Jonny Couch | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: That is catchy as hell. That is where the sidewalk

0:02 Speaker 1: ends from Johnny Couch and we have him on the

0:06 Speaker 1: on the line with us via restream. Johnny, are you there,

0:09 Speaker 1: I'm here?

0:09 Speaker 2: Can you can you hear me?

0:11 Speaker 1: Absolutely? Welcome to the show, my friend. It's it's great

0:13 Speaker 1: to have you on. I've been excited about this because

0:15 Speaker 1: I you know, I listened to the whole album via

0:17 Speaker 1: the SoundCloud link that we receiving and really good. But

0:21 Speaker 1: I love that track. I love the the baseline in that,

0:23 Speaker 1: I love the groove, I love everything about it. Just

0:26 Speaker 1: so catchy. Kind of reminds me of you know, Brian

0:28 Speaker 1: Ferry Roxy music. Oh great, just really really good. Where

0:33 Speaker 1: are you from, by the way.

0:35 Speaker 3: I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio?

0:38 Speaker 1: Oh okay, but I've been a.

0:41 Speaker 2: New Yorker for about about twenty years.

0:46 Speaker 1: Now, okay, okay, did you pick I trying to detect it?

0:50 Speaker 1: Did you pick up the accent at all? Because obviously

0:52 Speaker 1: a couple of decades. I mean, is that something you

0:55 Speaker 1: do you learn to talk like a New Yorker or

0:57 Speaker 1: do you still feel that you sound like you're from

0:59 Speaker 1: the England.

1:00 Speaker 2: No, I don't really, I don't really have the accent

1:02 Speaker 2: at all.

1:02 Speaker 3: It's just something I start using if I say I've

1:06 Speaker 3: been in New Yorker.

1:08 Speaker 2: But no, I don't really have the.

1:09 Speaker 1: Accent, gotcha, gotcha. I want to know more, of course

1:13 Speaker 1: about you know, not only out the album, but that

1:16 Speaker 1: the single Where the Sidewalk Ends. I know the album

1:18 Speaker 1: comes out July twenty fourth, Is that correct?

1:22 Speaker 2: That's corerct.

1:23 Speaker 3: It comes out this coming Friday, this Friday twenty fourth,

1:28 Speaker 3: That is correct, outstanding.

1:30 Speaker 1: You know, obviously when I hear when I hear that

1:33 Speaker 1: phrase where the Sidewalk Ends, you know, my first thought

1:35 Speaker 1: was when I was a kid, I had the shel

1:36 Speaker 1: Silverstein Book of Poetry, and for some reason, the cover

1:41 Speaker 1: of that book too. It always sticks very vividly in

1:44 Speaker 1: my mind. But but but tell me about the inspiration

1:48 Speaker 1: for that, for the for the song and for the album,

1:50 Speaker 1: and why you decided to call it where the Sidewalk Ends.

1:54 Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's funny. I am a big Shell

1:57 Speaker 2: Silverstein fan.

1:58 Speaker 3: I mean, Shell Silverstein is just brilliant in my opinion

2:03 Speaker 3: and all of all of his work. But the funny

2:07 Speaker 3: thing is I was writing this song and I am

2:11 Speaker 3: a big fan of film noir fifties kind of film

2:16 Speaker 3: noir detective movies, and also even later period when it

2:21 Speaker 3: went into color, they called it neo noir movies like

2:25 Speaker 3: Chinatown or Body Heat and all of those types of

2:28 Speaker 3: all of those types of film noir, neo noir types

2:32 Speaker 3: of movies. And so I was writing this song, and

2:34 Speaker 3: I was looking for some inspiration, and I was in

2:39 Speaker 3: the middle of writing it, and I did actually come

2:42 Speaker 3: upon a movie called Where the Sidewalk Ends, and I

2:45 Speaker 3: watched it. I watched it because I watched these movies.

2:49 Speaker 3: Sometimes I'll just randomly watch a nineteen fifties movie, and

2:53 Speaker 3: this movie's from nineteen fifty and it's called Where the

2:56 Speaker 3: Sidewalk Ends. It predates the Shell Silverstein work, oh and

3:00 Speaker 3: I and I really loved it. And and then I

3:04 Speaker 3: went back to working on this song and I thought,

3:06 Speaker 3: you know what, that would actually be a good title

3:09 Speaker 3: for this song. And so then I started to incorporate

3:13 Speaker 3: that into it, and it just all kind of fell

3:17 Speaker 3: into place, and I put the pieces of the puzzle,

3:20 Speaker 3: so to speak, together, as I was, you know, once

3:23 Speaker 3: I had that song title, I kind of wrote the

3:27 Speaker 3: rest of the lyrics from there.

3:28 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, no, it's it's really good. The uh, I'm

3:33 Speaker 1: curious on the album, So what what do you do

3:35 Speaker 1: on the album? And I mean, is it all you?

3:37 Speaker 1: Or do you have other musicians on there with you?

3:39 Speaker 1: Or because I know you start you started out as

3:42 Speaker 1: a drummer right in the New York City scene, that's

3:45 Speaker 1: that's right.

3:46 Speaker 3: I was a drummer for many, many years in the

3:49 Speaker 3: New York scene and some bands that were touring.

3:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, and.

3:54 Speaker 3: I had a punk band called The Choke and so yeah.

