Shiver: Interview with Thom Johnston & April on their new single
This last Friday, Thom Johnston and April released their collaborative single, Shiver, a country-inspired folk indie track. I did separate interviews with Thom and April to learn more about Shiver, them as artists and their upcoming gig at Bar Open on September 4th.
April and Thom Johnston, Image taken by Jaz Cooper
So what exactly is Shiver about?
It was originally about, I guess, personal experiences with wanting to help someone who didn't really wanna be helped.
You know, when you've got that kind of relationship with someone that you're really close with, whether it's like a partner or, you know, a friend or family and they're in a tough spot and you wanna help them.
But they're not really ready to accept that help or they’re just denying it.
But you’re always there anyways, just in case they're ready one day.
But then again, I showed people and they're like, Oh, it's a love song!
And I'm like, Oh, I guess technically it's a love song because this is like for someone you love, but it's not particularly a romantic song.
Then there's been other people who are like, Oh, it's a road trip song.
And I'm like, okay. I guess it's a road trip song as well.
I’ve kind of loved hearing back from people and seeing what they think it's about.
Especially when like, you know, you can look into the lyrics and, I guess, it's maybe not completely obvious.
So sometimes they come up with a completely different interpretation of it.
It's kind of opened up a bit more because I've heard other people's interpretations of it, which is really cool.
It's like the face of love.
That's the basic description I can give of it.
Sometimes people just decide for themselves.
Exactly. Yeah.
I guess my experience may be different from someone else’s.
You know, I've been lucky enough or, maybe I'm not lucky enough.
Like my past relationships haven't had many vices.
It was just the actual relationship that didn't work out.
But I guess for a lot of people, their experience with this particular scenario would be associated with their past relationships.
So I can definitely understand how it's a love song.
And I kind of started seeing it more like that.
I even said to April the other day, I'm like, is Shiver a fucking love song?
Did we put out a love song?
She was like, I dunno, I guess I'll just keep wondering.
Did you have a similar interpretation of Shiver to Thom?
Yes, 100%.
What’s beautiful about Thom showing me this song and explaining that, was that I have lived that. And very recently as well.
So it kind of really reflects on a time of my life that wasn't even that long ago that, and I feel like I can really connect with those lyrics, in obviously my own individual way, but in the way that Thom was initially writing it too.
I'm always quite an empath and wanting to help people around me when I can sense things are wrong, whether they verbalize it or not.
So it's kind of just like, I guess, surrendering in a way to the fact that that's not always gonna be the case.
Like you can't always just help everyone.
But no matter what, you'll always be there anyway.
Like, even if it's just in the background.
And whether that means something to another person, that's what's important to me.
Always having that safety net kind of around, even if it can't be interpreted.
It's like just that underlying feeling of it's always gonna be there kind of thing.
Whether or not it works out.
And I know people are gonna interpret it in many different ways, which I love.
That's what the most beautiful thing about music is.
Once you put a song out there, it's not really just yours anymore.
It's kind of everyone's who listens to it and I think that's really special.
April and Thom Johnston, Image taken by Jaz Cooper
There's so much commitment and effort put into creating and performing and getting your music out there. Having to be the artist, market, email venues, record, etc. What motivates you to create and perform music?
I think when you first start playing music, it's very much you kind of go through this really weird cycle.
You start playing music 'cause you love music.
And then you go through the next steps of like, okay, I'm running songs, but they're not going particularly well in front of these crowds.
Maybe I'm running too many sad songs?
Or maybe I'm running songs that aren't good enough to be put in front of people?
So you start catering a bit more to the crowd.
Then you turn to a point where you're like, do I like my music?
And then you go back to just playing music 'cause you love it.
It's like a really weird cycle that once you've gone through the whole trials and tribulations of trying to figure out what your music means to you and what your driving force is, it always just comes back to being like, oh. I actually just like playing music, you know, at the baseline.
What’s your driving force?
For me, its wanting to be one person's favourite artist.
That's always been my goal.
Just to have one person who isn't either directly related to me or involved in my life to have me as their favourite artist.
If you have someone as your favourite artist, that's a massive deal.
‘Cause they prefer you over everyone else.
And my mother does not count.
She might be a bit biased, leaning towards me.
Mums are always your number one fans.
Yeah. It's gonna be really hard for someone to be a number one fan.
They'll have to probably birth me, um, which is not really possible.
Bit too late for that.
But I also just love the writing process.
It's a really cheap form of therapy.
Still get therapy, but it's a really cheap form of therapy where you can kind of express yourself in a way that you're proud of and you can share in front of people.
