Shepp

Hey Gang, Johnny here. Guess what? I've got a new album out called Marcato, just released this past weekend. More to come including some videos. Will keep you posted, enjoy https://johnnyshepp.hearnow.com/

A little diversion, but I'm quite pleased with this cover I did of Jimi Hendrix Experience's Fire https://youtu.be/v2EVWrrbmFE

Thanks very much, I'm glad you're enjoying the tracks. I never did pursue getting the material ready for live as I was quite busy playing out with my studio partner's band and producing, doing live sound and all the other stuff. I would have been fun to do however, it would have likely been a four piece group.

Ok Daniel, here we go... you may need to re read this a few times to get the gyst. I'm going to describe not only the tunings, but also the the arrangements in terms of tracks. The best advice I have in terms of learning these guitars is to first be familiar with the CAGE chord shapes in standard, as these alter quite a bit when you play in open tuning. Most of the songs from the Mixed Emotions era, ie, 1999-2002 were written with open tunings on the acoustic guitars, blended with standard tuned electrics on top. Lover's Canyon, Torture, and Essential Truth are standard tunings, however in Essential Truth you'll hear a capo'd 12 String doubled over the final Choruses; (Most 12 Strings that are older are never tuned to standard EADGBE, but a whole step down to DGCFAD because the neck would warp over time from the higher tension) and that was the case here. Been Down's tuning on the acoustics was DADFAD in order to get the minor/major stress points out. I believe the electrics were just Drop D, as in DADGBE. This allowed the deviations you hear occassionally on the E chords from minor to major dominant (a blue note) in the altered chorus. But of course I chop up the progression to keep it more interesting during the piece. The fingerings are quite a challenge. The electrics were a Dean Cadillac through the Marshall using the neck pickup. Nevermind's acoustics were tuned to EAEABE (keep in mind that using this tuning puts stress on the D string as it's up tuned to E) This tuning has a minor 6 flavour to it. It starts like a celtic drone with the Hammond B3 blended in throughout. The Electrics were all a 1963 Telecaster through a Fender Blues Deluxe. Torture is in Standard, quite a lot of modal movement in that one. One Acoustic, hand drums and shakers, Wurlitzer, two Strat tracks, one with a Fuzz pedal on it. Because of the repetious nature of the progression, there are some later jazzy aspects on the Wurly. Lover's Canyon has a very common progression in the Verse/Chorus sections, but the bridge has a E major 7, to E minor 7 flat 5, to A7 modal section which changes the feel to push the final chorus section. I used a 1980's Stratocaster through the Marshall for all of the guitars, and an Ernie Ball Wah on the solo guitar. Enchanted is a drop C tuning CGCGCD. That's why the main riff melody has a celtic sound to it. The electrics are in standard, Stratocaster through a Marshall with a Maxon tube screamer in between. The main rhythm guitar is a Telecaster as is the delay guitar, using the Roland 555 tape echo liberally. Then wurlitzer and a Roland MKS for synth bits. I even added a touch of tambourine. Lies uses that same tuning as described previously in Nevermind. The acoustics are doubled around a finger style single acoustic, with two tele tracks with special effects on one, delay and pitch bend from an H3500, printed to tape. Feeling's tuning is DADGBD, and the opening line is accomplished by using an octave on the 2nd and 5 strings on top of the open wash of the others. There are two heavy telecaster through Marshall guitars, likely using Boss Orange Distortion pedal, and the double stops are doubled on a third track. All of these guitars are standard tuned. Then a 12 string stratocaster enters in the prechoruses. This is standard as well with lighter overdrive. Hoping this illuminates the obviate :)

More snips from my schedule at Utopia Parkway, kind of shows what chaos I was living in, writing and recording in the gaps ======================================================================= 1/2/00 Jerry Nickel 1/3/00 Jax and John 1/4/00 Jax and Jeff 1/5/00 Stuff To Do 1/5/00 Jax and Jeff 1/6/00 Re:MGB 1/6/00 Jeff 1/7/00 Quagmire 1/8/00 Jax and Jeff 1/9/00 Jax and Jeff 1/10/00 Tech. 1/10/00 Jeff 1/11/00 Saturnhead 1/11/00 Sales Call 1/12/00 Saturnhead 1/13/00 Jeff 1/14/00 Bocephus King 1/15/00 Jax and Jeff 1/16/00 Jason Michas 1/17/00 Jason Michas 1/18/00 Mimosa 1/19/00 Sales Call 1/19/00 Saturnhead 1/20/00 Quagmire 1/21/00 Call Terry 1/21/00 Jax and Jeff 1/22/00 Steve Dawson 1/23/00 Jeff 1/23/00 Don Clark 1/24/00 Jeff & Tony 1/24/00 Meet Mark Hensley @ Airwaves 1/25/00 Jeff & Tony 1/26/00 Jeff & Tony 1/27/00 Terry Jacks 1/28/00 Jeff & Tony 1/29/00 Quagmire 1/30/00 Quagmire 2/1/00 Terry Jacks 2/2/00 Terry Jacks 2/3/00 Quagmire 2/4/00 Quagmire =========================================================================

