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Reading 2008 was a mixed bag of commercially driven bureaucracy and
drunken lunacy and, although there was one of the best big name line
ups for years taking the festival back to its rock roots, if there was
hope then this year it truly lay in the proles, the working classes
of the music fraternity. One such band fighting for exposure was Johnny
Foreigner whose debut album Waited Up Til It Was Light has worked its
way heavily into my affections over recent months. Yet they are the
kind of band who should sum up all the reasons I have felt so out of
place and cynical about Reading; young, carefree and singing songs about
parties. At a point in life when it is easy to get nostalgic, long desperately
after the youth of others and feel out of place in a world and music
scene increasingly less poignant, I cannot help but love Johnny Foreigner.
The energy they produce on record and on stage is infectious and, whilst
for those of us old enough there is a pang of grief for what has been
lost, there is a greater sense of happiness in the sonic opportunities
of hope that they offer. It was of great satisfaction to me, therefore,
that no only was their performance at Reading one of the highlights
of the festival but, moreover, when I caught up with Alexei, Kelly and
Junior to have a quick chat with them their words were just as infectious
as their music.
I am instantly greeted by three beaming faces ready to celebrate a
triumphant day in which they were all quite clearly 'feeling the love'.
The band played the Festival Republic tent and quickly had a chorus
of fans singing back their own words to them which Alexei tell me is
"the most flattering thing ever, if that starts to get old then
we should probably call it quits. The only weird thing is when you're
walking around and someone shouts your name and you realise you don't
know their name and you might have met them before and if you don't
recognise them they'll be really pissed off cause it's really rude but
that's what I have trouble handling. Everything else is like we shouldn't
be allowed to do this and get paid." The entire band show an amazing
amount of humility which I hope remains and Kelly explains the feelings
and hopes that any aspiring musician would have, "It's still a
novelty. It's amazing. I remember when I was younger watching bands
play Reading and Leeds and having audiences sing lyrics back to them
and to be in that position is like 'oh my God...'"
The task for them, however, was made slightly more difficult and interesting
by the metal band that performed before them and had built up a leather
clad sweat in the tent long before they took to the stage. As daunting
as that may have been Alexei admits "I was watching them from the
side of the stage and the crowd were all (starts to headbang) and I
was like 'awww we're not gonna get that, and then we did…'".
Whilst they managed to rustle the kind of frenetic excitement I had
hoped for it seems that the reaction they get from the crowd is not
always a direct correlation of the music they play and the energetic
show they put on. Alexei - "Last month we were in Wrexham and we
fucking played our hearts out and the whole crowd just stood there like
mannequins, but it was really weird because after the gig we got loads
of people myspaceing saying 'I was at that gig, I'm really sorry we
didn't move about all night, that's really rubbish of us', but then
you go from that where you get some gigs where it's sold out and you
get people spilling onto the stage and we get in trouble, cause I don't
have the energy to do an encore."
It's not just audiences that Johnny Foreigner have had to satisfy, critics
who built them up upon hearing their early home made demos were ready
with their claws out to knock them down just as quickly with the release
of Waited Up Til It Was Light, especially as the polished production
was not quite to the liking of some die hard lo-fi fans. Alexei tells
me that it is just 'a traditional British indie thing' and in fact they
were prepared for a lot more stick than they received. Kelly - "I
think a lot of people were quite nice about it, they saw it as a step
up but they could still tell that the guitars are really fuzzy and we'd
retained some little aspect of ourselves". Alexei - "The reason
the album sounds different is our choice, we wanted to clean everything
up, we wanted it to be a bit more of a pop record straight away. I don't
understand why you'd still be lo-fi if you could afford to be otherwise,
to me that just destroys the point of being lo-fi, that's saying that
is the sound whereas with the best lo-fi albums, it's only when you've
listened to them half a dozen times you start to notice there's shit
out of tune and it's badly recorded because the songs are so good and
it sounds like they are having so much fun."
Johnny Foreigner are anything but a formulaic band and so to try and
push them into a corner or label their music just won't work. Whilst
their songs may feature all the aspects of classic pop, there is so
much going on underneath that make them so much more worthwhile, as
such there is an honesty and real quality to a band that are definitely
doing things on their terms. Alexei - "We've done it the right
way round, we started off recording ourselves, then we got quite a pro
guy to do it and then we got an even more pro guy to do it so we still
kind of know what's going on. I think a lot of bands get into the trap
where they sign a deal, the money gets thrown into them so they go in
to a studio, do the album and come out and they don't really know, they've
just done their bit and gone out again. You live or die by your own
mistakes, I guess that's what will happen to us but it's working out
so far."
The band are already planning their follow up album and recording will
begin in the US in January or February for a summer release, which they
will hopefully tie in with a North American tour. They will be working
in the same studio and with the same producer as last time but the record
company have now loosened the reigns somewhat and this time will pay
the money to allow the band to mix in the studio. Alexei - "the
only hassle about the last album was that all the mixing was done by
email so they'd send us a mix and be like 'you know that little bit
where it sounds a bit weird can you turn it up a bit'? and your spending
a day going back and forth having this one conversation that if you
were there you could do in 30 seconds. I think our label have seen the
value of that now so hopefully we'll stay out there for a bit longer
and we get a holiday. The guy that produced it is lovely, he's like
Willy Wonka and his musical treats."
When I start to talk about the hype that is surrounding the band Alexei
is quick to jump on those jumping on their bandwagon - "it's like
every critic has been 'yeah I've been into this band for ages' and we're
like 'no you fucking haven't', but it's traditional that that (a mini
album) comes out and then you put the album out and everyone's like
'they're not all that' and somehow we managed to ride over it a bit,
so it just puts more pressure on us for the next album I suppose. We've
been feeling that pressure for the last year." They are right to
feel that pressure to a certain extent as it does feel like they are
on the cusp on something special, as Junior states "everyone keeps
saying it's just about to go mental for you guys."
I really hope it does and I really hope the energy, positivity and
humility remain in tact as well because whilst we may be missing anyone
to take the mantle from Public Enemy and the Manics we are also in desperate
need of honest bands that capture real emotion and feeling rather than
buy it and bottle it. Johnny Foreigner are definitely for real. Let
them into your world and it won't be long until you are friends.
www.myspace.com/johnnyforeigner
Text by Glitter Bitch, pix by Holly Erskine - see
them in their fully glory here
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usicm
the 3rd album?