And just like have fun, you know.
Like, trauma to a backbeat.
What are you hoping listeners take away from you as an artist from Shiver?
Hmm.
I guess like, I want it to make people feel like they want to know who I am.
Lke, ohhhh, who is this April artist?
Like, what's she gonna do?
I want it to entice people with what my journey will be.
And I guess also, that on like more of a really personal side but maybe on more of a, you know, professional side, I would say It's a song.
It's not like a silly song, but because of the whole process we've had such a fun time and I really hope that that seeps through when you're listening to it.
Even if you wouldn't know all the effort we've been putting into this.
I would hope and like for people to take me seriously, but not like too seriously, if that makes sense.
For me right now, it's not the fame that I'm doing this for or even trying to get to that point.
It's passion.
It's something that brings me joy.
It's like clarity.
It's therapy.
It's just really fun
It's encouraging me to just start pushing some other stuff out there, you know, so people can be like, Ooh, like this April on Shiver.
What else can we listen to with her?
And then they go and there's nothing.
So I want that to kind of lead people into like being really curious and wanting to hear more.
So that's gonna encourage me to give that to them.
April and Thom Johnston, Image taken by Jaz Cooper
How did you get into music?
I'm from Geelong and my dad has been playing in these cover bands for years and years.
So I grew up in pubs surrounded by the same funny songs played each night.
Like Brown Eyed Girl, Eagle Rock
And I kind of resented music for a really long time.
I didn't even really listen to music, apart from the radio, until I was like, probably 18.
Which is just nuts.
Yeah, that's crazy.
People would recommend me a song and I’d be like, I don't really know it.
Unless it was like Bruno Mars.
Which by no means, is an influence on me.
As soon as I moved out, that was when I took a guitar and was like, you know what?
I'll take a guitar so when someone comes over to my house, they could play the guitar and we can all have a great time.
And then COVID hit and there's no one allowed to come to your house.
And there's a guitar in the corner staring at you.
That kind of forces you into it.
Then I got bored of just guitar for six months and started singing
I'm an attention seeker when it comes to like… I love public speaking and I just love being on stage in front of people.
Immediately, when I found music, it was like, oh, okay, this makes a lot of sense.
Like I can be creative as well as being on stage.
And as soon as I could get on stage, I just got on a stage
The more I say, the more stupid it sounds ahaha.
No, I reckon it makes sense.
It just kind of sounds like it was meant to happen to you.
I like rebelled against music rather than rebelling with music.
You see all these like seventies and sixties movies where they're rebelling against their parents.
Playing music that they don't like.
I just didn't play music.
I’m rebelling against my musical father with no music.
What inspired you to get into performing?
So it's actually a significant moment in time that happened that I can pinpoint.
It was like an epiphany.
I was at this natural, no-electronic festival called Confest.
I went there with a group of my girlfriends and it was like going into a brand new world.
'Cause I've been in the festival scene a little bit.
But I went there and the festival is really just about connecting with other people who have passions and are willing to share them with you.
And they've got all these like crazy different workshops.
There was a songwriting workshop.
One of my friends even held a workshop on how to like put on a performer persona.
It's about learning different things that you might be interested in.
I guess I was just in the perfect place within myself.
Coming back from the festival after having this amazing time.
That week I had gone to Bar Oussou.
That was the first time and I had seen people performing and I was like, you know what?
I'm just gonna get out there and I'm gonna sing an original song and I don't even really know how to play guitar that well, but I'm just gonna put myself out there and see what happens.
'Cause like what's the worst that can happen?
And that was the best decision I made.
Because a few months down the track, this is where I'm at.
So obviously there was a reason to do that because it got recognized in this great way with Thom and with other people too.
And I've had a lot of support and encouragement to continue to do what I want to do.
But obviously it's baby steps because it's all still quite new to me and I still have like, you know, those moments of anxiety around performing.
Once you kind of give yourself a name in that community, you feel like you have some expectations that you need to live up to.
Whereas when I did it for the first time, I knew no one.
And it had nothing to compare to.
So it was just very like, you know, on a whim, like freedom.
I also feel like, you know, things are meant to happen for a reason.
And I feel like because I'm so passionate about it and all the intentions are pure and I really care about it, that's why these things are unraveling.
And of course, you know, you gotta put yourself out there and you won't know until you try.
Yeah, of course. I think it's really great putting yourself out there on a whim.
And it's obviously worked out great for you, having a single now and I think you clearly do have a passion for music and for performing.
