The Johnstones

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Easily one of the most entertaining bands to emerge from the ska scene, The Johnstones have been keeping themselves in the spotlight and have made sure that no one forgets who they are. Signed to the Montreal label Stomp Records, the band has released four albums and, more recently the DVD “Get on Board”. They’re known for their crazy antics, ridiculous costumes, energetic live shows and numerous questionable youtube videos.

I sat down with guitarist Jarek Hardy during the bands’ stop in Montreal in May to discuss how they stay so unique, why it’s important to stay connected to your fans and how they make it work as a band.

CONFRONT: Let’s talk about the reason we’re here today; the release of your DVD! What can fans expect?

JAREK: I’ll tell you exactly what they can expect. There are two live shows, an acoustic performance and one show that we taped specifically for the DVD which is called Get on Board. We have a bunch of music videos, unreleased, and we have a bunch of comedy videos as well as a tour diary section where we tell some grimy and embarrassing stories.

CONFRONT: Is it a lot of backstage stuff or mostly live shows?

JAREK: It’s mostly concert and stupid videos but its jam packed. We did a lot of research and watched a lot of DVD’s before we made ours and we took the pros and cons of different ones and kept all the pros and put it all into the DVD. We couldn’t put anything else onto it without having to make a second disc.

CONFRONT: How long is it?

JAREK: I don’t even know. It’s probably over three hours of material.

CONFRONT: You guys have a ton of youtube videos out so this is something that really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

JAREK: Yeah it’s kind of natural progression.

CONFRONT: How do you come up with all this videos?

JAREK: Sometimes it’s a stupid idea actually most of the time it’s a stupid idea. Usually someone says something when we’re in the van or when we’re touring and they’re like “Oh we should do this!” and we will do it. Most people are like “Nah that’s stupid” and we’re like “Yes! Let’s do this!” For example we got in trouble with the police two days ago because we were walking through and intersection and we had a camera with us and we started stopping cars to interview people and as we were doing that Rene would pull down his pants and go wipe his bum on their window. We got caught by the cops because we’re morons and we stuck around too long. For instance that is an example.

CONFRONT: This was on an intersection?

JAREK: Yes, a very busy one.

CONFRONT: That doesn’t sound very safe.

JAREK: No it wasn’t safe and I was holding the camera for most of it so I wasn’t looking at the cars zooming by me. I almost got hit like 6 times and we almost got arrested.

CONFRONT: So you guys use a lot of social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, how important is it for you to stay in touch with all your fans?

JAREK: We kind of brought it back down to bare roots and we just talk to our fans. I communicate with them and I text message them, well no I don’t text message them I did that once and it was bad news. That’s kind of our main thing, we try to stay connected with fans and talk to them and if they have cool ideas we’ll use them. We just did a show in Toronto and it was about 750 people and I knew almost every single person there. We know almost all of our fans which is so cool and if we get really big in the U.S somehow it might be kind of hard to do because I can’t possibly know that many people but as of right now I know most of the people and I talk to them all of the time.

CONFRONT: You guys are popping up everywhere and you’re really staying in the public eye…

JAREK: We try.

CONFRONT: Well you’re doing a good job!

JAREK: *laughs* It’s funny that you talk about Twitter because we kind of hopped on that train a little bit late and we tried to push it and get it big and then we hopped off because we didn’t like it that much. We use Facebook a lot and Myspace is kind of dying.

CONFRONT: Myspace is good for the music scene.

JAREK: Yeah but even Facebook has the music thing now too. We use them all but my favorite right now is Facebook because it’s more intimate and you can actually talk to people.

CONFRONT: That’s great. Can I just get a brief band bio?

JAREK: Yeah for sure. We basically started up in high school just as a joke and I didn’t even know how to play guitar, still don’t, and we named the band after our first bassist, Kevin Johnstone, who we kicked out. It was a long story with his mom. It was more his moms fault but we’re still on good terms with him and everything.

CONFRONT: Well you kept the name so that has to be a good sign.

JAREK: Yup we kept it and we all went to school and during school we realized we didn’t want to get jobs so we decided to work on the band and that’s when we started going hard on it. It’s been picking up and picking up since then.

CONFRONT: How long has it been?

JAREK: It’s been 6 years. Once we went with Stomp Records that was when we were like “Okay we’re going to be band, we’re going to try this and we love this and we’re never going to stop.”

CONFRONT: And you guys added a new member recently?

JAREK: Yeah! We added a new guy named Mike who drums because we brought Ryan up to lead.

CONFRONT: Is there a reason you did that?

JAREK: Yeah because he’s more of a lead kind of a guy and he’s kind of cooped up in the back so we were like why don’t we just bring him out front? Our whole thing is about our live so why would we keep an element behind? With drums you have to stay back and once we get more of a production budget and we can do the Travis Barker thing where he can fly around and stuff, maybe then we’ll put him back for a couple of songs. We love having him out, aside from him knocking me all over stage because he’s so lanky.

CONFRONT: *laughs* There’s a lot of you on such a small stage.

JAREK: Yeah but we try to keep it fun like that. Honestly, and I swear to God when I say this, I have a riot every single time we play because we’re all such good friends. That’s a good sum up of our bio, we’re all best friends and we just love playing together.

CONFRONT: It looks like you guys are having a blast when you’re up there.

JAREK: We do!

CONFRONT: There’s a rumor you guys were banned from Disney Land. Is that true?

JAREK: Uh huh. We’re like the only band that was banned from there.

CONFRONT: Really? Is it a story you can share?

JAREK: Yeah it’s one of those ones we can share. We went to Disney Land and basically we got really belligerent and we went into the park after hours and started trashing everything, and when I say we I mean Rene. The cops got called and we were running out of the park and they were chasing us out and they cornered us and got us. Then they tried to turn us on each other by saying “He told me that you ratted him out” and we were like “No he didn’t” and they almost caught us. Instead they took our pictures and put them up at the front and banned us. They said “If you ever come back you’ll get arrested on spot” and we got so scared.

