Goodbye 2022

Signing off for 2022. What a year!

Releasing ‘Mechanical Clouds’ has been a joy!  To release music mostly written 12 years ago is surreal. This whole experience has exceeded my expectations and I love that folks can finally sit with the record on a rainy day and let it become a grumpy part of their lives. 

And I have so many people to thank!  My beautiful wife and partner-in-crime Maddie for her support and brains. Ross Robey at KMG distribution for being a champ and helping to grow this army of strangers!  Ryan Vaughn of Backline Creative and Head Bitch Music for his friendship and help!  Kiel Feher for bringing these drums to life and Yan Perchuk for capturing these vocal takes. And of course my live band!  Brad Dickert, Alan Sosa, and Adal Jamil. You gentlemen are amazing with your friendship and super kind to keep hopping on the Johnny train. 

2023 is gonna be a doozy. I consider the entire release of Mechanical Clouds to be a bit of a soft boot following Covid.  We didn’t play a show and we were a bit quiet on socials (with the exception of the IG feed monstrosity). Well, things are picking up next year. 

We have a new record… album 7. We will start releasing in the spring. Around that same time, we’ll finally be back onstage here in Los Angeles. The next record is being mixed by yours truly as we speak. And if course I’m trying to squeeze in time to demo album 8. 

There is so much work that goes into releasing music and being present on social media, it’s mind-boggling. Luckily, we do what we do for the love of the art. And we always love the challenge of bettering how we get it out there. 

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey!  The best part of all this is hearing from you all. Next year is going to be a blast and I’m so pumped to have you along for the journey!

MECHANICAL CLOUDS

It’s finally here…

Releasing Mechanical Clouds is totally surreal for me. I started writing these songs back in 2019. And now it has at last arrived. Thank you all so much for following along on the journey and for reaching out with your support.

And to celebrate, we finally have merch again! The ‘Mechanical Dismay’ T-Shirt is another one that has been years in the making… but happy to finally share that as well!

I’ll write more later but just wanted to share the news!

Peter

Seeing the Future

Hi! Just a little update.

MECHANICAL CLOUDS (our 6th album) is going to be released November 2nd! Considering how long these songs have been rolling around in my skull, it’s surreal to finally see them out in the world. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the response! So many of you have reached out, it’s been amazing to really connect with you all.

Just released the visualizer for the single, “The Art of Saying Goodbye”.

Meanwhile, I’ve been having an awesome time working in my little garden and preparing future releases.

ALBUM 7. Mixing and mastering now. Still have 6 songs to finish the vocals on, but should have those done by the end of October. Hoping to release the first single in Feb 2023… which is really hardly any time at all following Mechanical Clouds. But I’m confident I can have everything ready by then. Been working on the cover art for the album itself and all the singles. I think it’ll be a cool switch-up in style and direction.

ALBUM 8 has been demoed completely. We’ll track drums for those probably around Feb 2023 (depending on a handful of moving parts). Hopefully have that record ready to be released in 2024. 14 songs to record. After we track everything, it’ll likely get whittled down to 10-12 songs.

ALBUM 9. I’ve started demoing these songs. This is our heaviest record. So far it’s been awesome. I’ve even busted out my new 8-string guitar for a change.

There are a bunch of other albums that are just in the written stage. Excited to get to demo them though! And even more excited to be sharing them all with you!

And if you’re wondering what all of this album talk is about, here’s an interview I recently did with the good gents at New Music Saturday that explains it all…

TEN THOUSAND ARROWS

Ten Thousand Arrows is out!  And another personal milestone has been reached. 

This song has been lurking around in my head since 2009. Ten Thousand Arrows and Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly) were the first two songs I wrote for Mechanical Clouds… before the theme and vibe of the record even presented itself. 

It started as a challenge by a friend. She said something to me along the lines of “You never write love songs. I dare you to write a love song!”  I initially protested. I’ve written hundreds of love songs!  But the challenge percolated in my head. 

It was one of those songs that just suddenly appears. One moment I was sitting in my ramshackle apartment in Cambridge.  The next my fingers landed on my fretboard and I began singing Ten Thousand Arrows. 

Of course, in typical Peter fashion, the lyrics grew a little twisted. The song took on a long, rambling structure, fashioning itself after something the Smashing Pumpkins or the Mars Volta would write. To go along, the lyrics soon began to portray a relationship from beginning to end, before the sudden key change at the outro of the song, where it becomes about moving on to someone new. But despite the ending twist, it still feels like a sweet song. 

TEN THOUSAND ARROWS

Angel

when you flew into my life 

I saw the sunrise for the first time

Colors cascade up into the sky

my heart flies for you

The songs I listened to had so much deeper meaning

stringing your bow

My heart pierced by your ten thousand arrows.

Eros…

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

Wait just a minute.

As my world’s crashing down

She was there for me.

Wait just a minute.

As my feet touch the ground

She was there.

Sweet little darling,

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you’re sweet as simple summer

No doubt about it

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you take it all and leave me behind

Wicked little devil

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you’re always into trouble

My dirty angel

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you take it all and leave me behind

Oh, my heart it can’t help but break

But I gotta get up and drag myself along the shore

Oh the color it saturates

But I gotta get up

When when I’m alone she was there.

She was there

Without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

Rolling over oceans for you.

Navigate the lightning for you.

Come on over.

You’re sweet.

Undercovers we’ll meet.

Like a tiger in the moon

I will capture you.

Rolling over oceans for you.

Navigate the lightning for you.

Just so I can be there for you.

As I rebuilt the Johnny Stranger lineup in Boston, Ten Thousand Arrows and Bones became the first new tunes we workshopped. We played those two endlessly, discovering new details every time. I have very fond memories of those rehearsals. Before I decided to stop JS and move to California (but that’s a subject for the next single). 

But during those days, I met Maddie (my future wife). I always think about playing Ten Thousand Arrows at a show in New York… at Trash Bar. I remember finding her in the audience every time I sang those opening lines. She tells me to this day it’s one of her favorites that I’ve written. And I believe her because she has no problem telling me when she thinks a song I’ve written is trash lol. 

In other news… vocals for album 7 are past the halfway mark. Just a few more sessions and then I’m mixing that record. 

Demos for album 8 are also past the halfway mark. I’m delivering them to the live JS lineup as I complete them.  The band members have all agreed to help me record album 8. I’m very excited about their collaboration!

Aside from that, life is a frenetic race. Our label Shark Attack Records has exploded since 2019 and it keeps me busy. Plus, there’s a ton of artwork and visualizers to make for album 7. Oh, plus the reissues of the original 4 records. I’m certainly keeping busy. 

Finally, thank YOU for riding along on the Johnny train. I absolutely love hearing from everyone!  It makes me really feel special and gives me the strength to keep chipping away at JS mountain. So thank you!

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.