friends. Like a very dear friend. He's an awesome human. That's awesome.

Chuck Shute: 5:39

Yeah. I love that love to hear that. It sounds like you. You worked really hard on this. If you're doing 12 hour days. In the studio, I think that's the piece that people don't see about being in a band like, oh, it just looks so fun. Just go out and play music and do it and party. And it's like, no, I mean, 12 hour days in a studio. That's that's a lot of work.

Johny Stevens: 5:56

Yeah, there's a lot of shit that people don't see, they don't see that you're running a business as well. And you got to keep track of 30 different employees and do all the logistics for the road. And there's so many different elements of running a successful career that are beyond just getting fucked up and playing on stage. But yeah, we we definitely took this album very seriously. We started it. I mean, one of the songs on there is technically 15 years old. You know, the song Mexico was a riff that we used to play in the bar rooms, and I would kind of freestyle some lyrics over we never finished it, it was just an idea that we had. And then yeah, we really fleshed it out and fully realized that so I guess you could say this album is 15 years in the making, if you think of it like that, but the other songs, melatonin was 2020. I wrote that just on my acoustic guitar. And then there's some ideas that started popping up in 2021 2022. So there's, there's a large variance, you know, with this record from when the songs came from, and then the majority of it was written from November of last year. Now, I'm sorry, November of 2022. Till the end of summer 2023. That's when the most of it was written. Okay,

Chuck Shute: 7:07

so that Mexico song that is cool, like sipping a mojito down in Mexico is did I hear an Oregon on that song?

Johny Stevens: 7:13

Here's Oregon, all throughout this album. And I think one of the really cool things that separates a lot of people are gonna say, Oh, you sound like, Mr. Cylon, where you sound like boy who died, Wolf. And it's like, yeah, I guess in the sense that it's, you know, you're not hearing Ableton beats or anything like that, like, it's all real instruments. So that would be the link. And the fact that it's pretty blues, Rocky, that would be a link. But I think that thing that separates it the most is, you know, we're a five piece now we've got rhythm guitar, and we've got Oregon and so we're able to layer a much fuller sound. And always since the beginning of this band, I've always just like craved having a consistent organ in our recordings, because I love listening to the doors and Santana and you know, some of the classic rock bands from the 60s and 70s, that would always have to be three. Nonetheless, the going and now we've got that. And I think it just adds such a cool texture to the album that most rock bands aren't fucking with these days. So

Chuck Shute: 8:08

yeah, it's kind of like a like a classic vibe with a modern twist. Like even the single you know, you got that? How do you get that tone on the guitar with the Echo II, kind of spacey blues tone? I mean, is that hard to do? Or is that a pretty simple way to do that?

Johny Stevens: 8:22

No. I mean, it's a probably one of my favorite things to do is to work with echo and delay, because there's no, there's no rules for that. You know what I mean? Like, and there is no, if you're using analog equipment, which I do you like it's never going to sound the same twice. Do you know the band khruangbin? No, okay, check them out, because they're really good at that. But we use things like binson echorec, which are from the 60s, all the way up to current pedals like the Strymon. But all of it is tape echo and tape delay, so you're not using like a computer program. So therefore, it's going to kind of go off the beat a little bit. And really, that's what's going to bring you into that psychedelic mood. Whereas if it was just an anchor that's perfectly on the beat every time what you can do with like, which we do play with, sometimes with like the vocal echoes, but for the guitar echo and getting that spacey sound, you want to kind of have it falling off the beat ever so slightly, so that you're just kind of polyrhythmic in a different time signature while you're in one time signature, and it just makes your head go like what the fuck is happening. And that shit will will sound different every time because the pedals I'm going to use live, you can't set them to like a digital setting. It's they're real analog knobs. And so if they move even eighth of an edge, or the electrons going through the circuitry, or hotter one night, then it's going to be a slightly different time pattern. If that makes sense. Yeah, so

Chuck Shute: 9:44

what's that? Nerd alert? You're like, I don't wanna get it breaking down the songs but by the way, like, but if you play that live is so it's gonna sound different every night. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually cool though. That's the whole point of live rock to me is like, it doesn't every show is not the same. mean?