CONFRONT: Okay so you just got banned? No one actually got arrested?

JAREK: We thought we were going to get arrested, if we got arrested we would’ve been screwed because it was our first time in the U.S. We were like “we are morons”.

CONFRONT: So you guys kind of lucked in…but not really.

JAREK: It was weird because it was California and it was freezing and we were only in our t-shirts late at night and we’re sitting on the curb and we’re freezing our asses off. I said to one of the cops “I’m freezing can we hurry this up” and he was like “Oh I thought you were from Canada, I thought it was cold up there. You have the North Pole and everything” and we were like “Easy. Wow. Racist” *laughs*

CONFRONT: Do you have a single that you like best that you’ve released to radio?

JAREK: Yeah, our newest one “Gimme your Love”. That’s my favorite one.

CONFRONT: Is there a reason?

JAREK: Well we threw in some acoustic guitar and I’ve always loved that and with this most recent record “Can’t Be Trusted” we got to throw in some acoustic tracks. I just like what it’s about and I love the video for it. *laughs*

CONFRONT: Is that your favorite song to perform live or do you have a different one?

JAREK: Favorite song to perform live is probably a cover of “Great Balls of Fire” because I just put down my guitar and I run around stage and sing into a mic. It’s just more fun to play live.

CONFRONT: Does the band have any pre-show rituals?

JAREK: Yeah we each do like 60 sit ups and 60 push ups.

CONFRONT: Really?!

JAREK: *laughs* No

CONFRONT: I was going to say that’s pretty impressive…

JAREK: I would love to say that we have pre-show rituals but really we don’t. Sometimes I warm up, sometimes Rene will warm up. We give each other high fives and hype each other up and drink a beer.

CONFRONT: Basically you guys just know how to have a good time.

JAREK: Exactly, there’s nothing too glamorous. We’re like “Let’s go! Let’s do this!” We have a lot of costumes…

CONFRONT: I’ve seen a lot of them; I’m a fan of the diaper ones.

JAREK: *laughs* Yeah! We were doing an interview a couple of days ago and it was for some TV show and I asked if we could wear them and they were like “No, it’s too gross.”

CONFRONT: Really? It would’ve brought up ratings.

JAREK: I know! We’ve grossed some other people out and we’ve learned the hard way to ask people before doing stupid things during interviews. We’ve been banned from a lot of things and we’re not meaning any offense. With MuchMusic we’ve probably done about five interviews and they haven’t been aired.

CONFRONT: Were you guys fully clothed in them?

JAREK: *laughs* Yeah we were, but it was just the antics.

CONFRONT: What can someone attending your show for the first time expect?

JAREK: They can expect to have a very good time. Our main thing is that we like fans and we like to bring fans back and we don’t want them to just buy the album and miss the experience. We want them to come to the shows so we put on a show and we make it a show and we include the comedy antics and every crazy thing we can think of. We want to make sure people come back. We put on our best show every night and we make it memorable.

CONFRONT: You guys look like you’re having a great time every time you hit the stage.

JAREK: Yeah we actually are and like to translate that to people watching us. We’re not phoney and we’re actually having a good time. I don’t like to say we’re just a party band but obviously there are elements of party and we want people to get their moneys worth when they buy a ticket. I know I’ve been to shows where I’m like “Oh sick…I could’ve just listened to that at home.” *laughs* We like to separate the listening experience from the visual experience and incorporate them into a show and blow peoples mind.

CONFRONT: The magazine has 5 questions we ask every artist. The first one is “I would never…”

JAREK: I would never join another band. I would never do that. I don’t know why. We’re too loyal.

CONFRONT: I have never…

JAREK: I’ve never cheated on a girlfriend because I’ve never had a girlfriend.

CONFRONT: First and last album you bought.

JAREK: First album I ever bought was Oasis which might have been the last one I bought too.

CONFRONT: Really?!

JAREK: *laughs* No I’m just joking

CONFRONT: Well with all of today’s technology.

JAREK: Yeah I don’t care about the whole pirating thing, download our album or get it for free as long as you have it. The last album I bought was The Gorillaz “Plastic Beach”.

CONFRONT: Any good?

JAREK: It’s awesome. I love all that British rock stuff.

CONFRONT: First and last concert attended.

JAREK: It was my buddys band in high school. It was a small band.

CONFRONT: Are they still together?

JAREK: No they broke up like a year later but it kind of got me into why I want to be in a band. Last show I wanted to go to was The Specials were playing in Toronto but their lead singer got sick so they cancelled it last minute and postponed it to August but we’ll probably on the road.

CONFRONT: Oh wow that sucks.

JAREK: Yeah that was bullshit.

CONFRONT: Where do you see yourself in 20 years?

JAREK: In 20 years? I’ll be 46, no wait 44. I can’t add. Hopefully not on the streets somewhere?

CONFRONT: Still making music?

JAREK: I see myself definitely making music. The Johnstones will still be together because it’ll never end and we’ll still be making videos that 16 year olds would be making.

CONFRONT: Still getting cornered by cops?

JAREK: Still getting arrested and in trouble. Probably, as well, have my own house and have my own wife and hopefully I won’t be living with Ryan anymore. I’ll still be making music in 20 years from now and the Johnstones will still be together.

CONFRONT: Thanks so much!

JAREK: Thank you!

To learn more about The Johnstones and to check out their music and their videos, click the links below:

www.myspace.com/thejohnstones

www.johnstonessex.com/

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/THAJOHNSTONES?ref=ts

http://www.youtube.com/user/phatbredrens

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