Yeah, exactly.
I couldn't be happier about that.
Like it feels like a dream.
It's like, oh my God.
Where I was literally a few months ago to this happening is like crazy.
April and Thom Johnston, Image taken by Jaz Cooper
What inspired the collaboration for Shiver?
It's an interesting one.
So we frequent a local bar on Wednesday nights.
And they do like an open mic slash jam night.
And April jumped up.
She borrowed my guitar.
It was her first time.
She was playing guitar for like maybe three weeks beforehand.
I was like, oh fuck, that person sounds pretty good.
I was like, you did really well, if you ever wanna jam let me know.
'cause you know in that scene, you're like, okay, I wanna write with people and collaborate but it's like trying to herd sheep.
You know? You go, okay, I want to collaborate.
And then you don't speak again,
and then you like meet up again.
You're like, oh shit, we should collaborate.
And then it's just a never ending cycle.
So I sent through a text.
And by the time we got home, we were already organizing a time to catch up and just play through anything we had to come to mind.
So she came ‘round, we played through a couple of songs, tried writing on the spot, but I'm quite an, um, assertive writer.
So if someone hasn't been writing very much or hasn't really done much before, I kind of get overexcited and start writing a whole song.
But I pulled out Shiver, which was actually just a song that had been put to the side.
I kind of hated the song. I didn't really particularly love it.
I played it once and then was like I feel like I've got better songs so I'm just gonna put this to the side and not use it.
But I'm like, oh, it might be an easy and good way for us to just get warmed up and get used to each other's voices.
So we played it and she changed the bridge.
So we went through that and then eventually just kind of organised how we'd sing the song.
And I think literally the next week we just went up and played it.
And people liked it.
I liked how it sounded.
She liked how it sounded.
And then from there it was a song
What inspired the bridge part that you've written?
I guess with the bridge, right, it's kind of a build up.
It's repeating the same verse three times, but every time it gets a little bit more intense.
And I think because of my feminine voice that's got a little bit of a higher pitch, 'cause Thom has this like great raspy kind of voice.
Mine's a little bit more, I guess dainty and almost like fragile in a way, but deep as well.
It kind of just added this layer of difference because I think when he sung it, it just felt like he was just singing the same thing and the song didn't really have different elements.
But then when he heard me sing it, he was like, this needs to be sung by a female and this needs to be sung by you.
And I changed the melody a little bit because I could reach a bit of a higher a note.
But I would say for me, out of all of the song, the bridge is the part that I resonate with the most because it feels the most like my part of the song, you know?
I came in and I sung the bridge and he was like, that's incredible. Like we need that. And then through that we were just working on it and performing it, sometimes kind of experimenting with it. And then he came to me one day and he was like, I wanna produce this song and I want you to be on it with me.
And for me that was like, you know, really amazing.
I feel really grateful for that because I hadn't had an experience like that before.
And it definitely helps that we created a friendship throughout this as well.
It was kind of just like we planted that seed and then, you know, in fruition, this is where we've ended up with it.
And it's beautiful because I feel like I also now have an attachment to a song that was never even really mine.
But just the whole process of doing it together has allowed me to feel it in my own way.
Is this single maybe leading into a bigger project you might have?
Possibly.
We're kind of working on a big goal.
We wanna do an East Coast tour in the summer.
Because I really love playing live and finding a new audience up in different states and I really want to establish myself in the Australian scene.
But there will be a next song.
We've kind of decided what the next song will be.
We've got some pretty iconic venues that we're playing soon too.
Nothing set in stone.
I'm just working on a few of my own originals that I'm also gonna be performing at our gig that's coming up.
And that will be my first time, like my first gig, my first time performing these songs properly to an audience that I'll know half of and potentially not know the other half.
But yeah, I would love to get back in the studio and record.
And also just work on some newer music and kind of experiment a little bit with the direction I want to go in.
Because I know for me personally, I am definitely a bit more on the, not so much country side.
Thom introduced me to country and it's been great because it's really helped with learning and navigating singing and songwriting.
'Cause it's very raw and real lyrics.
And that's where I feel like my lyrics are.
They're quite real. It's like really painting a story.
But I definitely like the more heavier sounds, because I've always been a little bit more into heavier music, like grungy kind of metal and rock.
So it would be really cool to experiment with that side of music within my own realm.
April and Thom Johnston, Image taken by Jaz Cooper
What was the recording process like then? 'cause from the sounds of it, it was very busy and quite a long process?
Well, we've decided now that we're gonna have the song recorded and produced before we start organizing release stuff.