3:58 Speaker 3: So I do play drum on all my records. So

4:01 Speaker 3: on the record, what you're hearing on that track, for instance,

4:05 Speaker 3: is I'm playing all the drums. I'm playing a lot

4:10 Speaker 3: of the keyboard, not all of it actually, because usually

4:15 Speaker 3: on the songs I record, I'll play the drums, I'll

4:17 Speaker 3: play the keyboards, and then i'll have a producer or

4:20 Speaker 3: someone i'm working with will play bass and guitar. And

4:24 Speaker 3: on this track, this track is actually there's a few

4:27 Speaker 3: people on it. It's me, it's this producer in Texas,

4:31 Speaker 3: and it's this other friend of ours that played some percussion.

4:35 Speaker 3: So the producer in Texas, Jonas Wilson, he's the one

4:38 Speaker 3: that played that slamming bass line that you hear.

4:41 Speaker 1: On Oh oh, okay.

4:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, he just really put together this great bass line

4:48 Speaker 3: while we were tracking it, and then all of a

4:51 Speaker 3: sudden it took on the whole new life once he

4:53 Speaker 3: put that bass line down and I did the drums

4:56 Speaker 3: and the keyboards, and then he added more keyboards, and

5:00 Speaker 3: then we turned it into like this whole kind of

5:03 Speaker 3: like nineteen seventies Georgia Moroder inspired kind of peace because

5:09 Speaker 3: we added these swirlings and claviers that you can hear

5:12 Speaker 3: in the synthesizers that you can hear in the chorus,

5:16 Speaker 3: and a lot like what you might hear in a

5:18 Speaker 3: in like a song that Georgia Moroder did with Donna Summer.

5:23 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I'm a bass player myself, so you know,

5:26 Speaker 1: my ear tends to be tends to be drawn to that.

5:28 Speaker 1: But I'm sorry, what did you say? His name was

5:30 Speaker 1: again the producer.

5:32 Speaker 2: So his name is Jonas Wilson.

5:34 Speaker 1: Jonas Wilson, and he's brilliant.

5:36 Speaker 3: He actually toured with a lot of bands. He toured

5:40 Speaker 3: with The Heartless Bastards for a few years, and he's

5:45 Speaker 3: toured with Alejandro Escovedo, who's a really well known musician

5:48 Speaker 3: and he's he has many years as a touring musician,

5:52 Speaker 3: but also as a producer and engineer, and he was

5:57 Speaker 3: just a great collaborator for this track. He did the guitars,

6:00 Speaker 3: the bass or extra since I brought in my original

6:04 Speaker 3: demo with the synthesizers and drum machine. And then the

6:07 Speaker 3: first thing we did is we recorded the drums. I

6:10 Speaker 3: played real drums on it, and then we kept a

6:13 Speaker 3: lot of my sins from the demo, we added more

6:15 Speaker 3: and then he played some bass and guitar, and then

6:18 Speaker 3: we had a friend come in and played tambourine.

6:21 Speaker 1: Now I'm curious, how did you come to work with him?

6:23 Speaker 1: Because obviously where you are in New York, you know,

6:26 Speaker 1: you're surrounded by so much incredible talent. I mean, that's

6:28 Speaker 1: really the well. I guess what is the musical capital

6:32 Speaker 1: of the country would depend on who you ask. Some

6:34 Speaker 1: would say Nashville, but obviously where you are, you know,

6:38 Speaker 1: in New York, I mean I would I would consider

6:40 Speaker 1: that the music capital of the country in terms of

6:43 Speaker 1: how much talent is there. So how did you come

6:45 Speaker 1: to work with someone in Texas?

6:47 Speaker 2: That's a great question. So I have this other great producer.

6:50 Speaker 3: His name's Peter maver Georgis and he's also a great producer,

6:57 Speaker 3: and he and I did some show. We took the

7:00 Speaker 3: Johnny Couch Band Show on the road and we did

7:03 Speaker 3: some shows in Texas. We played we played Denton, we

7:08 Speaker 3: played Fort Worth, we played Austin, and at the Austin

7:12 Speaker 3: show we ended up being recommended to Jonas Wilson became

7:18 Speaker 3: recommended to us as a keyboard player, as a synth player,

7:21 Speaker 3: and so he joined us on the show in Austin

7:24 Speaker 3: and we met him there and he was just this

7:27 Speaker 3: great guy and we had a great time with him.

7:32 Speaker 3: And then I just kept in touch with them, you know,

7:35 Speaker 3: over the years, because that gig in Austin was in

7:38 Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, and so I kept in touch with them,

7:40 Speaker 3: and then eventually I said, you know, hey, we should

7:42 Speaker 3: do a couple tracks together, and so we ended up.

7:44 Speaker 3: I ended up doing four tracks with him that are

7:46 Speaker 3: on this upcoming album. Four songs that are with Jonas,

7:50 Speaker 3: and Where the Sidewalk Ends is obviously the main one

7:53 Speaker 3: because that's the title track single release. But yeah, just

7:58 Speaker 3: kept in touch with them and he added that incredible

8:01 Speaker 3: baseline and then the whole song took on this life

8:04 Speaker 3: of its own in the studio, and we started adding

8:07 Speaker 3: more and more ingredients and.

8:10 Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun putting it together.

8:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it sounds like it. It's a fun like

8:15 Speaker 1: I said, I listened to the whole thing on SoundCloud.

8:16 Speaker 1: It's a fun album. So now the four tracks that

8:21 Speaker 1: Jonas Wilson is not on, are those done with the

8:23 Speaker 1: other producer that you mentioned.

8:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, so's.

8:27 Speaker 3: It's actually quite a number of producers because the producer

8:33 Speaker 3: that I did my last record with, Peter Maverick George's.

8:36 Speaker 3: He's fantastic. He lives in Georgia now and I did

8:40 Speaker 3: two records with him, but it's hard for me to

8:43 Speaker 3: always go down to Georgia.

8:45 Speaker 2: So what we did was we and I have some.

8:48 Speaker 3: Friends here locally in Jersey City that I also work with.

8:52 Speaker 3: So this record is actually four tracks are produced by

8:57 Speaker 3: Jonas down in Texas. Two of the tracks with Peter,

9:02 Speaker 3: my buddy in Georgia, and then there's two there's four

9:08 Speaker 3: other tracks, two of them with a producer here in

9:11 Speaker 3: Jersey City and the other two with the producer also

9:16 Speaker 3: here in Jersey City, but with a studio and Hoboken.

9:18 Speaker 3: So the songs were recorded and basically Hoboken, Jersey City.

9:25 Speaker 2: Atlanta, and Texas.

9:27 Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, there's four producers on this record, which is

9:33 Speaker 3: not the way I usually do things, but it just

9:36 Speaker 3: kind of worked out that way, you know, a few

9:39 Speaker 3: of the songs were released as singles first digitally, Yeah,

9:43 Speaker 3: but I wanted to include them on the vinyl release.

9:45 Speaker 3: So it's kind of like a Greatest Hits of like

9:49 Speaker 3: a few songs are released plus seven brand new tracks.

9:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm excited about it.

9:54 Speaker 1: Your first solo album, Mystery Man, which was in twenty nineteen,

9:59 Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, and that was that also with

10:02 Speaker 1: multiple producers or did you have a different approach with

10:05 Speaker 1: that one?

10:06 Speaker 3: Right, So my first solo album was actually twenty sixteen,

10:11 Speaker 3: although oh well, it's called Animal Instinct and it's also online,

10:17 Speaker 3: but it's actually an EP, so that maybe that's why

10:20 Speaker 3: it's probably not showing up as a full album cause

10:22 Speaker 3: gotchak so online. It's an EP because it's a five

10:27 Speaker 3: song but I did release it as a five song

10:30 Speaker 3: twelve inch vinyl release and it's five songs. Animal Instinct

10:36 Speaker 3: is lead track that was produced by Peter Maverack, Georgia's

10:40 Speaker 3: All in Savannah Georgia. Then we followed that up with

10:44 Speaker 3: Mystery Man, which is released at the end of twenty nineteen.

10:48 Speaker 3: That was a ten song release, also on twelve inch vinyl,

10:52 Speaker 3: full album ten songs, also produced by Peter Maverack Georgie's

10:57 Speaker 3: in Savannah, Georgia, Okay, at Dollhouse Productions. And then and

11:01 Speaker 3: then he moved to Atlanta. And then we did, like

11:05 Speaker 3: I said, we did two songs on the new record

11:07 Speaker 3: with Peter, four with Jonas and Texas, and and two

11:11 Speaker 3: with a couple more producers, actually Overwhelmed produced by this guy,

11:15 Speaker 3: John Chinn, who lives here in Jersey City.

11:18 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, Now, when you're doing an album that way,

11:22 Speaker 1: because obviously, uh, that's not how you did your previous work.

11:27 Speaker 1: Did it ever did it ever concern you at all? Like,

11:29 Speaker 1: did you ever think, what if, you know, having all

11:32 Speaker 1: these different producers, what if it's not, uh the final

11:35 Speaker 1: work doesn't seem cohesive, what if it doesn't all sound

11:39 Speaker 1: like it goes together? I mean not that, I mean

11:41 Speaker 1: for me as a listener, Like I said, I listened

11:43 Speaker 1: to a whole thing on on the SoundCloud link that

11:45 Speaker 1: that was sent to us. And you know that isn't

11:48 Speaker 1: available publicly yet obviously, and and to me it sounds

11:51 Speaker 1: like one, you know, like I wouldn't be able to

11:53 Speaker 1: tell like it sounds like one cohesive work. But I'm

11:56 Speaker 1: curious if, as you're making the album did that was

11:59 Speaker 1: that ever a concern for you or were you not

12:01 Speaker 1: worried about that part of it, that that maybe with

12:03 Speaker 1: all these different people involved, it might sound, you know,

12:07 Speaker 1: like it's going in too many directions.

12:10 Speaker 3: You know it. It was not a concern, And I'll

12:13 Speaker 3: tell you why. It's because at one point I did

12:16 Speaker 3: this one track with one of the producers here and

12:21 Speaker 3: his names as I mentioned, John Chinn, and we did

12:26 Speaker 3: we did a song. It's not there's a song that's

12:28 Speaker 3: not on the record. It's called found Out You're a Zombie. Yeah,

12:31 Speaker 3: and it was played. It's actually been played on Sirius XM.

