Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Feeding The Hunger With JONNY HAWKINS From NOTHING MORE
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: My name is Johnny Hawkins. I'm the lead singer in
- 0:02Speaker 1: a band called nothing More. We are based out of Texas.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Uh now I'm living in Nashville and we just put
- 0:10Speaker 1: out a an album called Carnal this last year and
- 0:14Speaker 1: we're currently touring on it with Disturbed.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Fantastic. Thanks for joining us.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Today, Johnny, Yeah, yeah, good to be here. Man always
- 0:24Speaker 1: in Australia.
- 0:25Speaker 3: Good, very good, nice and early in the morning, but
- 0:27Speaker 3: the sun's out. It's a beautiful day, so don't complain.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Good good.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Now, nothing More.
- 0:35Speaker 3: Release the physical version of your new album titled Deluxe
- 0:39Speaker 3: this Friday, May to sixteenth, So it's it's an improvement,
- 0:43Speaker 3: not an improvement, but it's an extension of title. So
- 0:46Speaker 3: is there is there as much excitement and anticipation around
- 0:49Speaker 3: releasing a deluxe version of an album?
- 0:55Speaker 1: I'd sink typically not. I mean, I think I think
- 0:59Speaker 1: deluxe is are fun little ways to kind of boost
- 1:05Speaker 1: the album and push it back up to the top
- 1:07Speaker 1: of people's streaming platforms. But that's that's the main goal.
- 1:11Speaker 1: I think is just you know, reminding people and getting
- 1:15Speaker 1: them to stream it again. I mean, for us, we
- 1:17Speaker 1: did have a feature on a song called Free Fall
- 1:20Speaker 1: with Chris Daughtry. So that was kind of cool because
- 1:23Speaker 1: we hadn't released that version of song yet. And then
- 1:26Speaker 1: we had some cool remixes and stuff that were like
- 1:29Speaker 1: good workout tracks or things to drive fast too that
- 1:33Speaker 1: we didn't have on it before. But yeah, I would
- 1:35Speaker 1: say never as much hype as the first release.
- 1:38Speaker 3: Yeah, the first initial release of title came out in
- 1:41Speaker 3: twenty twenty four.
- 1:41Speaker 2: So was it received the way that you hoped and expected?
- 1:47Speaker 1: Yeah, we knew this was going to be a strong album.
- 1:50Speaker 1: We felt, you know, a lot of confidence in our
- 1:53Speaker 1: bones about this one. It just had good songs, and
- 1:57Speaker 1: when we put it out, it performed as good as
- 2:01Speaker 1: we had hoped, if not better. We're on our third
- 2:05Speaker 1: single on the album, and each single that we've put
- 2:08Speaker 1: out has gone and number one, you know at rock
- 2:12Speaker 1: radio here in the States. So we have three number
- 2:15Speaker 1: ones in a row, and now we have this song
- 2:17Speaker 1: free Fall that we'll be climbing the charts and we're
- 2:22Speaker 1: knock on wood, but we're we're hoping for a fourth
- 2:25Speaker 1: number one. We'll see. So the album is off to
- 2:28Speaker 1: a great, great run.
- 2:30Speaker 3: That's gonna be a good feeling man for a band
- 2:32Speaker 3: of yours, Johanna to get so many number one hits,
- 2:34Speaker 3: you know, like it's normally it's lucky if we get
- 2:36Speaker 3: one from this show of music.
- 2:38Speaker 2: But the fact that you got Fraying Row at a fourth
- 2:39Speaker 2: five and now shows that this music, if you're starting
- 2:42Speaker 2: to be more accepted.
- 2:43Speaker 1: I guess yeah, I mean it's definitely a good sign,
- 2:48Speaker 1: you know, as long as we've been working at it,
- 2:50Speaker 1: and you know, it's just good to see. Uh, you know,
- 2:53Speaker 1: it's not the end all be all. You know, there's
- 2:55Speaker 1: bands like sleep Token, for example, who just blew up
- 2:59Speaker 1: and they're not anywhere near radio. You know, it's just
- 3:01Speaker 1: a totally different path. But for us, we have a
- 3:04Speaker 1: lot of songs that can work at radio and and
- 3:07Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So it is a good indicator
- 3:08Speaker 1: that the album's doing well.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Now, Title Deluts contains five bonus tracks, so I want
- 3:14Speaker 3: to run a three that individually so I can tell
- 3:15Speaker 3: us a bit more about the version and why it
- 3:18Speaker 3: made the top four to Deluxe. So we'll start with
- 3:20Speaker 3: free Fall that you just mentioned with our Chris all
- 3:23Speaker 3: three on it.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, we had pitched this song to Chris Daughtry
- 3:31Speaker 1: a while back, and we saved it from the initial
- 3:35Speaker 1: release because or we held it back because the timing
- 3:40Speaker 1: wasn't going to work out with Chris's, you know, promotion
- 3:44Speaker 1: schedule with his own music. There's a lot of timing
- 3:48Speaker 1: that goes on behind the scenes when you're having your
- 3:50Speaker 1: management speak with another artist management and try to make
- 3:54Speaker 1: sure you have the ideal time that you release the
- 3:56Speaker 1: track and that you're both not going to radio at
- 3:59Speaker 1: the time same time, because otherwise you're kind of competing
- 4:02Speaker 1: with yourself when you have another track at radio. So
- 4:05Speaker 1: we were kind of waiting on his schedule to aligne
- 4:07Speaker 1: and it finally did in a way that we could
- 4:11Speaker 1: release the song with the deluxe and it all worked out.