Johny Stevens: 10:00

Yeah, I think so. I mean, it'll, it'll sound pretty close, you know? I mean, obviously, like, we're not going to be playing, playing it in the key of poker, but, you know, yeah, the little effects like that, like echoes, and every night is going to be slightly different. You know what I mean? Which I think is right. Yeah, what's, what's that? That's the way it always was. And no shake on like the successful artists of today. Obviously, you've got your Taylor Swift and really successful and talented people out there that are crushing it, but their sets are gonna sound so locked in every time. And because we're just doing this with real instruments. And, you know, our emotions are going to change the way I set sound. So it's always gonna be slightly different every night, which I think is pretty cool.

Chuck Shute: 10:45

Yeah, so because that is a big like debate right now with rock, like, some bands use tape, some and then the other ones are more just like, you know, pure and say only real instruments. But I get if you're in a band, like falling in reverse, you have to use some electronic components.

Johny Stevens: 11:00

I have respect for both. I mean, I've done both. We have a few songs off some of our other albums that I've used tracks for. And they're just lightly though I don't think we've ever gone into track world the way a lot of bands do. Because I don't, I don't love it. And plus, you're relying on a computer. And if that computer crashes, like, can you still play the song? Can you replicate it? If you have too many tracks that are relying on a laptop? Oh, man, when that thing crashes, which is inevitable, you know what I mean? These bands, I gotta have three or four laptops backed up, ready to go. If that happens mid song, it's kind of embarrassing. It's like, Oh, can you keep the song going? Is the song good enough to stand alone? without all the extra tracks and shit? Can you perform? Are you performer? Where are you? You know? So no, but no shade on it. I've done it, I will probably do it again in the future, you know, especially on certain, certain songs, they call for that, you know what I mean? That are like, like our songs. 16 Natural Born Killers. These are like, songs that kind of gotta be locked in, right? And then you get your songs like ceratonia It's like, I would never put a track on that in my life. You know what I mean? So it's just each song is different design. This album specifically though, there will be no, no tracks, everything you hear on that album was recorded, live together in a room with the exception of maybe a couple overdubs where we'd go back in and like fix up a guitar solo or do or do some vocal, tweaking, but for the most part, and more so than we've ever done in our lives. This miles will be alive out. That's

Chuck Shute: 12:29

awesome. And you mentioned the song melatonin, you said that it was written 2020 That's like a really cool, it's a darker kind of slower. I thought it had kind of a 90s Seattle vibe. Like Allison chains, maybe but it was interesting. I heard you talking about 2020 Like you do you don't remember it. It's like almost like just black that part of your life? Who fucking does? I'm

Johny Stevens: 12:48

not the only person that has forgotten, like 2020

Chuck Shute: 12:53

really, because I don't I remember crazy shit going on, like people willing to kill each other over roll toilet paper. I don't think I'll ever forget that shit.

Johny Stevens: 13:01

I remember certain things, but certainly not all of it. I mean, it became pretty blurry for me that time period. And but I mean, that's possibly because I was going through, you know, shit that. I don't want to remember at that time that is separate of COVID. You know, but I'm, the older I get, the easier it is for me to just let go. Let it go. You know, block? Yeah. Like, I'm just happier and write the trauma. Shit. I don't let it go.

Chuck Shute: 13:27

Yeah, I noticed the older I get, the less I care what other people think about me. I think when you're young, you realize especially a teenager, you're really trying to impress everybody and fit in and be cool. And then the older you get, you're like, I just want to be happy. I don't give a shit.

Johny Stevens: 13:39

Yep. 100%. I hated myself and everybody else for a long time. And now I'm just like, I don't know, everything's good. At the moment. I'm sure it'll, you know, I'm sure there'll be a time again in life where I hit a low, but right now, feeling good feeling mentally in a good place. And like, don't really care. I mean, obviously, it's nice when people admire your work or admire who you are as a person or say nice things to you, but it doesn't fucking matter. You know what I mean? Nobody really cares. So it's like, just set a place where as long as I'm happy, then I'm happy, if that makes sense.