12:36 Speaker 3: Peter Zarimba from the flesh Tones, he's played it on

12:39 Speaker 3: his show on Serious XM oh and because he likes

12:42 Speaker 3: to play scary, spooky, Halloween e kind of songs. And yeah,

12:46 Speaker 3: it's called found Out You're a Zombie. So anyways, I

12:50 Speaker 3: did this song just kind of as a joke, and

12:53 Speaker 3: we did it kind of as a joke for Halloween

12:56 Speaker 3: because he's he's an old buddy I went to college

12:58 Speaker 3: with and he was in and he said hey. I said, hey, man,

13:02 Speaker 3: could I do a song with you? And we recorded

13:04 Speaker 3: it and it ended up being great and everyone loves

13:08 Speaker 3: it and there's a lot of people it's their favorite

13:10 Speaker 3: song to hear live. And it's crazy because it just

13:15 Speaker 3: it sounded so great that from that moment on, I

13:18 Speaker 3: wasn't worried at all about about putting the record together,

13:23 Speaker 3: you know, with a combination of him, Peter Jonas, and

13:27 Speaker 3: then there's a fourth producer, Dan Haig, who's also fantastic.

13:31 Speaker 3: But we actually had John Chin mix and uh mix

13:37 Speaker 3: the those recordings, so so John was kind of uh,

13:43 Speaker 3: you know, I had I had a good enough team

13:46 Speaker 3: that I wasn't worried about any of that.

13:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, that makes sense. And what what transpired

13:53 Speaker 1: between because obviously it's seven years between Mystery Man and

13:57 Speaker 1: where the Sidewalk Ends. Uh did you intend it for

14:01 Speaker 1: for it to be that long? I mean no, As

14:03 Speaker 1: we get older, you know, we we kind of started

14:05 Speaker 1: to realize the time passes quicker than we know.

14:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, you could say seven years.

14:12 Speaker 3: But to me, it feels like, you know, it almost

14:15 Speaker 3: like COVID was. It was really COVID was in there,

14:18 Speaker 3: and that made it really hard to accomplish things. But

14:23 Speaker 3: because you couldn't really collaborate as much with people, I

14:27 Speaker 3: guess I could have done some records during COVID where

14:30 Speaker 3: I you know, uh, you know, but I like to

14:34 Speaker 3: get together with people, yeah and stuff.

14:36 Speaker 2: So uh.

14:38 Speaker 3: Anyways, I did do a side project during COVID with

14:43 Speaker 3: a guy called Greaser Phase, and so that was kind

14:45 Speaker 3: of like that was kind of a record we produced

14:48 Speaker 3: more that way, where we set tracks back and forth. Yeah,

14:51 Speaker 3: he didn't actually get back get together in person. We

14:54 Speaker 3: just sent things back and forth and did a record

14:56 Speaker 3: that way. But no, to answer your question, I didn't

15:00 Speaker 3: intend for it to be so long between releases. It

15:04 Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, the music industry has changed

15:08 Speaker 3: so much that people aren't really expected artists aren't really

15:14 Speaker 3: expected to release full albums so much anymore. And so

15:19 Speaker 3: what I was doing instead was I was just releasing

15:22 Speaker 3: a single here in there once in a while, you know,

15:25 Speaker 3: I was keeping my music out there, and then I'd

15:27 Speaker 3: release a new single, and then I'd release a new

15:29 Speaker 3: single and then really you know, and you know, I

15:32 Speaker 3: was keeping active and keeping myself out there that way

15:37 Speaker 3: and not even really thinking about that. But enough time

15:42 Speaker 3: passed that I thought, you know what, I need to

15:43 Speaker 3: put out another full length and you know, and and

15:48 Speaker 3: I believe there's a little bit more time than I

15:51 Speaker 3: wanted to pass between the two.

15:54 Speaker 1: It's interesting how even now in twenty twenty six, how

15:57 Speaker 1: much COVID still comes up on the show show and

16:00 Speaker 1: how uh you know, the the interruption and the disruption

16:04 Speaker 1: that it created, uh that it caused in the careers

16:06 Speaker 1: of so many people, and not only that, but also

16:09 Speaker 1: this weird sort of time distortion thing. It's you know, uh.

16:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that The exciting thing about COVID was

16:16 Speaker 3: I put out Mystery Man, and I was able to

16:18 Speaker 3: promote it a little bit, and then and then when

16:22 Speaker 3: I would have really done an even harder push than

16:25 Speaker 3: it was, Lockdown, and I wasn't able to push it

16:27 Speaker 3: as hard with tour dates and stuff. So yep, that's

16:30 Speaker 3: what I'm excited about this new record. I'm doing a

16:32 Speaker 3: bunch of stuff now to promote this and some touring,

16:35 Speaker 3: so uh, it's a little bit better of a situation.

16:38 Speaker 3: They'll be able to push it harder.

16:40 Speaker 1: Absolutely. So when you were playing drums in you know,

16:45 Speaker 1: twenty years ago in New York and in punk bands,

16:49 Speaker 1: did you always kind of have Was it always your

16:52 Speaker 1: goal to become eventually a solo artist and do what

16:55 Speaker 1: you're doing now? Or or did is like if you

16:58 Speaker 1: if you kind of go back in time and and

17:00 Speaker 1: think about yourself back then, would you have foreseen all

17:03 Speaker 1: of this or or did you think at the time,

17:06 Speaker 1: you know, this is you know, I'm a drummer, I

17:08 Speaker 1: play in a punk band, and you know I'm in

17:10 Speaker 1: the moment and this is it. I mean, was this

17:12 Speaker 1: always a goal for you to get to this point?