First I would like to thank you Daniel for your detailed interest in my music, it shows you have a keen ear for details and layers, which is what I endevour to do when writing and arranging my songs, and those of my clients. There are several tricks of the trade that you have uncovered. Similar to artists like Jeff Buckley, I've always been quite eclectic in my tastes. The vast survey of music that informs how I approach arranging music becomes evendent in the layers of these songs. As a kid my first two major interests where in Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. My sisters bought a lot of records, went through their Beatles phase, and brought home Zeppelin III, on which I feasted. Then there was my parents jazz and classical collections, and oceans more... I first started recording when I was about 12, using two cassette machines to overdub back and forth until I had all the elements down. I already played drums, guitar, and bass, but my guitar was a classical, which I replaced the nylon strings with steel electric guitar strings, threw a microphone in the hole, and plugged into a clock radio I'd ripped apart in order to get that distorted tone I was after-I wanted it all to sound like Foxey Lady. Then came my high school friends, who I would jam with, record everything, and use their amps and electric guitars to learn on. By 15 I was learning all the Rush songs on Moving Pictures, drums, bass and guitar. I just accelerated from there. I have thousands of hours of tape from that era. At 17 I got my first 4 track, and Shepp Studios was born, with all my friends recording our songs, one of which I put on Youtube entitled "Absence Of Compassion". 1994 was the year I first heard Grace by Jeff Buckley, brought by the Studio by Rob Wilson, who I was producing. It was the next major spring board and so inspiring, but during those very densely packed years of producing records, I did not have the opportunity to write and record until about 1999, and that's when most of Mixed Emotions poured out. Here's a snippet of my schedule when I was working on it ======================================================== 11/2/99 Green Room 11/3/99 Green Room 11/4/99 Lavish Mix 11/5/99 Jax 11/6/99 Jax 11/6/99 Jeff 11/7/99 Thomas 11/8/99 Bocephus King 11/9/99 Bocephus King 11/10/99 Bocephus King 11/11/99 Bocephus King 11/12/99 Marq DeSousa 11/12/99 Transvestimentals @ The Brickyard 11/13/99 iMac $110.37 11/13/99 Quagmire 11/14/99 Automatic Slim 11/15/99 To Do's 11/15/99 Quagmire 11/16/99 Jeff 11/17/99 Jeff 11/17/99 Solarbaby @ Roxy 11/18/99 Peggy from SRO 11/18/99 Jax 11/19/99 Shirley Meeting 11/19/99 Jeff 11/19/99 Automatic Slim 11/20/99 Quagmire 11/21/99 Darren Staten 11/22/99 Zubot and Dawson 11/23/99 Zubot and Dawson ========================================================= (I was using the name "Quagmire" then, later I changed it to "Quagmyre", but then to my chagrin, another band started using Quagmyre, so I decided to release under my own name Johnny Shepp.) As you can see, just in November of 1999 there was very little time available, so I would slave away, starting at 10am and working until 3 or 4am. Nevermind, then Feeling, then Enchanted, then Lover's Canyon, and a few others where under development. The approach was usually a guitar and voice demo to click, to which I would slowly overdub the other elements. Vocals, there were several passes done, and I would always take home a cassette copy to tear apart. The lyrics would evolve from there. Some would undergo surgery, others, like Feeling, where stream of consciousness, just delivered vocally. Since I was wearing all the hats: Artist, Producer, Engineer, Musicians, I was super hard on all of them, but I know what trying to achieve perfection will get you-bland. So I always made sure that what ever I did gave me the chills, rather than the chringes. But Nevermind and Lover's Canyon I was never happy with then. I felt they were all deeply flawed. But listening to then now, that many years later, I realize their collective merits. Now to answer your questions: 1. With the space between the recording of each song, would I be right to assume that you just wrote/recorded all of these when you had free time in between recording other bands/musicians at Utopia Parkway Studios? A: Yes 2. I mentioned that Been Down, Lover's Canyon, Essential Truth, and I Never Missed You were favorites of mine. Do you mind sharing the story behind these songs and what inspired you to write them? A: Been Down is a spiritual song, and I did relay my dedication of the song to Ray Garraway, a dear friend who sadly passed away in 2013. He loved this song. I think because of the groove, the bassline, and the way it releases at the end, he had a huge grin on his face when he heard it. Back To You, Back To You, it's a mantra. Lover's Canyon and I Never Missed You, which I wrote the former in 2007 long after Utopia closed it's doors, are both relationships gone bad songs, quite universal. Essential truth is about a dear friend's struggle with schizophrenia. 3. You mentioned some influences yourself on your BC page. Would you include Zeppelin in there too? For some reason I thought of them a little when listening to Never Missed You (though that may just be my own subjective interpretation). A: As I stated above, always Zeppelin, Bonham, Plant, Page, Jones, all of their shades are in me. You can hear it especially in the song Disdain, but I think it cool you hear it in I Never Missed You, perhaps the acoustic guitars and capo'd acoustics are similar to Page. The little melody lines in the chorus. Yes. 4. With regards to your vocal styles, as was noted early, you certainly do seem to know how to utilize different ones. I find that's pretty rare for artists. most of the time a vocalist only has one (or maybe two) and sticks with it through their career. In these songs though you seem to easily more back and forth between more than a few different ones depending on the genre and mood of the song. Was that intentional on your part or just kind of an unconscious adaptation you naturally did? A: Always intentional yes. Like I stated above, I can't stick to a genre to save my soul, ecclectic. Just listen to Peace Bomb, and you hear to electronic side of me. The voice is an amazingly versitile instrument, but most artists stay within a style because our marketplace is ruled by strata councils of genres. I refuse to do that. Even on LOTGA we weren't intirely sure what we were, but it was Rock, and that's all we needed then. Now, it's alphabet soup of genres. More questions please if you please. JS