Chuck Shute: 14:15

Right? Well, and you have such a built in fan base of loyal fans that are gonna love everything you do. Yeah, there's gonna be

Johny Stevens: 14:22

a built in fan base of haters, too. I've got both things.

Chuck Shute: 14:26

Well, yeah, okay, there's that too. But like, Yeah, I mean, if you're happy and then there is it's not like you're just making music for like three people. I mean, you have hundreds of 1000s of subscribers and followers that are following your music and coming to your shows. So I mean, it's not you have a sense of purpose, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the song champagne in our funeral is that one is that one of the dark times two because that's a really interesting song. It's in the vocals are so different, like in the other ones, like run, run for your death. You're like screaming and then a champion or a funeral. It's almost like you're like a song. Speaking vocals at the intro, and you could tell me you're very clear what the words are clearly about a bad relationship. I'm assuming it's based on reality. It could be fictional. I don't know. But

Johny Stevens: 15:10

I don't know how to write fiction. I mean, look, I don't think it was based on a bad relationship. I think it was based on a relationship that didn't work out. And then having certain feelings about it, which range in that song from? Fuck you. But also like, Well, congratulations to us, because we got past this. And it's better for both of us that we're not together. And there's tender moments in that song where I'm talking about very specific, isolated moments that are beautiful and sweet. Like, go into Coney Island and yeah, prospect partnership, but also, like, you know, what, I'd also argue is both things. There's a duality within that song. It's not that the relationship was bad, so to speak. It just wasn't correct at the time. But yeah, it's a darker song. And yeah, I definitely explore with my vocals. I don't want to ever make an album that sounds then hear the whole way through. Like what the fuck is, you know, that's boring to me. I want to make sure that I'm taking you on a journey and showing you with my tool, which is my voice, right? Sir? A range of emotions because that's what life is.

Chuck Shute: 16:11

Exactly. I love that. I love the journey. It's like I said, use your illusions. I mean, I love those kinds of albums that take you on a journey. That's a perfect description. And yeah, this that song the champagne or funeral? I mean, there aren't You're right. Very specific. So ever. It's about like, she's gonna know when she hears that. Yeah, and then, I mean, the eighth of October. That's another like, kind of a slower song that's also seems kind of dark. Was that written during 2020 as well? No,

Johny Stevens: 16:40

no, that was written in the studio this year. And that one is probably the most, like, unique for me, I guess. In a sense, it's almost got a country flair to it, not country but like, it's almost like notes of modern country and they're some of the like singer, songwriters, Zach Bryan's and shit like that you can kind of which I didn't, I had never heard of him before. We wrote that. But then I'm like, Ah, that's a song he could have done. And then at the end, of course, you've got that sweet little Allman Brothers outro, which brings kind of a hopefulness that so that sounds about two different people. Right? It starts off about this one relationship that was, you know, great, but didn't work out. And then halfway through the song, I start speaking to another person who was my new relationship. And I learned over this past year how to fall in love again, and I didn't think I was going to be able to so that time period between October 8, and August 17 was one of the darkest periods of my entire life, especially most recently, and I was living like kind of out of control. And during that time, is when a lot of the other songs like suicide machine, they were all born from that period of darkness. And then, you know, I had this one near death experience. And shortly after that met the new love of my life. And so I sang the second half of that song to her, she kind of pulled me out of a terrible place and helped me pull myself I should say, out of a terrible place I don't like I had to help myself as well. And I think that, you know, I like the placement of that song on the album, because at the very end of it, we're now talking about actually being able to love again, and then that that instrumental part at the end of it is just so upbeat, and so hopeful, and it kind of flips it around, it goes from being this dark thing to like, not gonna fuck it up this time. And we go into a fucking Allman Brothers gym, you know. And I think that that's kind of like a sweet note. To end the album on. There is one song after that. But that one kind of ends that story, that sub story within the wow,

Chuck Shute: 18:41

that's really cool. Well, so was the near death experience that changed your perspective on life because my dad actually wrote a book about near death experiences and all that stuff. And I find the topic so fascinating, did it Did you see the white light and all that stuff? What What was your experience? Like?