17:15 Speaker 3: No? And you know I wish that it was, actually

17:19 Speaker 3: because it would have been cool to start this solo

17:23 Speaker 3: career and the and the earlier on. Yeah, it would

17:27 Speaker 3: have been interesting to do that. But I was really

17:29 Speaker 3: into being a drummer. That was my that was my vibe,

17:34 Speaker 3: that was my identity. I was really into it.

17:37 Speaker 2: And so.

17:39 Speaker 3: You know, at the time, I was really into being

17:42 Speaker 3: a songwriter. Because I ended up being in a band

17:47 Speaker 3: with a buddy of mine, Eric, and we had a

17:49 Speaker 3: couple of other great people in that band.

17:51 Speaker 2: It was called The Choke.

17:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, and we ended up co writing most of the material,

17:57 Speaker 3: So it was it was really it became important to

17:59 Speaker 3: me to be a songwriter, even more than.

18:03 Speaker 2: The front man.

18:04 Speaker 3: At that point, I was I was writing, co writing

18:06 Speaker 3: all the songs and playing drums and even kind of

18:10 Speaker 3: managing a lot of that band and do the day

18:13 Speaker 3: to day and the booking. But uh, you know, and

18:18 Speaker 3: then I ended up doing that even in another band

18:21 Speaker 3: after The Choke, I ended up co writing a ton

18:23 Speaker 3: of material, and so it just became important to me

18:27 Speaker 3: to be a songwriter. But then I kind of finally

18:30 Speaker 3: realized later on that I wanted to sing sing these songs.

18:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, No, that makes sense. Yeah, of course

18:39 Speaker 1: I'm curious too about the album artwork. Uh, this says

18:42 Speaker 1: here it was created by and forget me, I'm not familiar,

18:45 Speaker 1: but New York artist and Moncus. Am I saying that correctly?

18:50 Speaker 2: I think it's pronounced monchies, mon cheese munchies.

18:54 Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, and I guess I guess she's a big deal,

18:57 Speaker 1: right from what I from what I've read.

19:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, she's very accomplished because she's an artist that's had

19:06 Speaker 3: work featured in some kind of iconic books about women

19:11 Speaker 3: in rock. Okay, at least there's one very well known book.

19:17 Speaker 3: And so she's she's had her work published, you know,

19:22 Speaker 3: and she has also worked with music before. She's done

19:28 Speaker 3: work before with bands. This isn't really like public knowledge,

19:34 Speaker 3: but she but she, I believe you used to work

19:37 Speaker 3: with bands in Rockchester and do like some posters for them,

19:41 Speaker 3: and used to do a lot of work with rock bands.

19:46 Speaker 3: And so when I found that out, I thought, oh, well,

19:48 Speaker 3: that's cool. And then when I saw some of her

19:50 Speaker 3: work for the Women in Rock book, and I saw

19:53 Speaker 3: her her drawing of Tina Turner, and she had one

19:56 Speaker 3: of Sinead O'Connor, and she was, all right, someone who

20:01 Speaker 3: was used to drawing rock artists and doing a great

20:09 Speaker 3: job of it. And the work I saw was incredible,

20:11 Speaker 3: and I thought, well, I'd be honored to have her

20:14 Speaker 3: draw me on this album cover. And so she did

20:17 Speaker 3: a wonderful job.

20:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, that's excellent. And I'm also curious

20:22 Speaker 1: about the video for Where the Sidewalk Ends. This is

20:26 Speaker 1: pretty cool. I actually have it pulled up right now.

20:28 Speaker 1: I'm taking another look at it, but uh, it looks

20:31 Speaker 1: like it looks like it's all it's all outdoors. Where

20:33 Speaker 1: was this shot this video?

20:35 Speaker 3: So the director and I, Richard were on the phone

20:38 Speaker 3: and he said, he said, where do you want to

20:43 Speaker 3: shoot this?

20:44 Speaker 2: And I said, I don't know. Maybe Jersey City is

20:46 Speaker 2: kind of cool.

20:47 Speaker 3: And he said, nah, nah, nah, we need something a

20:50 Speaker 3: little bit more and I want something that looks a

20:53 Speaker 3: little bit more desolate, maybe just like empty kind of feeling.

20:57 Speaker 3: And I said, oh, we should do it in red Hook, Brooklyn.

21:00 Speaker 3: It looks like it just looks like deserted all the time,

21:04 Speaker 3: you know. And and so we so then we met

21:07 Speaker 3: up for a beer in Red Hook at this some

21:12 Speaker 3: great bar, I forget the name of it, but we

21:14 Speaker 3: went there twice, and we we did a whole brainstorming

21:20 Speaker 3: session of what the video should be and how should

21:23 Speaker 3: capture the song and how she capture the meaning of

21:25 Speaker 3: the song and all of that. And then since we

21:28 Speaker 3: were there, we went location scouting, and then while we

21:31 Speaker 3: were location scouting, we luckily, luckily came upon Sonny's Bar,

21:36 Speaker 3: which is a really famous bar in Red Hook. And

21:39 Speaker 3: then so then we were able to take part at

21:41 Speaker 3: the festivities at Sonny's. So that that was I mean

21:45 Speaker 3: that wasn't important for the video, but it was a

21:47 Speaker 3: they have good good alcohol.

21:48 Speaker 1: There, gotcha? Gotcha? So yeah, I'm looking at the credits.

21:52 Speaker 1: Richard Jordan was the director and then who's who's Alexander

21:55 Speaker 1: sarus Am I saying that right? Is that that's the

21:57 Speaker 1: name of the guy and the other guy in the video?