- 4:14Speaker 1: So that was kind of what went down with that one.
- 4:17Speaker 3: Yeah, and you also use a video from that song
- 4:19Speaker 3: to help out Tanaines Formarius and which may not be
- 4:22Speaker 3: as well nine here in Australias, So tell us a
- 4:25Speaker 3: bit more about them and why he decided to help
- 4:26Speaker 3: them out.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, Canines
- 4:31Speaker 1: for Warriors was this organization that really caught our eye
- 4:36Speaker 1: that is doing something we think is really really cool
- 4:39Speaker 1: and really effective. I feel like a lot of bands,
- 4:45Speaker 1: including ourselves, over the years, have been you know, actively
- 4:49Speaker 1: involved in some form of mental health awareness or treatment.
- 4:55Speaker 1: And you know, when we put out our song Jenny
- 4:58Speaker 1: Many many years ago, which was a song about my
- 5:01Speaker 1: sister who has dealt with a lot of mental illness
- 5:04Speaker 1: and drug problems and living on the streets and psych
- 5:08Speaker 1: words and jail and just kind of a just a
- 5:11Speaker 1: very very very rough life. Over the years, we've worked
- 5:14Speaker 1: with a lot a lot of organizations, but a lot
- 5:17Speaker 1: of times people that say, you know, mental health awareness
- 5:22Speaker 1: and suicide prevention and all this a lot of it's
- 5:26Speaker 1: kind of just nice things to hear and nice things
- 5:29Speaker 1: to say, but you're often left wondering what are the
- 5:32Speaker 1: actual results, you know, like how many people are they
- 5:35Speaker 1: really helping and how effective is it like the approach
- 5:39Speaker 1: that they're taking. And so when we came across this organization,
- 5:42Speaker 1: Canines for Warriors, it's something that I've personally seen work
- 5:48Speaker 1: and saved people's lives like in a way that nothing
- 5:51Speaker 1: else can. And what they do is they take dogs
- 5:56Speaker 1: that are going to either be put down like euthanized
- 5:59Speaker 1: in a like in a dog shelter, or dogs that
- 6:04Speaker 1: are just you know, don't have a home, and they
- 6:08Speaker 1: vet a person and the dog and they try to
- 6:11Speaker 1: pair them. Usually it's people with PTSD who've dealt with
- 6:17Speaker 1: you know, they're either first responders or their veterans from war,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and they pair them with these dogs, and it's like
- 6:23Speaker 1: it does something that nothing else does, is it connects
- 6:26Speaker 1: these humans with something that loves them and that they're
- 6:29Speaker 1: responsible for. They have to feed and they have to
- 6:31Speaker 1: take care of and it keeps them like on a
- 6:34Speaker 1: just a byproduct is that is that they have to
- 6:36Speaker 1: kind of have their life with a schedule and they
- 6:38Speaker 1: have to wake up in the morning and you know,
- 6:40Speaker 1: take care of this thing, and that has more therapeutic
- 6:44Speaker 1: bang for your buck than any medication, than any affirmations,
- 6:49Speaker 1: you know, all these other things that a lot of
- 6:51Speaker 1: organizations focus on. And so we really believe in it.
- 6:53Speaker 1: I believe in it, and I think it's doing some
- 6:55Speaker 1: amazing work for people and saving people's lives.
- 6:59Speaker 2: That's yeah.
- 7:00Speaker 3: There's the live version of Angel Song, which the original
- 7:03Speaker 3: featured David Draymond from Disturbed, and I believe he got
- 7:06Speaker 3: him up on stage with you and sing it live
- 7:08Speaker 3: as well for this version.