Johny Stevens: 18:57

Yeah, not a white light so much. But I guess I found my own version of God. It's not religious. I'm not like I don't subscribe to any one religion, nor do I care if anybody else does, you know what I mean? I'm not pro or anti religion, but like, I have my own divine moment, whatever that is. And, you know, look, I've had near death experiences before. I've had a lot of traumatic things happen. But this one in particularly, in particular, like, really woke me up. And I kind of realized, like, Oh, that was close, bro, and you're not being healthy and you're, you've gained 65 pounds and you're just living recklessly and you're not taking care of yourself and your mental health and your emotional health and your physical health. And simultaneously, you have this opportunity to work in music studio and make a new album and there's people out there that want to hear you keep going and beyond that. I was like, wait a minute, I want to keep going. There's so I don't know I don't I can't tell you why, but like literally had a moment that just changed my life and for the better and like renewed my sense of wanting to live not that I wanted to die. I just didn't care. I didn't care. You know what I mean? I was like, fuck, it doesn't matter. And now I'm like, no, wait a minute, I'm going to die someday, and that will be out of my control. So while I'm here, I need to, like, appreciate and be grateful of all the things that are in front of me and just have fun if my mindset is, fuck it, nothing matters. Well, then my mind should be fucking nothing matters, gentlemen. You just fucking flip that narrative a little bit. And you got a whole new outlook. And, yeah, that's what happened to me. Wow,

Chuck Shute: 20:32

that's amazing. That's great advice. I mean, you just feel like that's good advice for other people to struggling or going through a dark place. Because I mean, it's very common, especially after the pandemic, a lot of people there was a lot of darkness. So that is that you feel like that's for a lot of people need to do that, maybe start taking better care of themselves and live life to be happy.

Johny Stevens: 20:50

I mean, for sure. I don't want to like, pretend that I'm a great therapist for anybody, you know. And everybody's different. But I think certainly, if you can work on loving yourself and forgiving yourself, and just trying to find the beauty in the little things like touching a flower and sounds sounds stupid. You know what I mean? But um, yeah. Well, once you get to the point where you're, oh, nothing matters, this is all pointless, then you, you can have the same thought. You can have the same thought nothing matters. It's pointless. And you're right. But now say that with a smile a few times in the mirror, and like, lighten up and like, wow, I'm having the same thought. None of this fucking matters. It doesn't fucking matter. But that is so free. If nothing matters, then. God damn, my whole brain is unlocked. Now, I want to try everything I possibly can. Because nothing matters. You know, I mean, so yeah, I guess that'd be my advice. Try to lighten up. So yeah, that it has to be so easier said than done. You don't have to be firing well, and I do think that that is part of taking care of yourself again, I, I put on a lot of weight, because I just wasn't living, right. And then, you know, I've managed to lose 35 of that since that day. And I have another 30 to go. But I'm feeling great. I'm on my path towards like, reclaiming control of my own body. And so that I think is also helpful. You know, I think that the physical and the mental are tightly related. Definitely.

Chuck Shute: 22:17

Yeah. I mean, it's all that's all psychology is thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It's really hard to control your feelings and be like, okay, don't be sad. But you can control your behaviors and change things that you're doing. How did you lose the 35 pounds? Like, if you don't mind me asking, like what techniques worked for you, because I know different things work for different people. But