22:00 Speaker 2: Yeah?

22:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh that's a funny story. That's a great story.

22:04 Speaker 1: Yeah.

22:04 Speaker 3: So Richard is this guy I met at a party

22:07 Speaker 3: and he's just this great, jovial guy and he's he's

22:11 Speaker 3: so cool and he ends up getting he's actually an

22:14 Speaker 3: actor as well as a casting director. But he's he's

22:18 Speaker 3: had these bit parts and shows like Vinyl that was

22:20 Speaker 3: on HBO, and then he was in this new newer show,

22:24 Speaker 3: The Share Company, I think it's called on HBO or

22:28 Speaker 3: one of those channels, and he gets these like small

22:32 Speaker 3: little parts. But he's also a casting director. And I

22:39 Speaker 3: called him up and I was like, hey, man, we

22:41 Speaker 3: need to do a video, and he said, oh, we

22:44 Speaker 3: should have someone in it. And so we wanted to

22:48 Speaker 3: get someone that was kind of like, you know, a

22:51 Speaker 3: rocker like me, you know. And so what's funny is

22:56 Speaker 3: he he put out a casting call and he sent

23:00 Speaker 3: me like like fifteen people and I was looking at

23:03 Speaker 3: and I was looking at them, and I was like, okay, well,

23:06 Speaker 3: you know, none of these look quite right. They don't

23:08 Speaker 3: necessarily look like musicians that much and stuff. And then

23:13 Speaker 3: and then he sent me another uh, he sent me

23:16 Speaker 3: another actor, a profile of an actor that he that

23:19 Speaker 3: he found on Instagram because he put up an Instagram

23:22 Speaker 3: post and the guy, uh. He sends it to me

23:25 Speaker 3: and I say, oh, I know this guy. This is Alex.

23:29 Speaker 3: It was a guy that I'd met at a bar.

23:33 Speaker 3: And I was like, I've met this guy and I'd

23:35 Speaker 3: only met him once. Yeah, I'd only met him once,

23:38 Speaker 3: and and I only but i'd met him in the

23:40 Speaker 3: last like two or three months recently, and I only

23:44 Speaker 3: and I met him once. And I said, oh, Richard,

23:47 Speaker 3: I know this guy, and this guy is cool. Let's

23:49 Speaker 3: just get this guy. And so that was that was

23:52 Speaker 3: how he got Alex. Yeah, and then he showed up

23:57 Speaker 3: and he was just all like ready to go and

24:00 Speaker 3: excited and energetic and he had swagger and yeah, he

24:03 Speaker 3: was It was cool because the idea of the videos, well,

24:06 Speaker 3: you know, I'm I'm supposed to let people draw their

24:09 Speaker 3: own conclusion a getting to them according to the director,

24:12 Speaker 3: but it's like, uh, you know, it's almost like he's

24:15 Speaker 3: a former version of myself or something and we're trying

24:18 Speaker 3: to or or at least like you know, and we're

24:22 Speaker 3: trying to heal the relationship or whatever. I don't want

24:25 Speaker 3: to get to detailed because it's kind of opened interpretation,

24:29 Speaker 3: but you.

24:29 Speaker 1: Know, sure, sure, absolutely no. I like the video a lot.

24:33 Speaker 1: I'm also curious too about, because you mentioned touring, how

24:36 Speaker 1: does all this work live? Because obviously on the album,

24:40 Speaker 1: you know, everything's you know, there's a lot there, everything's

24:42 Speaker 1: very layered and so forth. What what do you do live?

24:46 Speaker 1: Do you have a band that plays with you? Do

24:47 Speaker 1: you do?

24:48 Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, okay, I always play with the live band,

24:51 Speaker 3: because you know, you need to bring the music. You

24:56 Speaker 3: need to bring the music to life, you know, and

24:57 Speaker 3: you need to bring it, you know. And Plus, I

25:00 Speaker 3: I'm from the rock world from the punk I was in.

25:03 Speaker 3: I was in you know, loud punk bands and loud

25:05 Speaker 3: rock bands, and so I believe in putting on a

25:08 Speaker 3: loud rock show and so I always get a great

25:11 Speaker 3: band together. I've got a really wonderful band of musicians currently. Uh,

25:19 Speaker 3: this great guitar player that has been working with me

25:22 Speaker 3: for for ten years now. His name's Andy Black Sugar

25:26 Speaker 3: and he's also last for the last i think four years,

25:31 Speaker 3: uh played in Blondie.

25:33 Speaker 1: Oh okay cool?

25:34 Speaker 3: Yeah because and and he's he's just this great, great

25:39 Speaker 3: guitar player who he plays with me in the New

25:43 Speaker 3: York band. And then I also have a great drummer,

25:47 Speaker 3: John Weber. I have a couple of drummers that I've

25:51 Speaker 3: used depending on who's available, but John Weber, Mike Mann's

25:54 Speaker 3: a few few different people that have worked with me, and.

25:59 Speaker 2: Uh uh, and you know I.

26:02 Speaker 3: Have it's great new bass player Paoul and this great

26:05 Speaker 3: keyboard player Origin and it's it's been really fantastic.

26:10 Speaker 1: Is it hard to find the right players who can

26:12 Speaker 1: really replicate the sound that you're looking for? Or has

26:14 Speaker 1: that been again? You're you're in an area where you know,

26:16 Speaker 1: you're surrounded by so much talent, so maybe it's not

26:19 Speaker 1: hard at all. I don't know.

26:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it could be, but but

26:25 Speaker 3: I've been around for a long time and some of

26:28 Speaker 3: these guys have been playing with me since the beginning,

26:30 Speaker 3: and so it's.

26:31 Speaker 2: Uh, it usually it usually falls into place. Yeah.

26:36 Speaker 3: Uh for the most part, I've I've had really good

26:38 Speaker 3: luck with that, and I've also had a really good luck,

26:40 Speaker 3: like you know, the producers that I mentioned earlier have

26:45 Speaker 3: all been super helpful. Uh. So, for instance, Peter Maverick

26:49 Speaker 3: George is when I've gone and played down South, He's

26:51 Speaker 3: arranged to have because he's a studio guy, He's arranged

26:55 Speaker 3: to have a band play with me down South when

26:57 Speaker 3: I've toured down there, and so I have this great

27:00 Speaker 3: I have this great southern band.

27:02 Speaker 2: Same with Jonas in Texas.

27:04 Speaker 3: He's had he's put together a band for me down

27:06 Speaker 3: in Texas that was the Texas Band. Yeah, and we've

27:10 Speaker 3: done two shows down there when I recorded down there.

27:12 Speaker 3: I played Texas a few times in Austin, I've done

27:17 Speaker 3: Atlanta and Savannah, and I have this southern band that's

27:21 Speaker 3: going to be amazing for this UK tour because it's

27:24 Speaker 3: like the two best producers I've ever worked with, Peter

27:28 Speaker 3: and Jonas from Texas are coming with me to the UK.

27:33 Speaker 3: So I'm gonna have Peter on guitar and Jonas on

27:36 Speaker 3: bass and you couldn't ask for a better lineup. And

27:40 Speaker 3: then what's even better is I've got these two, these

27:46 Speaker 3: two other individuals coming with me from the indie band

27:49 Speaker 3: Barrol Barrow.

27:50 Speaker 2: They live in Savannah.

27:51 Speaker 3: Their names are David and Veronica, and Veronica is the

27:55 Speaker 3: most amazing since keyboard player. She back backing vocal list

28:00 Speaker 3: and David is also in Barrel Barrow with her and

28:03 Speaker 3: he's going to play drums on this tour. And so

28:06 Speaker 3: I've got a really solid lineup for the UK tour dates.

28:09 Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome, good good? What is that happening? When

28:12 Speaker 1: do you go to the UK?

28:14 Speaker 2: Yeah?

28:14 Speaker 3: So my album release show is coming up this Friday

28:17 Speaker 3: in Brooklyn. It's at Sleepwalk July twenty fourth, early show

28:22 Speaker 3: at seven pm.

28:24 Speaker 2: And then.

28:27 Speaker 3: Then I'm playing at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park,

28:29 Speaker 3: which is next to Stone Pony, very famous venue, the Wonderbar.

28:33 Speaker 3: That's August third, and then is the UK. Then's the

28:37 Speaker 3: UK tour, and the UK tour is August eleven, twelve,

28:40 Speaker 3: thirteen and sixteen, and the shows are Nottingham, Hastings, London

28:44 Speaker 3: and Brighton and the London shows at the very famous venue,

28:49 Speaker 3: the Dublin Castle, and we're headlining that. It's going to

28:53 Speaker 3: be great. Wow, kind of our London album release show

28:56 Speaker 3: if you will. Ye, and yeah, so it's your question. Yes,

29:00 Speaker 3: August eleventh through sixteen. Are those dates?

29:03 Speaker 1: Oh, that's fantastic. Have you toured there before? I have?

29:07 Speaker 3: Actually I was in that that punk band, that Choke,

29:09 Speaker 3: and we we toured. We we we've went to London

29:13 Speaker 3: once and we did like five shows in the London

29:16 Speaker 3: area I think once in four or five shows, similar

29:19 Speaker 3: to what we're doing now, although now we're touring around

29:21 Speaker 3: so it's even better. But yeah, and then The Choke

29:24 Speaker 3: went back and uh later on we went back and

29:28 Speaker 3: we did like a whole tour of the entire UK

29:30 Speaker 3: with a with a famous band called two famous bands.

29:34 Speaker 3: It was a Theater of Hate and Jane Loves Jezebel

29:38 Speaker 3: Yep and The Choke and it was like a really cool,

29:42 Speaker 3: solid touring lineup and we played all over the UK.

29:45 Speaker 2: We've been played in Glasgow. Yeah, it was. That was

29:48 Speaker 2: a great tour.

29:49 Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic, that's great. Good good, Well yeah, no

29:52 Speaker 1: I'm coming back to the UK, Matt, excellent. Well, we

29:55 Speaker 1: do have listeners, We do have listeners over there.

29:57 Speaker 3: Absolutely well great, yeah, yeah, I'm out.

30:02 Speaker 1: This show is multi continental. I don't know if that's

30:06 Speaker 1: really a word, but.

30:08 Speaker 2: That's a word today.

30:10 Speaker 3: No, that's great, I'd say come out.

30:12 Speaker 2: We're playing great venues.

30:13 Speaker 3: Billy Bootleggers in Nottingham, the Jenny Lynde In in Hastings,

30:18 Speaker 3: Dublin Castle and London Dalton's in Brighton.

30:21 Speaker 2: These are great venues, great lineups.

