JANUARY KNIVES

The second single off Mechanical clouds is out and hot damn!  The reception has been nothing short of astounding. 

First off, major thanks to my distributor KMG and Ryan Vaughn for all their hard work!  They’ve landed both these last singles on Spotify’s All New Rock and Apple Music’s New in Rock. Both are awesome places for the songs to be heard by a huge audience. 

January Knives has also gotten some love in the press, thanks to Mikel from Purple Bite!  Here are a couple of my favorite quotes…

“Relentlessly zealous Johnny Stranger’s latest single “January Knives” ignites a spirit of perseverance amidst its volatile riffs. Brandishing their electrifying rock with the kind of dazzling rancor they’ve become loved for, the band hammers out the song’s anthemic and blistering racket into something chaotically hopeful.”

— Grimy Goods

“It’s a head banging good time complete with thrilling pitch-black basslines under punch-to-the gut vocals rising with fervor and warmth.”

— Earmilk

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the reception so far!  Coming out of Covid, I wasn’t sure if we had lost too much momentum to really come out with a bang. But these releases have exceeded my wildest expectations. 

So a bit about the song itself…

Most of the songs on ‘Mechanical Clouds’ were written when I was living in Boston. But I always like to add two or three new songs to every record I’m making, to shake things up and inject a little newness into the process. ‘January Knives’ was one of those songs. 

I wrote it as a bit of a retrospective on my first month of moving to Boston. I’ve been talking about this other places, but I guess I should tell the story again. 

It’s January 2008. Johnny Stranger just spent the last two years working out butts off in Washington State, our hometown. We had released two self-produced LPs and we were all very passionate. I decided I wanted to move out to Boston with the other members (they were attending music school out there), so I packed up my life and moved across the country. 

Things went sour pretty quick, and the other members left the group for greener pastures. I was suddenly on my own in a new city. I had to start over. 

‘January Knives’ is written about those early months of wandering around the city, dejected and lost. At the time, I was wrapped up in the negative emotions. But now - with the beauty of hindsight - I see the experience as extremely foundational for who I have become. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

There’s a lot of hope in ‘January Knives’. It was sort of raising the Johnny Stranger flag. I’m not quitting and I’m going to bring out all my knives. Slow. 

We have a third single coming soon and a fourth after that. The full Mechanical Clouds LP is coming in November 2022. We are in the process of rehearsing for our LP release show (announcing soon) and preparing some really exciting merch. 

In other news, I’m meeting weekly with Yan Perchuk and tracking vocals for album #7.  The sessions have been super productive, except for the sessions where we’ve been so engrossed in our conversation that we don’t record anything. Haha. But the goal is to finish the vocals by the end of September, mix in the fall/winter, and have album #7 completed in January 2023. Then I’ll have a few months of sharing around with industry folks before we finally release it. 

Looking ahead even further into the future… This last weekend, I got a terrific chunk of work done on the album #8 demos. We have 17 songs to work on before we shape it down to a sleeker record. Still lots more work to do, but everything is on schedule. 

Keep your eyes peeled for show announcements, merch announcements, and more music. All coming soon!  Oh, and the original 4 JS albums are all being released on Bandcamp starting early 2023. So it’s gonna be a wild year coming up. 

BONES (BURY ME DEEPLY & SWEETLY)

Photo by Madelynn Elyse.

I can’t believe it’s finally out. 

‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly)’ is the first track off our next album, ‘Mechanical Clouds’. And it’s a song that’s very near and dear to my heart. 

There’s a bit of history behind it… I started Johnny Stranger in 2006 as a studio experiment in Washington State (where I grew up). I had a circle of friends contributing to the record and we were all very enthusiastic about the project. We self-released two albums and built a little community around us. 

I would have been 22 or 23 at the time. And I wanted to pursue Johnny Stranger as a career. The drummer from Johnny Stranger (who was an incredible player and major cheerleader for the group) was moving to Boston for college at Berklee… so I made plans to follow, to keep that musical connection sizzling. 

It took me a few months of saving money and teaching guitar lessons, but I finally built up a little nest egg. I found a cheap apartment over the internet and arranged to fly out to Boston in January 2008. I had never visited, but I was going to move and pursue Johnny Stranger with all I had. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. After about a month in the city, the other members of Johnny Stranger were off to pursue other projects and I was left alone. Luckily I was able to convince the players to record one last record with me (what would become ‘Galacticus 9’). We played a sold-out return home show at the Capitol Theater (in Olympia WA).  But then - upon returning to Boston - things fizzled out. 

I spent a lot of time wandering around Boston, freezing cold and upset. I did my best to soothe my bruised ego, but I was 23 and not well-equipped to see outside my narrow point-of-view. I got a job at a Blockbuster in Central Square and just sort of… existed. 

But I never stopped working on Johnny Stranger.  And I was never truly alone. My good friend Blake (and his incredible family) lived an hour train ride out of town and they even allowed me and Blake to track ‘Galacticus 9’ and ‘Iliad & Odyssey’ at their farm. I made some great friends at Blockbuster too. And I especially valued the musicians who offered to join Johnny Stranger to help it grow. I might have felt alone, but - in retrospect- I was blessed to have so many incredible friends. 

Over the next two and a half years, I rebuilt the Johnny Stranger lineup and wrote a batch of songs for a record called ‘Mechanical Clouds’. For me, the songs just hit different. More serious and dark, with even more jazz chords and progressive song structures… it felt like my experience in Boston.   I moved before we could track the ‘Mechanical Clouds’ material in Boston. But - as you can likely surmise - I have held onto these tracks, waiting for the right time. 

‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweely)’ was one of the first songs I wrote for Mechanical Clouds. And I wasn’t entirely sure what I was singing about at the time… but in retrospect I was singing about holding onto my confidence in the face of defeat. It’s about believing in your intuition. It’s about trusting in yourself. I needed to hear that back then. Heck, I still need to hear this. But it was especially intense at the time. 

Maybe I’ll do a more focused deep-dive into the lyrics if anyone is interested. Let me know if you are. 

But to zoom out a bit… I am in an incredible place and so fucking thrilled with all of you Johnny fans out there. More singles and videos are coming. And vocals for Album 7 are being tracked as we speak. And demos for Album 8 have already commenced. My hope is to just keep music rumbling out of the station, year round, till we hit album #12. 

Thank you all again for your messages and shares. You know how to make an indie band feel HUGE!  🦁 

BONES

Hey Strangers,

It’s finally happening. Our 6th album has been delivered and songs will soon start dropping. First up is our song ‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly)’, which is available to pre-buy now on iTunes. The song is being released June 15th.  This is a really special song to me, but I’ll save that explanation for another time. 

We’ve been hunkering down and rehearsing our little booties off. The band is in good spirits and sounding great!  We’re very excited to play Los Angeles again, although we aren’t looking to actually perform till this fall. 

We’ve also been putting together merch, recording album 7, demoing album 8, and preparing to re-release the original 4 records on Bandcamp. 

So lots coming.  Thank you all who have reached out and kept in touch during these last 3 years of Covid. Things are feeling good and we’re grateful to have had the chance to get so ahead of ourselves. We’ve hit GO and there’s no stopping until we hit album 12. 

“All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What A fool I was to defy him.” - HST

Peter

June 27th update

Hi everyone. Just a bit of an update, since I’ve been quiet for a while.

First, thank you to all of you who have been reaching out and checking in. It’s amazing to be connected to so many of you who have been along for this JS journey, from fans of the old records to the new records!

Album #6 has been done for a couple months now and I’ve even (mostly) completed demos of album #7. I have single art for all of the album #6 songs (still not entirely sure what will be released as a single). As I’ve been putting artwork together, I’ve had a few ideas for how to diversify how I approach social media for JS. I’m not personally a big social media guy, so it’s a slow process, but I’ve got some fun ideas… including a podcast I’ll be doing with Adal Jamil called ‘Naked with Strangers’. That one will be more about being a musician in general and less about JS specifically.

Things are opening back up here in LA and the band is going to be getting back together to start rehearsing. Very excited to start playing with these guys again and hope to be playing shows again by Fall 2021. Music from album #6 will start coming out in 2022 (likely January for the first single).

Back to work. Thank you again to everyone who keeps reaching out! Lots of good times ahead.

Writing "Cleopatra"

You have a rotten soul. When I first moved to Boston, I got a job at a Blockbuster in Central Square. It was a 20 min walk away from the room I was renting. The job was terrible but I got 5 free rentals a week. So the first show I binged was HBO’s ROME. 

I’ve always been a fan of history and really loved ROME, especially the first season. The second season ends with the death of Cleopatra… and there was something about the scene that stuck with me. I wasn’t able to find a video of the scene, but I have HBO’s description…

Cleopatra then met with Octavian regarding his proposal that she be allowed to keep her kingdom, but soon realized that Octavian's true intent was to keep her as a trophy and to parade her around in chains in Rome. Cleopatra decided that she would not be Octavian's pawn and ordered that preparations be made for her suicide. Her method of death was via the bite of an asp to her breast. Tipped off that she was in the process of killing herself, Octavian rushed to Cleopatra's chambers in an attempt to prevent her death. The dying Cleopatra rose to meet Octavian and spoke into his ear, "You have a rotten soul." Those would be her final words as immediately speaking them, she collapsed onto her throne and died.

Cut forward a couple years. I had just moved across the country with Maddie and our little daschund Meatloaf. We had managed to rent an apartment in San Diego in the West Palm Beach.   There, sitting in an empty living room, I first stumbled across the song ‘Cleopatra’. 

I don’t recall exactly how everything came together. I’m pretty sure the intro and the main refrain (“let the Devil have his way”) came first.  I was particularly excited by the rhythmic idea for when the track really kicks in. That scene from ‘Rome’ swam to the surface of my subconscious and I based the lyrics on the moment when Cleopatra committed suicide, as the forces of Rome bore down on her family.

I think what really connected with me was the idea of someone standing up against insurmountable forces. Cleopatra was powerless to stop what was coming, but - rather than be used - she stood for the honor of her legacy. 

“Cleopatra” was written around the same time as “Pharaoh”, in that empty apartment.  “The Warlock” came soon after. Those songs were the first inklings of an album that would become “Valkyrie”. They’re foundational ideas.  They encourage other similar ideas to flesh out the story of the record. 

A couple other tidbits about the song… the rhythm when it all kicks in (at 1:29) was inspired by Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”.  The acoustic breakdown (at 2:27)  starts with a Dmaj7+6+9 with a minor melody on top… it creates a creepy vibe that reminds me of Sondheim.

In other news, I’ve been singing my little heart out.  My good friend Yan Perchuk (Vibrant Productions) has been helping me out.  I’ve been working with Yan for about 7 years.  He engineered the vocals for ‘Valkyrie’, as well as a nearly every recording for my other band, Polaris Rose.

Finishing the album is just the beginning.  The amount of artwork that I have to make is pretty tremendous.  Plus I’ve been collaborating with other artists for some fun merch designs.  There is gonna be a lot coming next year, so I appreciate everyone who has reached out looking for the new songs to drop!  You guys keep me going during these quarantine times.

More soon.

Peter