Johny Stevens: 22:36

yeah, so a lot of it was cutting out. Like cutting out carbs, cutting out sugars, cutting out alcohol in the form of like beers and shit like that, like carbohydrates type shit, and then just keeping your body moving all the time. And I definitely fucked around with semaglutide. A little bit not to like an extreme, but it was a good way to curb the appetite. You know, the fat, the rich people fat drugs, you can find them from compounding pharmacies, where they add like a B 12 in there. And then suddenly, it doesn't cost $1,000 A month type of thing. So I think that the pre diabetic medicine ozempic will go the Manjaro I think are the names of the brand things. Those can be really helpful. Like, my family has a history of diabetes and shit like that. And I am not, but I don't want to ever get there. So yeah, between that and just like literally putting in the hard work and going to the gym and walking the dog longer and food food is is such an important part of it. If I am eating cheese, it's every night at three in the morning. Nothing's going to happen, but instead I'm working on vegetables and whole foods is boring. Is that is it. Wow, it changes your body composition drastically. And then yeah, if I'm drinking a lot of people have this fanfic like, oh, he must have gone so relevant and confirmed or sober but like I'm not going to have 12 beers each night. You know what I mean? I'm going to have like a Topo Chico with 70 calories and maybe a couple shots of something clear. Boom. Now I haven't you know, added 2000 calories into the daily machine.

Chuck Shute: 24:08

Yeah, do you try because I use that like My Fitness Pal. I track all my calories. My trainers, I can't do

Johny Stevens: 24:13

it. Really? I can't do it. Because if I start looking at numbers too much if I start to compulsively look at a scale or anything like that, then like I if I have a day where the scale goes back up a pound or two you know how that happens. Like oh yeah, water weight or fucking salt. Or if I look at my steps, and I've only hit 12,000 instead of 14,000 from the day before and I just have no more I'm gonna get depressed I'm beating up on myself. Good for you that you can do that. I can't do it. I get to like obsessed with it and mad at myself. So yeah, no,

Chuck Shute: 24:44

I think I get obsessed too but I don't I get I do and I do get mad at myself but I just want to get in shape so bad that I'm like, cut out why did they do that? You know, and I try to just try every I just keep trying. I think the thing is, it's okay to

Johny Stevens: 24:56

fail. Yeah, it's okay to fail and it's good to be mad at yourself. Sometimes you can use that motivation I found personally for me and everybody's different, right? That I'll just obsess. So I try to, like, go off of feel. Instead of counting, you know what I mean? Like, I know at this point whether or not I've had too much for the day, right? I don't need to like obsess over the package, because then then life becomes too miserable for me. For me. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 25:20

Well, then if it's working and you lost 35 pounds, that's awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And you sounds like you sound happier, and you're in a better place. I mean, that's all that stuff is great.

Johny Stevens: 25:29

Yeah, I'm totally. I know that. Man. I've been happy and sad. So many times in my life. I know that like, at some point, I will be sad again, something that will fucking bring me down. And so in this current moment, the fact that I'm happy, I'm loving every second of that, you know what I mean? And just kind of I think, I don't know how old you I'm 30 years old. I'm headed towards my back half. And I'm starting to realize like, damn, there's only so many days left. So many. Yeah, I can choose to be happier, sad. And so again, just going back to her saying earlier, it's like, lightening up. And I've managed to find a way to do that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm

Chuck Shute: 26:08

46. So I'll tell you, to me, it's like, I love it. I love the older I got, like my 20s suck. It was all over the place. And it was the same thing. It's like happy, sad. It was like, what's going on? And then I think you just get better at dealing with it. And then you just yeah, you realize you're like, oh, none of this shit matters. Like, I don't care what other people think about me. I don't care if I screwed up like it's okay to fail all the other stuff that seemed like we were raised to try to be perfect in my at least in my generation. Like, don't make a mistake. You got to be perfect. And then the older you get, you're like, oh, no, this shit matters. This is fun.

