People Profile: Great John Himself

My first experience of roots rock band Great John Himself was while seeing them play in an inter-school talent competition in 2011. Even then their sound struck me as different and awesome and since then I have been graced by their lively on stage presence many times at local festivals and bars. Great John's six members - Francis, Edward, Damon, Will, Ben and Joel, create energy filled tunes with a blend of rock, ska and blues sounds. I had a chat to them about who they are as a band and what they've been up to recently. 

So who are you?

Great John Himself is a frame of mind, a way of life and a band. We play a blend of rock, roots, blues and ska music with the intention of making people laugh, drink and dance together.

How did you guys come to begin playing together?

We started in high school with the intention of being a blues band, but then gradually took on a little bit of everyone's personality and it became its own thing entirely.

Have you had any big ‘turning points’ in your time together as a band?

Making the grand final of the FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands was big for us and got us a spot on the 2014 Pushover lineup. The addition of our sixth member earlier this year was a big thing for us too. Joel fills a large void within John that we had previously been unable to satisfy.

What are your major musical (or otherwise) influences?

Lorde is and will always be the biggest influence on how we choose to live our lives. Musically however, Talking Heads, Reel Big Fish, Cake and Tim Minchin are all acts we're big fans of. Still not as much as Lorde though.

Who is John?

John is not in fact a person, but a feeling. You could compare it to the joy of putting on a newly washed pair of jeans and finding a $10 note in the pocket or the rush of smelling a freshly opened tin of tennis balls.

What do you like about the new single?

Turd In the Punchbowl is our first recording as a six piece and is probably the closest we have gotten so far to capturing our live show in a recording. It's something we're all quite happy with.

If you were to sum up your band in 3 words what would they be?

Friendship. Teamwork. Love.

Where do I get one of those cool Great John bottle openers I see everyone with?

We'll always have a box of them with us when we play and at least one on each of our key rings. You can thank Emilio Borrelli for them.

How can we find out more about you?

Our Facebook page is the best means of keeping up with all things Great and John and our Bandcamp page has all of our music to date. For our opinions on all things Moonee Valley, you can find us as the face of March 2015 in the Moonee Valley Council calendar.

You can also catch Great John Himself live at the Brunswick Hotel on the 15th of January, the Vineyard on the 29th of January and Moomba Festival on the 8th of March 2015. Further details can be found on their Facebook page.

-B

*Mosaik does not take credit for any of the images used in this article