- 7:10Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he he's been coming out a lot
- 7:14Speaker 1: of the nights here on tour and singing with us,
- 7:17Speaker 1: which you know, is a huge thing for someone of
- 7:22Speaker 1: his history and accolades and everything to do to come
- 7:27Speaker 1: out and put his voice through another song, you know,
- 7:31Speaker 1: when they're doing two giant sets every night. So we're
- 7:35Speaker 1: really humbled and honored that he's doing that, first of all,
- 7:39Speaker 1: and second of all, it's just it was just such
- 7:43Speaker 1: a cool song that we felt worked really well with
- 7:46Speaker 1: his voice and with mine and is a song that
- 7:50Speaker 1: we both resonated with that we felt like it was
- 7:52Speaker 1: one worth giving another little shot of adrenaline, and so
- 7:57Speaker 1: that remix that we had done on it, we thought
- 8:02Speaker 1: was just a cool different take on the song.
- 8:06Speaker 3: So, speaking of remixes, there is a remix of that
- 8:08Speaker 3: song from Justin.
- 8:12Speaker 2: Tell Us smell that.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Uh oh, the Angel Song remix. Yes, Yeah, it's kind
- 8:20Speaker 1: of this I don't know if this is the right word,
- 8:25Speaker 1: but it's like it's some kind of retro future electronic
- 8:32Speaker 1: version of the song where there's like these sounds and
- 8:34Speaker 1: stuff that that feel nostalgic to some synth wave stuff
- 8:38Speaker 1: from the eighties, but it also just kind of makes
- 8:41Speaker 1: you feel like you're in a almost like post apocalyptic
- 8:46Speaker 1: future sci fi film or I don't know. It just
- 8:49Speaker 1: kind of puts you in that headspace the way it sounds,
- 8:51Speaker 1: but it's it really fits the lyrics in a cool way,
- 8:54Speaker 1: and like, I honestly like listening to that remix more
- 8:57Speaker 1: now than even the original.
- 8:59Speaker 2: Well, how doesn't work with remixes? Like do you have
- 9:02Speaker 2: to record anything for the song again?
- 9:03Speaker 3: Or do you just give them the existing song and
- 9:05Speaker 3: they basically do what they want with it.
- 9:08Speaker 1: Most of the time, we just give them the existing
- 9:11Speaker 1: stems And.
- 9:12Speaker 3: Have you got any in the final product Colt?
- 9:15Speaker 2: Does he give a t and you go to a
- 9:16Speaker 2: first Yeah.
- 9:17Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, We give feedback and we give ideas and
- 9:20Speaker 1: we're like, hey, when you do that our Paige Eater
- 9:22Speaker 1: part here on the keyboard, can you double that and
- 9:25Speaker 1: then bring it back again at the end of the song.
- 9:27Speaker 1: It's like notes like that, And then we'll give the
- 9:29Speaker 1: feedback and we go back and forth a few different versions,
- 9:33Speaker 1: and then we'll finish the mix and then we'll do
- 9:35Speaker 1: mastering and do the same thing with some feedback and yeah,
- 9:38Speaker 1: the process every time.
- 9:40Speaker 3: But and there's another remix on there from Matt Good
- 9:42Speaker 3: who remixes House on Sand, which also features Eric V
- 9:46Speaker 3: from Yprofile.
- 9:48Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I love this remix. It's one that will
- 9:52Speaker 1: get your blood pump. And it's just like a real,
- 9:55Speaker 1: you know, heavy electronic you know, almost like when dubstep
- 9:59Speaker 1: came out way back where it sounds like robots are
- 10:01Speaker 1: having sex or something. It's like, it's like that, but
- 10:05Speaker 1: robots are punching holes through walls, is what it feels
- 10:08Speaker 1: like with this one. And uh, you know, it's just
- 10:11Speaker 1: a different flavor. It's it's a good track to put,
- 10:13Speaker 1: like on your if you're if you have like a
- 10:16Speaker 1: workout playlist, or you want to you're going out and
- 10:19Speaker 1: driving fast. You know, it's one of one for that,
- 10:23Speaker 1: no I said.
- 10:23Speaker 3: The final new track is a new song called We're
- 10:26Speaker 3: All Gonna Die.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So this was a song that this was
- 10:33Speaker 1: the only original track on the deluxe and the sense
- 10:38Speaker 1: that the others were remixes. This one was initially gonna
- 10:43Speaker 1: be on the album, but as we started kind of
- 10:47Speaker 1: working on our instrumental you know those little interludes on
- 10:50Speaker 1: our album that have Alan Watts connecting the songs and
- 10:54Speaker 1: kind of working out the track listing and the flow
- 10:57Speaker 1: of the album. This song just didn't feel like it
- 10:59Speaker 1: had a place that excuse me, that made sense, so
- 11:04Speaker 1: we we held it back. Sometimes that will happen with
- 11:08Speaker 1: albums where we write a bunch of songs and not
- 11:10Speaker 1: all of them make it. But this was one of
- 11:12Speaker 1: those songs that still felt like an awesome song. It
- 11:16Speaker 1: just had a different vibe and where, And as we
- 11:19Speaker 1: discussed it more and more, we're like, you know what,
- 11:22Speaker 1: let's just put it out on the deluxe and it
- 11:23Speaker 1: will be like a special B side release. And it
- 11:27Speaker 1: actually got received, I think better than we thought, you know,
- 11:32Speaker 1: because we were just viewing it as a B side,
- 11:34Speaker 1: But a lot of people ended up streaming it and
- 11:36Speaker 1: really liking it. So we were really happy with that.