I've launched a bandcamp site and intend on issuing a few more releases The first one is up here: https://johnnyshepp.bandcamp.com/releases

Thanks so much guys, appreciate the props. The full channel is here if the URL doesn't get munged. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVMEJhvzoWvBeU2xncd2raw

Thankyou all for your kindness and interest earlier this year on the records and demos I worked on with MG/B. It was something I'd intended to do long before this year, but fitting as there is still a lot of interest in the period leading up to and including 1995. I hope the pain of this current crisis diminishes and we can once again attend or play live concerts and see our favorite artists. It's been a game changer for my industry and I've seen many of my contemporaries suffer greatly from depression, lack of work, lack of social contact and despair. It's not unlike being in the middle of an album production, in that you can see the light on the horizon, it's just constantly obscured and unclear as to whether a resolution is imminent, or the outcome is a disaster. We can support each other in this by keeping our eyes on the target, we will get there by remaining kind in spirit, and valuing each other. All the best to you all! JS

Actually, Matt and I were always goofing around talking in Monty Python voices, and called the multitrack recorders "the big machine that goes "bing"". Probably shows you the atmosphere we had together was generally light hearted. No doubt we kept some of that stuff in just for fun, or it was such a rush job, I didn't mute it out on mixdown. The Depeche song was totally appropriate for that line up to do, I agree, it fit in with the overall sound they had perfectly, and I dedicated a whole session to mixing the final. I was starting another project the next day and another band was in the studio space rehearsing, so I was in the control room working away under a deadline, as Matt and company where on they're final tour (as it turned out). The Producer for the other band kept coming in to listen as I tweaked the mix and he was really digging it. Again it's unfortunate all I can do is describe it, but that will have to do. My best recollection is the first time I encountered Dave Genn was at the Charlie session. Audra had been fired as manager at that point and Frank Weipert had taken the reins. At that point he was managing Big Naked, Art Bergmann, Ronnie Hawkins (Lowest Of The Low) and others. Dave was versitile and playing in Art's band and several recording acts at that time, so he was a bit more experienced. Perhaps part of it was to have him oversee was we were up to. At any rate his contributions were stellar and he filled out was then a new band at the core. I know Frank and I had many dealings after that point as he steered a lot of other acts my way. Dave and I later worked on "Hey Valerie" by Ron Hawkins, a solo EP.

