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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Adventure Records Q and A (and A)

ADVENTURE RECORDS Q&A WITH TOM and JOHN COMMON

TOM: When did you start as a solo act and how did you all meet the people who play in your backing band?
JOHN:I've always played a lot of solo shows -- even when I've been in bands.  But I started playing out under my name in 2004.  I've met the people who I play(ed) with in a variety of ways: prison, track and field events, probation, Match.com, parole, laundry mats, bars, AA meetings, at the mosque, table tennis tournaments, bookstores, break rooms, head-on collisions, HVAC repair, duck decoy carving clubs, bocce ball in the park, Alaskan cruises, swingers clubs, but mostly want ads in Guns And Ammo Magazine.

Who all has been in your band?
I've played and continue to play with an amazing group of artists and musicians: Scott Davies, Ian Hlatky, Matt Sumner, Jed Marrs, Steve Richards, Jessica De Nicola, Tom Germain, Kevin Meyer,  Steve Millin, Dan Luehring,  Paul Childs, John Horan, Carl Sorensen, Wes Michaels, Jon Wirtz, Matt Gilliam, a French girl, Brian McRae, Matt Baranowski, Rick Abercrombie, Paul Ewald, Tom Zingaro, Paula Ailshie, Sara Thorpe, Jimmy Stofer, Jeremy Lawton, Cheyenne Kowal, Larry Joireman and some other folks I think I'm forgetting (sorry).

What are the names of your current band members?
We just started playing out under the sublime and revealing title "John Common and Blinding Flashes of Light"... comprised of:

John Common -- songs, guitars, piano, organ, samples, vocals
Jess De Nicola Mefford -- vocals, keys
Wes Michaels -- cello
Carl Sorensen -- drums
Jimmy Stofer -- bass, vocals
Jon Wirtz -- piano, organ, melodica, accordion, xylophone

What prompted you to perform music under your own name (perhaps "John Common" is a stage name?)?
Out-of-control narcissism fed by persistent delusions of grandeur.  That, and I got tired of the inevitable band break up drama... That's seems to be the only thing that bands consistently do well.  Now, it's just a bunch of friends playing music.  Folks come and go au naturel.  It's the difference between shacking up and marriage. Also it's exhausting and soul crushing to try and come up with a new band name... and then you have to order new monogrammed towels.  It's just a hassle.

Past or side projects?
I had a little carnival act for a while based out of Poughkeepsie... We worked the dancing bear circuit that went from New England out to Upper Michigan -- they go crazy for that shit up there.  But we weren't content to just do the normal dancing bear act.  We did something special -- we called it "Bear Birthday".  Every night, we ended the show with the bear being lit on fire and set loose in the tent.  It looked real, but we put a bear coat on the bear before we sent him out there.  Got lots of press from that gig for a while but then OSHA shut me down.  PETA came after me hard too.  Some people call it "animal cruelty", others call it "artistic license"  May he who is guiltless cast the first stone.  That's what I say.

Musical influences/touchstones?  Or who are you really into?
This used to be an easier question for me... but over the last several years, I've consciously tried to step away from whatever music was currently popular -- with mixed success.  The flavor-of-the-month thing really started to get to me.  So I've been feeding myself a steady diet of Lionel Richie and Pat Benatar.  On my iPod currently: David Bowie, Daniel Johnston, Giant Sand, Matt Mays, Mike Doughty, Tord Gustavsen, Karate, Otis Redding, Sigur Ros, Oscar Peterson, Erik Satie, Yusef Lateef and Bon Iver.  I grew up listening to Neil Young, The Beatles, The Cars, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, Frank Sinatra and Baptist hymns.

How would you describe your music to people?
How about this: The delicate give-and-take between a very large pacifist with Tourettes and a very pissed midget with thin skin.  Or... my internal dialogue amplified through a series of late night conversations with close friends.

How many releases do you have, what are they called and when did they come out?
Discography:
Why Birds Fly - 2007 - Free School Records
Good To Be Born - 2006 - Free School Records
The Longest Street In America - 2003 - Free School Records
Collecting Empties - 1999 - Free School Records

I'm currently working on a couple of new records.  More info soon.

Do you have any non-musical influences on your music?
I like writing and writers... mostly short stories.  I think about character quite a lot in my songs.  In my mind, songwriting is writing for lazy people with ADHD (i.e. me).  I also like film.  I think both inform my music somehow.  Or maybe I just want them to inform my music.  Is there a difference?  Probably.

Your biggest frustrations as an artist?
I used to have more frustrations.  But they finally got my meds right and I stopped caring so much.  Now I'm mostly just frustrated by two things: a) art(ists) who focus more on the business than their art (it almost always shows); b) venues that don't understand or care how to frame and support live music performance.

Proudest moments as an artist?
Two strippers randomly showed up to a Rainville gig years ago down in Colorado Springs, land of Focus on the Family.  They stripped utterly buck naked right in front of the band and the rest of the crowd.  It happened to be the first gig of our new drummer, Larry Joireman.  After they stripped naked, I turned to him between songs and calmly said, "This happens all the time man.  Get used to it."  That was a bald faced lie of course.  I keep waiting for it to happen again.  It's like seeing a unicorn in your bathroom one morning.  You just can't bank on that being a regular thing.

What have been the weirdest comparisons you’ve received and what have been the most flatteringly accurate comparisons?
Weirdest: Queen
Flattering: "...sounds like what you'd hear in your head while standing in a downpour in a Kings Table parking lot near Sioux City, watching your girlfriend peel out onto the highway in your truck. Like what youd want in a dark Alabama bar at 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Like miles of deserted Minnesota blacktop."

What ambitions do you have for your music?
Yes... music opens so many doors.  I'm angling to parlay my fabulous musical success into a career in cosmetic dentistry or rough carpentry or wind farming or laser hair removal or perhaps lawn care.

What have been your strongest show memories (good, bad, funny…anything that left a major impression).
Please see my proudest moment as an artist, above.

You've been known for undertaking covering the entire Rain Dogs album by Tom Waits.  Why that album in particular? Do you have plans for a similar performance with a different artist and/or album?
Why I covered Rain Dogs: The first time I heard ‘Rain Dogs’ was in the back seat of a girl’s beat-up VW Scirocco when I was 18 years old.  This was in Pensacola, Florida, my home town.  It was raining like an old testament story that summer afternoon (“It was raining hammers, it was raining nails”, as Tom would say).  As we drove around East Hill through buckets of rain smoking cigarettes with the windows barely cracked, I was only thinking two things: ‘I am in love with this girl and she will clearly never love me back’ and ‘What is this weird and beautiful music’?  I’d never heard anything like it before.

Future plans for a similar show: Yes.  I'm cooking something up.  But I can't talk about it yet. It's double secret.

Are there particular themes you feel that you explore in your music? If so, what are they and why are these themes so resonant with you?
You've heard of someone having a "Messiah Complex"?  I don't have that.  i have more of a "Messiah's Plumber Complex".

~or~

I can't answer this question.  It would require a level of self analysis that I'm not prepared for. 

Posted By John Common at: 12:10 am