Johny Stevens: 26:38

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, awesome. Well, this

Chuck Shute: 26:41

new album, when does not know if I got the date? When does it come out? So

Johny Stevens: 26:46

as above or below comes out July 19. Worldwide, we have four different vinyl options. And I'm really excited about that. No, kind of a fan of like the physical and the tangible. I'm also from a generation where you remember, like how important so yeah, we're releasing it on CD as well, which a lot of bands aren't doing these days. The physical portion of it is very important to us. We the artists that did the work was named as Mr. Babies, you can find them on Instagram, shout out Mr. Babies. And I think that the whole spread when you open up it's two different vinyls because there's even though there's only 11 songs, the album is an hour long. And if you try to put all of that into one vinyl, the quality is going to be worse. So we swallowed the cost, we hate the cost, you lose a few bucks per print, but like whatever I'd rather have the fidelity come through snob nerd alert, I'd rather have that come through on a heavy weighted vinyl than to cheap out in that area. Because people are paying good money for something physical and tangible that the vinyl market has kind of researched and shit like that. So we made them really nice and really decent and give people a bunch of different colorway options to choose from. As far as streaming, it's on every platform worldwide, July 19. And then next Tuesday, I believe on the 18th of this month, we're going to put out our second single, none of the songs are singles in the sense of like, they're a radio single. We have a couple that didn't make the album because they didn't fit the story. And we might put those out after the album but we wanted the album to be you know a certain a certain thing. So as we really singles before the album comes out because we're gonna put out one maybe two more just no they're not like this is their single that they're going to try to push it radio to charge it's not like that we're just giving out a couple songs for people to kind of get a taste before the album drops is suicide machine the next single I can't tell you what the next thing is that's

Chuck Shute: 28:43

that's that's one of my favorite also Mexico and then yeah the melatonin like I said that was the I mean they're all great. Like it just depends.

Johny Stevens: 28:50

Yeah, so I'll tell you the next thing was going to be the blue eyed devil and I can tell you that because people have already figured it out from my teaser and then suicide machine that's a song that I think radio might enjoy like honestly I think yeah, it do well there and so I think that we're gonna you know get kind of a reading back once we put the album out and see what song people or what songs people are really fucking with heavily overall and kind of get some analytics back before choosing to put like a hard push and campaign behind any individual song because we've done that in the past and you're like alright, this should be the one this is the one we're gonna really hype up and then you're wrong. You know what I mean? Like Lydia was never supposed to be that fucking blew my mind the fact that that did well at Radio blew my mind and it blew all of our minds we didn't so we don't know we don't know what's going to be the one you can you can think what you think and then the audience will tell you differently so we're just going to play it by ear see what songs people are really fucking with and then give those some special love when it comes to playing them on late night shows or doing things to help promote them to reach a higher height.

Chuck Shute: 29:56

You have those kinds of gigs you're doing late night shows are you doing like Eddie trunk all that The bigger shows and stuff. Yeah,

Johny Stevens: 30:02

we're definitely going to be doing some late night shows and all the all the wonderful things that give me so much anxiety we'll be doing.

Chuck Shute: 30:10

Oh shit, really, I thought it'd be fun.

Johny Stevens: 30:13

It's it's difficult, you know, obviously grateful for the opportunity and the ability to do it. But those studios are not designed for fans. They're designed for television. So the audience is like 50 feet away from the stage because you've got cameras on cranes. And then you don't have your whole dialed in PA sound system, you don't have your monitor mix, it's you know, somebody is upgrading the board that does make sense for TV. And what they're used to working on is like microphones, that clip to your shirt and stuff like that. So it's fun, but it's just kind of a little bit impersonal, because you don't see the audience. And not only that, that audience is not there for you. They're just people that were on the street that got the free ticket to go see, you know, calling in or whatever, whoever it is. To do something for the day, like if you've been to like, Times Square or whatever, and they're just handing out tickets, hey, come in to the to the things and I'd be a free audience member. So nobody really is there to see you. But it's super beneficial, right? Because then your music goes out 2 million people or whatever, instantly. But it's nerve wracking to do it for sure.

Chuck Shute: 31:15

Yeah, no, that is it's different. So what you'll do, obviously, you're gonna do live shows, too. Do you have a tour lined up? Or

Johny Stevens: 31:21

can you announce that one yet, we just sold out our Summer Tour, which we're just doing, for the first time ever an album from top to bottom. We've never done that. So that'll be exciting. And then we might encore a few. The few of the hits are the classics afterwards. But it's the main show is specifically for this album. And we let everybody know that before we sold the tickets that we nobody's like disappointed if they show up and they're not seeing a classic show. So that's just a small tour. But that sold out relatively quickly. And then soon I can I honestly can't get in trouble. But I can't drop the dates for the next tour. But there will be a false run United States can tell you that. We will be headed to the UK we will be headed to New Zealand. We will be headed to Australia, we will be headed to Europe. We'll be doing festivals, next summer, all the things. It's gonna be a wild ride, you know?

