RC: Hey we're chillin' with Damon Johnson. Rock Circus out
here in Philedalphia, about five and a half hours down
the road from Pittsburgh. But we're here, we've come
to check out some new acts that don't make our way to
often. It's a great pleasure having you back on the
show. We've had him on at Wheeliefest, where else did
we have you on, Scranton or something, you and Mike
did a show?
Damon: We did, we did a show in Scranton and I remember the
Wheeliefest especially. That was a blast.
RC: Are you gonna come back this year?
Damon: We were talking about that as a matter of fact, Mike
and I were discussing that this morning. I think if
the calender permits, and it looks like it very well
might, I'ld love to come. The Wheelie fans are
incredable.
RC: Loyal as hell.
Damon: They are, and they really open their ears and their
hearts to stuff that I've been doing musically, and
I'm really grateful for that.
RC: You were talking to me about Red Halo, you're new band,
I forget what label it's on?
Damon: We're putting it out independently, ourselves.
RC: Straight out independent?
Damon: Yeah, it's kind of Red Halo Records at the moment.
You know we learned a lot at the time we did the
Brother Cane thing and I just want to apply a lot of
the things we learned there, as far as getting our
music out to people. We learned a lot of things to
do and a lot of things not to do.
RC: The ups and downs of the industry.
Damon: Yeah and I really feel like saying that I know in
Brother Cane we had this impending desire to try and
please everybody and you're never gonna do that,
especially musically. That's why with Red Halo we're
specifically planning to focus on the people that
get what we're doing right off the bat. We wanna
embrace those people, and the ones that don't get it,
fine.
RC: You wrapped up production on it?
Damon: What it is is, it's basically an eight song EP and
it was produced by my long time friend Kelly Grey,
who actually did the last Brother Cane record. We
recorded it all down where I live in Burmingham,
everybody's from Burmingham. It's just great to be
with a bunch of guys where we can work on a regular
basis.
RC: Working off of eachother, digging what's going on?
Damon: Yeah, yeah, but right after the Wishpool record I
spent some time on a couple of different projects
but they were both on the West Coast and it was just
so impossible to get around the geography.
RC: You're not in to the West Coast thing, never wanted
to move there?
Damon: No, no, my families in Alabama.
RC: Them roots is deep.
Damon: Yeah man, I wanted to stay there with them for
sure. So I'm just stoked to have a happening band
at home. We can work like three of four nights a
week. So like I said it's an eight song EP and it
will be out July 1.
RC: Have you been out playing in clubs around your
hometown?
Damon: We've played a few things. We've really been
putting more of our energy in to the writing and
recording.
RC: Is it still kind of in the dark process?
Damon: Well to be honest with you man it's very defined
musically. We just didn't feel like going out doing
shows, a lot of shows, was the direction that we
wanted to take because these songs, I think, have a
solid home at radio.
RC: Are you guys writing in that gear, towards radio?
Damon: Honestly it just kind of happened, and that's the
beautiful thing about it.
RC: Well good music is always radio friendly. There's
never been a question of that since Elvis came out,
but it depends on what they're trying to push at
that time.
Damon: You're right about that man.
RC: I've always noticed that they play bands that are
good but they're giving us a lot of shit in between.
Damon: Well after what we went through in Brother Cane
I feel like we spent too much energy worrying about
radio and with Red Halo it was never an issue. We
just wanted to get in a room and see if we could
make a cool band and it happened on it's own. The
songs happened on their own and for people to
suggest that it's radio... like it could bring
something new...
RC: Like they say it's got IT.
Damon: Yeah, whatever that is, let somebody else worry
about that.
RC: So I imagine after playing acoustically for so long
you're ready to get out and put it in to full
throttle, I imagine.
Damon: Definatley, it's been a great kind of yin and yang
cause Mike and I have been doing shows on and off
for the last couple of years. I think it's made us
both better song writers, I know I listen a lot
better now then I ever did before.
RC: Acoustic is great for that.
Damon: Yeah man, and again I'm just so grateful to Mike
and Rose and their whole thing for letting me be a
part of that.
RC: What's your website address? Give it to the people
out there.
Damon: I've got my own site, it's just DamonJohnson.com.
RC: Do you accidentaly have people pop up on that trying
to find Doc Johnson.
Damon: Doc Johnson?
RC: The love products, the jellies and stuff. I'm just
fucking with you.
Damon: (laughing) I don't know maybe they do, they could
leave me a note if they ever do.
RC: All the lovely ladies...
Damon: That's right, but Red Halo's got a sight,
RedHaloMusic.com. We've actually got, I think
there's maybe four or five soundbytes of the songs
on there so people can check that out.
RC: Check that out RedHaloMusic.com with Damon Johnson,
former frontman of Brother Cane. A definate
distinguished voice in the Rock N' Roll community,
and it's time he opens it up again and gets out
there. We wish you the best of luck man, thanks.
For More Info on Damon Johnson go to WWW.DAMONJOHNSON.COM or WWW.REDHALOMUSIC.COM
Click Here To Look At Pictures From Interview
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