As Barry Johnson – vocalist and guitarist in the band – speaks with Beat, he and his bandmates are in a hotel room over in Hobart; where they will kick off the tour that also features Melbourne locals Ceres and fellow US traveller Allison Weiss. “We’ve been here for about a day,” Johnson reports.
“This is our third time in Australia, but the first time that we’ve ever been to Tassie. We’ve had a chance to walk around the city, check out a few record stores and had breakfast, lunch and dinner in some really nice places. It’s really cool here.”
It was The Smith Street Band that brought the pop-punk band to Australia in the first place, touring with them in 2013 following the release of their second LP, Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired. In a move that’s somewhat full-circle, the band are also playing some select headlining shows while in the country – in venues that were around the size of what The Smith Street Band were headlining all those years ago.
“I hadn’t really thought about that, but I guess you’re right,” Johnson says. “It’s funny to think that we first toured with The Smith Street Band just as they were blowing up. They had asked us out of nowhere to come and tour with them, and once we checked out their music it was a real no-brainer for us.
“It’s cool to see that they’ve moved up to these really big rooms – we’re being told it’s going to be like that everywhere. We couldn’t be happier to be doing this with them again.”
The band – Johnson, lead guitarist Chase Knobbe, bassist/vocalist Matt Ebert and drummer Jeff Enzor – are currently touring the world in support of their fourth LP, Cody; released in October of 2016. It’s an album that has received a mix of critical response – The A.V. Club, for instance, ranked Cody in its top ten albums of the year; while Pitchfork put the album in its “Year of Disappointment” list purely on the basis that it “sounds like Everclear.” Still, Johnson finds the discourse entertaining – and, above all else, he’s growing with the album as it continues to spread.
“I’m really proud of the songs,” he says. “I do like the fact that it’s not as scrappy of a record as some of our other ones. It’s well-produced, which I like. I’ve found that it takes a little while for our music to get a response for whatever reason.
“I can remember people in California really liked this five-song demo we did, but it took almost a year for them to start responding to songs that we were playing off our first record [2011’s Joyce Manor]. I was worried that it wasn’t clicking with people – even though I knew they were good songs – but the truth is that it just took a little more time. That record is really popular with our fans now, and I’m starting to see the same thing happen with Cody.”
With four albums in the can, a Joyce Manor set can reach as far back as their earliest recordings right up to songs from Cody. As far as Johnson’s concerned, it’s all about keeping it as fun and interesting as possible – for both themselves and the fans. “We’ll get into everything if we get the chance,” he says.
“We’ll get into some old stuff, some new stuff, some weird stuff, some B-sides. We like to make sure that it’s a pretty mixed bag whenever we play. There’s definitely a lot of stuff from Never Hungover Again in the mix – just because those are the most fun for us to play. It all depends, of course.”