Thanks Daniel, I quite enjoyed the talk with Ian and you and the stuff that came up. So with regards to the overall vibe of songs like "Awkward", it really does bare no musical comparison to AMR except being edgy and different. Lyrically and musically there no similarities. The Depeche cover is very close to the original in approach, notably faster though and without layered vocals. The Piano and Cello and Guitar overdubs create the spacious elements, especially in the tag, building up to a crescendo. There is a breakdown before the tag where Ariel does a cool tapping bass arpeggio and then the others slowly build the section more and more. A very inventive version. The lead guitar is a total hybrid, 1980's style sound with distortion and H3500 flanging and delays, to make it stand out. As with most of Matt's solos, they are chiefly there to add melodic support, like the ones you referenced in Radio Bomb. I can't recall when I orginally heard Change Of Season, likely it was in preproduction or during a break at the studio. We never did anything with it. Perhaps because we already had enough material, or that is wasn't yet fully developed.

Hi Adam, I'm glad this whole topic has been well received by the fans of MGB. The great thing about the interview was the stuff that was uncovered that perhaps had forgotten. I think given the timeline, the new line up (power trio or with Dave Genn) had a good period of time to gel and define a style. At first the reference points rhythmically were far from the more progressive folk of the previous incarnation of the band, throwing a lot more Police and Pixies into the mix. With Dave in there, this was glued. So the song titles in the vault are as follows: Last of the Ghetto Astronauts: 1. Revenge (very radio friendly uptempo track with Charlie on the drums) 2. Not What You wanted (slacker anthem, laid back and loose) 3. Leaving On A Hijack Jet Plane (Similar to Radio Bomb, a lot of humor and silliness, great drum groove, definitely a b-side) 4. If The Desert Was The Ocean (another downtempo song, the lyrics start with the line "Dolphins don't go the Heaven, they're not allowed") 5. Endless Slow Poison (Total Power trio rocker, sounds like the offspring of Alabama Motel Room and Haven't Slept In Years) No Dave on this one, just loads of guitars. ====================== The Lost Album: 1. Black Penny (Very dark and brooding, progressive song about Social Inequity, dense lyrics) 2. Awkward (the heaviest song on the record, some Alabama in there as well, but the bridge becomes a platform for Steve Codlings piano) 3. The Navigator (Amazing lyrical folk pop song, loads of cello, was intended to lead in to Joe's in Trouble from Euphony reused. We even had a seperate multitrack reel to do this) 4. Ceiling Song (Tongue in cheek song about the thoughts of a "Sunday bored little kid" with a Chorus that's just "Yeah Yeah Yeah" Given the way alot of Milenial music uses this type of hook, it was way ahead of it's time) 5. Wherever We May Go (Change of Season, Apparitions, Symbolistic, etc. Total power ballad) 6. Twelve Second Tour (Similar to Black Penny, heavy, progressive, lyrically dense) 7. Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode cover, big guitar solo section at the end) 8. Healers and Saints (Dylanesque guitar and vocal, lovely lyrics and sentiment Those are the studio recordings/masters that I retain that fall outside of the releases. I don't recall any recordings of any live dates the band did, in effect I was present at only a few shows as it was, including the Gate (Underdogs), Town Pump and Gastown Music Hall.That said, I know that when I was playing at local venues with my bands, we would always try to record the show, but that question would be better put to any members of the tour production crew the band used, rather than me. I think it likely they would be recordings. ========================= The Ghetto release does have several incantations. That's because at first it was an indie release distributed by Outside Music. Yes there were two version, or rather three, as the first had a misprint of the work Ghetto as Ghello. That release was having challenges in retail, because of the MGB title, so fans would ask for Matthew Good Band, but staff would not locate it. So, the full band name became the rejig you see on the second release, still under Outside. Eventually, the title would migrate through to A&M and UMG though I'm not sure when. When Raygun was released, it was intended for marketing in the US, but Private Music/Windham Hill ceased to exist, so it got absorbed into the Darktown label, which was the company Simkin and Co. set up to administer all aspects of the MGB and MG business, so Darktown is an indie label distributed at that point. I only have the cardboard version with the swirly grey CD art. Try not confuse EMI publishing with EMI the Record label, they are different entities. The result of all these versions is really a sign of the mergers that occurred during the 1990's and has resulted in some unique and different CD's. E&OE

You're welcome, Millstone, yes I would tend to agree, but you never know, with age sometimes you get sentimental. Yes, it was recorded on linear digital tape. The studio had a good compliment of decent tube preamps, and the console was english (an Allen and Heath with VCA automation)

Yes I do have the full digital master of Euphony. At this point it is in the vault. If there was a desire to release it digitally, that process could be done. The 15 hours material I am unaware of any digital media that was kept. It may have just been a cassette, given we were using the studio as part of an award. I know the Sony DASH tapes were provided free of charge and likely reused later by students. It was a studio used by either Trebas or Columbia Academy at the time. It's likely my assistants on that session were all students as well.

Very sad news. RIP Rich Rock