- 11:39Speaker 3: Pretty blake song taught them to die.
- 11:45Speaker 1: It's a real it's a real chipper song.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Mention. You're currently out on the ride with disturb it.
- 11:53Speaker 3: But it'd be remissively not to ask if that tour
- 11:56Speaker 3: is eventually going to stretch out this far?
- 11:59Speaker 1: Oh oh man, I would love that. I would hope,
- 12:03Speaker 1: I would hope that would be a possibility, But as
- 12:06Speaker 1: of right now, I we haven't been given any offers
- 12:09Speaker 1: for something like that. But that would be amazing. Everyone
- 12:14Speaker 1: watching or listening or reading reach out to disturb and
- 12:18Speaker 1: tell them that's what you want.
- 12:21Speaker 2: But you know, before you go.
- 12:23Speaker 3: Very since the last time I spoke with you, I've
- 12:25Speaker 3: introduced this segment called photo Bomb. So basically, I've trod
- 12:28Speaker 3: through your social media and I'll come up with a
- 12:30Speaker 3: couple of photos I want to know a little bit
- 12:31Speaker 3: more about. The first best off was this one made
- 12:35Speaker 3: and ipon. This is great because you never see bands
- 12:39Speaker 3: given that dramas a pat on the hand or a
- 12:41Speaker 3: bit of price.
- 12:41Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Ha ha. Yeah, that's a good one. Mark. I don't
- 12:49Speaker 1: know what that kind of pat. I don't know if
- 12:51Speaker 1: it's patronizing or if it's brotherly love. You know, I
- 12:54Speaker 1: can't tell.
- 12:55Speaker 3: Drumas always seem to get the more n to stick
- 12:57Speaker 3: that when something Fox opperts and dramas fall, but they're
- 13:01Speaker 3: the driving force behind the whole band.
- 13:02Speaker 2: But there always seemed to be the ahead in the
- 13:05Speaker 2: back of the bus.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Talk kids, true, true true.
- 13:11Speaker 3: The second one found of you brother, are you actually
- 13:14Speaker 3: taking no, not hang on, you're taking these drums? Adding
- 13:18Speaker 3: to crawbvide, Yeah, yeah, what could possibly go wrong here?
- 13:26Speaker 1: Well, that's funny you say that, because most of the
- 13:29Speaker 1: time nothing goes wrong. But we've had a few funny
- 13:33Speaker 1: instances where we had a show in San Diego where
- 13:37Speaker 1: we I played on the drums where people were holding
- 13:40Speaker 1: them just like that picture, and the drum got crowd
- 13:44Speaker 1: surfed to the back of the audience. Usually it like
- 13:48Speaker 1: it makes it back, it's way back to us, or
- 13:51Speaker 1: one of our crew guys will grab it, but we
- 13:53Speaker 1: were in such a frenzy and the crowd was so
- 13:55Speaker 1: loud it was like a sold out show that we
- 13:58Speaker 1: just forgot that the fans took our drum. And then
- 14:01Speaker 1: the next day we were at the next show and
- 14:03Speaker 1: we're like, where's our drum at and the fans someone
- 14:07Speaker 1: had stolen it, just taken it, And then it ended
- 14:10Speaker 1: up somehow with this family with these two younger kids
- 14:16Speaker 1: who ended up with the drum, and they sent us
- 14:18Speaker 1: a message saying that they tried to find someone to
- 14:20Speaker 1: give it to. So it was like a total innocent thing.
- 14:23Speaker 1: But yeah, like for days we were like, someone stole
- 14:26Speaker 1: our drum from right in front of us, but it
- 14:30Speaker 1: made its way back to us. We eventually got it
- 14:32Speaker 1: like a week or two later. It's pretty funny.
- 14:34Speaker 3: Bet Jatie jolly All. Thanks very much for your time,
- 14:36Speaker 3: brought up the album visit Crack the Man. Good luck
- 14:38Speaker 3: with your tour and hopefully we'll see you out of
- 14:40Speaker 3: you sooner or later.
- 14:42Speaker 1: Chris Hope, Well, I'll see out there in Australia.