30:24 Speaker 3: Everything sorted as far as the venues, the lineup, the bands,

30:28 Speaker 3: it's really really I have a great artist. There's a

30:31 Speaker 3: great artist songwriter in London named Veronica Bionki and she's

30:37 Speaker 3: playing on this bill with us at Dublin Castle. And

30:40 Speaker 3: I'm so excited because we actually did a show in

30:43 Speaker 3: Brooklyn in twenty nineteen together in Brooklyn at this venue

30:47 Speaker 3: the Broadway, and that was amazing. And now I get

30:50 Speaker 3: to play with her again in London.

30:53 Speaker 1: So oh fantastic.

30:55 Speaker 3: We're we're old friends and she lives there now, so

30:57 Speaker 3: this is just super exciting that the show is super exciting.

31:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, outstanding, excellent, excellent, Well in a moment, uh,

31:06 Speaker 1: when we let you go, we're gonna play Overwhelmed, which

31:09 Speaker 1: was of course the first single from from the album.

31:13 Speaker 1: Anything we should know about this before we play.

31:14 Speaker 3: It, Johnny, Overwhelmed is one heck of a cool track

31:23 Speaker 3: that I didn't. It's actually really cool because Peter that

31:27 Speaker 3: that's another color. It's another one that where the producers

31:30 Speaker 3: collaborated because it was like, you know, my buddy John

31:34 Speaker 3: Chin and Jersey City here produced it, but we actually

31:38 Speaker 3: had Peter down in Georgia play the bass on it,

31:42 Speaker 3: and it's just a really cool It's a different flavor

31:46 Speaker 3: for me because it's kind of a bouncy, jangly track.

31:49 Speaker 3: In my yeah, a lot of my songs tend to

31:51 Speaker 3: be more straight ahead rocking, you know, straight ahead rocker

31:55 Speaker 3: kind of power pop songs, more like a cheap trick

31:58 Speaker 3: kind of deal. But this one, this one's a little

32:00 Speaker 3: bit more bouncing and jangling and has more of a

32:03 Speaker 3: maybe even a more of a British feel, And I'm

32:05 Speaker 3: really excited about it because it's it's a different kind

32:09 Speaker 3: of flavor for me, just like the Sidewalk Ends is

32:12 Speaker 3: a little bit different for me because it's more more

32:15 Speaker 3: disco even, you know, And you know, that's that's what

32:21 Speaker 3: I what I try to what I try to do

32:26 Speaker 3: to define myself, what I try to do to define

32:31 Speaker 3: myself as an artist is I try to not define myself.

32:34 Speaker 3: I try to go off in as many different genres

32:37 Speaker 3: as possible because I don't want to be limited to genre.

32:41 Speaker 3: I don't want to be stuck in a box. And

32:43 Speaker 3: I want to be able to to do a song

32:46 Speaker 3: that goes in this direction or that direction, or or

32:48 Speaker 3: even blends genres. And that's what I really love to

32:51 Speaker 3: do in songwriting is blend genre, blends something that maybe

32:55 Speaker 3: a sixties influence blended with an eighties or seventies glam influence,

33:00 Speaker 3: because that's that's what I do, That's what I can

33:05 Speaker 3: hopefully do to be unique.

33:07 Speaker 1: Right right, No, I think you've accomplished that absolutely. So

33:11 Speaker 1: before we let you go and before we play that track,

33:13 Speaker 1: where's the best place for people to go online to

33:16 Speaker 1: keep up with all things Johnny Couch? Where where should

33:19 Speaker 1: people go to keep up with everything you're doing?

33:21 Speaker 2: Yeah?

33:22 Speaker 3: So great question Number one, of course is you know,

33:26 Speaker 3: is Instagram and so that's Johnny Couch Music, but there's

33:31 Speaker 3: no ch and Johnny. So it's Jay j O Y

33:37 Speaker 3: c O U c H Music, Johnny Couch Music, and

33:42 Speaker 3: you're gonna find me right there on Instagram. And then

33:45 Speaker 3: there's of course my website Johnnycatch dot com has everything

33:49 Speaker 3: and that has links all my videos. There's also my

33:53 Speaker 3: YouTube channel, Johnny catch YouTube channel where you can see

33:56 Speaker 3: Where the Sidewalk Ends the brand new.

34:00 Speaker 1: D Yep. Yeah, definitely yeah. People should should absolutely check

34:04 Speaker 1: it out. Johnny Couch, thank you so much, my friend.

34:06 Speaker 1: This has been wonderful. We're going to hit that track,

34:08 Speaker 1: so we'll let you go for now. But sounds like

34:10 Speaker 1: you've got a lot of great stuff coming up, so

34:12 Speaker 1: I'm sure we will have you back in the future.

34:13 Speaker 1: But thank you so much for joining us today.

34:16 Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Matt.

34:17 Speaker 3: It was a real pleasure and I really enjoyed speaking

34:21 Speaker 3: with you.

34:22 Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

34:22 Speaker 1: Same, thanks, Johnny. All right, take care, bye.

34:24 Speaker 2: Bye, take care bye bye.

34:26 Speaker 1: All right, that was Johnny Couch. We did play at

34:30 Speaker 1: the top of the segment his newest single, Where the

34:32 Speaker 1: Sidewalk Ends. But let's play now the first single from

34:36 Speaker 1: the album, Where the Sidewalk Ends. This is really good too.

34:38 Speaker 1: I like this a lot. This is called Overwhelmed.