Interview with Stone Dead John: ‘We have really gotten our teeth into it, you want to make sure that all the instruments breathe’

Glasgow-based blues-rock duo Stone Dead John is shining a light on themes such as fragile masculinity, loneliness and rebellion in their debut EP, ‘Daydream Under The Tree’, out on 1 June.

The duo comprises Chris Johnston (vocals, guitar. drums and bass) and Shaun McKay (guitars, synths, sampler and backing vocals). The ‘John’ comes from Johnston’s surname: They met years ago but reconnected in 2014 where they hit it off and became best friends, according to Johnston.

‘Daydream Under The Tree’ will consist of four tracks: ‘The Lost King’, ‘Kaleidoscope Visions’, ‘Signs’ and ‘Ghosts’, three of which have already been released as singles. The album title is taken from the lyrics to ‘Kaleidscope Visions’: ‘We picked a few lyrics out and that title struck home,’ Johnston said. He says of the album: ‘We have really gotten our teeth into it, you want to make sure that all the instruments breathe.’ Both ‘Kaleidoscope Visions’ and ‘Signs’ are re-tweaked, faster versions of songs that are already included in their set. ‘There’s a natural energy when we play them live,’ McKay said. ‘You do this in a natural time signature live but it doesn’t transpose well to the studio, we had to work on it.’

‘The Lost King’ is about fragile masculinity, according to Johnston: ‘We have the line “A king ain’t a king when he’s off his throne, but when he sits back down he’ll make it known”. This lyric in particular is one that I take pride in, it highlights the fragility of a king being nothing more than a mere man when he’s away from his throne,’ he said. ‘When he returns he becomes a symbol of power, a patriarch to the people. He is the judge, jury and executioner of his world, he may have to be ruthless or merciless and take lives. Strip that all away and what is he? A man, skin and bone, flesh and blood. He’s a man who has fears, ambitions, anxieties like us all. Yet to the people he’s something much more. The metaphor of this, in particular, relates to modern men, having to bare the weight and the responsibility of being the patriarchal figure, the strong one, the one that never cries or gets hurt and the effect that this can have on one’s mental health. To his family and his world he’s something much more but when in reality he’s just a man, he’s The Lost King.’

‘Kaleidoscope Visions’, on the other hand, is the standalone psychedelic track on the EP: Johnston describes it as ‘a run of the mill party song about being high’. McKay jumps in: ‘It’s a bit Jimi Hendrix at the start. We wrote the bass line and it became a fun song about rebellion and being optimistic about life, it’s sort of the opposite of ‘Ghost’.’

‘It’s so personal, it’s harder to sing’

‘Ghosts’ threw up some challenges: ‘It was a pain in the arse,’ Johnston admitted. ‘It’s more ballady, more emotional. It’s close to home, it’s so personal, it’s harder to sing. It’s about being miserable. The song is about loneliness and the contemplation of suicide “I’ve got a shotgun fever, coming on slow”, it’s a sad song.’

Its rawness makes it hard to capture, although people pick up on that live, according to Johnston: ‘It’s tough, you want it to be clean and not too over or underproduced but you want the raw emotion to come through. These new tracks have some keys – we both play the piano – and we’ve got an arsenal of instrumentation!’

They’re both itching to get back to playing live: ‘I don’t know if I can still play live properly,’ Johnston joked. ‘We’re picking parts out of a song, it’s strange going back.’ McKay interjects: ‘It’ll come together once we’ve had a year’s practice!’

Johnston is a huge fan of Brighton Duo, Royal Blood, and their latest album, Typhoons. ‘Woah, I’ve had it on repeat,’ he said. He’s also a big fan of local band, AMUR. ‘They’re shit hot, old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, they’ve got a cool style,” he said.

He would love to hear one of their songs on American hit show, Breaking Bad: ‘I reckon we could have done a better job on the Breaking Bad intro on our slick guitars,’ he laughed. ‘Or in a Quentin Tarantino film, that’d be good as well.’

‘My vocals tend to be very high or very bluesey’

One thing that will strike listeners is just how versatile Johnston’s massive voice can be. ‘My vocals tend to be very high or very bluesey,’ he said. ‘People will always try to put you down and I was definitely one of those vocalists who thought they weren’t a good singer.’

His vocal range is particularly evident on tracks such as ‘Different Like Me’, which he wrote around six years ago but released as a single earlier this year: ‘It never saw the light of day,’ he said. The band I was in at the time, Formal Party, disbanded and it gathered dust. We recorded it from home on lockdown. I like to jam stuff out, that’s often how you get the best stuff, it’s how we like to write. I like to say that things are never finally written, we might change the structure, add a guitar solo or a bass line in a song.’

He describes his songs as being fictious but based loosely on real events, like ‘Different Like Me’: ‘A love song’s a love song, isn’t it? We all know how it feels to be in love, so it’s a subjective story about falling in love and finding someone who completes you, that utopian view of love.’

As the song kicks off: ‘If I got lost in the city would you call my name, everbody round here just looks the same. I’m glad I found someone who’s different like me. You don’t wear make-up or fancy clothes, just look in my eyes and I’ll let you know. I’m glad I found someone who’s different like me.’

‘The blues have always spoken to me, you toss your influences around and see what comes out’

Johnston has always been a huge fan of Americana, citing Johnny Cash as a massive inspiration, as well as The Black Keys, Kings of Leon and Led Zeppelin: ‘The blues have always spoken to me, you toss your influences around and see what comes out. My roots were a pop duo with my friend Trig from school. We’re emulating bands like Mumford & Sons and Faulkner.’

‘Stratosphere’, another track that came out last year, is a moving track about a relationship falling apart: ‘You’re holding up the wrong side of the devil in me, I breathe fire when I lie, yeah my soul just wants to be free.
A paranoid mind, so close the blinds. She don’t wanna feel lonely. A broken spine, the loves intertwined. She don’t wanna feel lonely.’

Next up, they’re giving themselves a new challenge: ‘Our next record will be pure rock ‘n’ roll, promise!,’ Johnston laughed. McKay joins in: ‘We’re very Beatlesey, we’re obsessed, so that kind of sound is in the pipeline!’

(Photo from left to right: Chris and Shaun)