Chuck Shute: 32:09

Can you say? Are you a headlining act? Is that a co headlining? Are you opening for someone?

Johny Stevens: 32:14

No, we're gonna headline and I think next year, I would love to, you know, open for someone like I'll open for anybody. I think when we started this, I was like, I gotta be careful who I open for because I don't want to be associated with this that the other interview, you got to open for muse. That's

Chuck Shute: 32:30

fucking badass.

Johny Stevens: 32:32

That was amazing. But now I'll open for anybody. I don't give a fuck, I will come and take your fans, you know what I mean? Like, I don't care who it is, I'm not snug. I enjoy it. And I really enjoy going out with bigger bands and more successful bands, not for necessarily the exposure, but more so like to learn how they're, you know, like, how they're what does it takes to get to that arena level production and that stadium level thing? And what are your what is your crew like? And how are you doing this on such a different level than like a club band? You know, I'm hoping what did you

Chuck Shute: 33:05

learn from us then? Because I mean, that was that must have been?

Johny Stevens: 33:09

Yeah, special effects and stuff. And yeah, I learned that. What I need to do next time, is have a bunch of hits in the early 2000s when rock and roll is extremely important. And obvious that I learned to find a time machine go back to 2000. No,

Chuck Shute: 33:27

because I love the new stuff they're putting out I love that song psycho. And I think that was not the early 2000s. I was like the mid. I was like 10 years ago. That sounds fun.

Johny Stevens: 33:36

All right, yeah. But they built such a great fan base early on. But I think we're on the right track. We're doing just that we're building our core slow and steady. I mean, I look at bands that go like this. And what does the rocket ship do? It gets to the top and then the boosters fall off and it might explode. And then it comes down just as fast. What if

Chuck Shute: 33:53

you just had one really big hit, but then that's all people know you for? I feel like that's way worse. Yeah,

Johny Stevens: 33:59

that'd be maddening. And I have a lot of friends that are in bands that are like that. And we came real fucking close to being that band as well, too. And I think that we're lucky that our trajectory has just been kind of a slow and steady little dip here. Little up here. And you know, more of a long. I want to do this for many decades to come. I enjoy what I do. A lot. So good at it.

Chuck Shute: 34:21

Yeah, you guys kick out.

Johny Stevens: 34:23

Thank you. But um, yeah. So I think that, um, what have I learned from you is I don't know what I didn't learn from you. I definitely learned that fucking production is half the show. Like, I love that we haven't relied on it. You know, we don't have all the inflatables and all the things that they incorporate into this show. But it's so cool that theatrics they bring into it and so that's what I want to work towards. I can't afford what they're doing right now. But I think that if I get creative with the budget I do have and what we're going to try to do this fall is bring a show like we've never brought before and I don't mean relying on laser lights. But like taking very simple key elements and props and set design and blocking things out and, and making it more of a theatrical play that has music in it versus just, hey, here's a couple of dudes in a ballroom I think that'll really be fun to try out. You know what I mean? Whether or not that works for us. I don't know. But that's what I'm going to try is bring some new elements to the show. Visually. Awesome.

Chuck Shute: 35:24

I look forward to it. If you come to Phoenix or anywhere nearby, I'll definitely come see you. I've never seen you guys live I think it'd be amazing.

Johny Stevens: 35:31

I You gotta come out. It's a whole different game for real. Yeah, really different,

Chuck Shute: 35:34

hopefully. And it's like, well, it was different because I had like, I was working like a nine to five. And so you guys would do a show on like a Tuesday. I'm like, dammit, I gotta work. Now. I create my own schedule. So if you do a Tuesday on there, I don't care. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I kept you over. I apologize. And

Johny Stevens: 35:50

I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. Honestly, grateful for it. And I hope to see you in Phoenix. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 35:56

I thank you for doing this interview. I appreciate it. Have a good one. You too. All right. Bye bye.