It's was a learning process, recording this song.
It just became this whole ordeal of just going through every single hurdle that we could have gone through.
We hopped on one one day and like, God bless Ali (bassist & recorded Shiver), it was one of those things where it's just like the computer wasn't working for him and he was burnt out from the project as well.
So I just kind of went over to his house one day and ended up having a beer and watching the footy
We're just like, okay, we're not gonna record anything today.
We're already a bit off the mark from the start. And we just kind of sat there.
But the recording process was great because it was seeing the song come together and especially the last day or so was great just because we had a bit to play with.
So we came up with our lead guitar lines and the little backing guitar lines you can kind of hear sprinkled throughout the song.
And that drum fill right before the last chorus, which is the stupidest idea we've ever had.
But, so fun.
It felt like the first time that we weren't doing something exactly by the book.
It's one part of the song where it's like, it kind of doesn't make sense, but it kind of is still cohesive. Weirdly enough.
Those last days were pretty good just because like there was a bit more freedom.
And we included that inter-world part at the start which I thought was really important to create some texture in the song.
We had two and a half sessions.
The first day of recording we got down like all of the song.
And then when we got a mix back from that, there was a few things that Thom and I weren't super pleased about in regards to our voice. The way things sounded together.
So we went into the studio and we fixed those bits up and did some harmonies.
So it was really fun because it was like we're all working together as a group of friends.
And I guess for me personally, that first day going into recording, because I'd never done that before, I definitely had like an overwhelming sense of nerves and it definitely took me some time to warm into singing.
But because I was just surrounded by great people that are talented and have patience, it was encouraging.
So in the end I'm really pleased.
And I've been getting some like, really awesome feedback.
The feedback of just like, wow, your voice is beautiful April.
Like keep it up.
So yeah, it's nice.
And same with Thom of course, but because he's obviously got a little bit more of a profile and singing, people are really excited for him in the aspects of releasing a song.
You've got the single release show at the Bar Open, September 4th. What can people expect to see there?
You can see me, um, I'll be there hopefully.
If I'm not there, then there's something wrong or you came on the wrong night.
I think it's actually a really interesting lineup.
We've got Nic Bosnic’s band, Gardiner.
Well, two thirds of Gardener 'cause the drummer couldn't make it.
Nick is just an incredible talent.
He's been inspired by Jeff Buckley, that's how he learned to sing.
So he's just got this incredible range.
He has a like spooky, really rich emotional kind of power in his voice and his songs are emotionally powerful.
Then we’ve got Star Jock.
They're like a grunge band kind of, alt rock.
They are really raw, not in your face, but they definitely have that bit of punchiness to them.
And they’re just really talented, they packed up tote a few weeks ago for their own launch.
And they’ve played Fed Square, which is crazy.
And then we've got our band, which is the first proper time I've played a gig with a band behind me.
I guess I've played like different venues where people have jumped up with me, but this is a bit more cohesive.
So two-thirds of the show, there's gonna be me and the band on stage.
We'll go through some demo stuff I’ve released*
(*Barwon Bridge under the pseudonym Maxwell925)
Because those are the songs I wrote as I was kind of coming up through the open mic scene. And I like a lot of them.
We've got really talented musicians like Ali Harman on bass.
He comes from a bit of a jazz background.
He's just one those guys that like, he just picks something up and it's already good.
And then we've got Jack Paraiso.
He's recently come over from the Philippines to Melbourne.
Just like a really talented overall guitarist and songwriter as well.
And then Nic Murray, who's our drummer, he’s is also very good.
I mean obviously people should come to the gig, but why should people come?
First of all, the, the tickets are very well priced.
Everyone loves to go out for a little bit of a drink.
On a Thursday night, you know, it's like a student night so that's always encouraging.
Living in Melbourne, it's a very artistic city.
There's all sorts of things going on on all different nights, no matter what day of the week it is.
And I feel like people in that artist community, the local people, wanna support the community.
But I guess just support new and upcoming artists if you’re looking for something new and exciting to check out.
Because it's gonna be an awesome night.
Like, we've got some really beautiful bands as well that are gonna support us.
And then Thom's got this great presence on stage, so you know, he'll get the crowd kind of involved.
It's quite interactive.
So I feel like, you know, there's a lot of different elements to it.
It's not just a gig, like where you just sit and watch.
I feel like it's, it's a community thing.
So if people are willing to come and support that, that's awesome.
Stream Shiver & Stay in touch with the artists down below! Also head on over to Bar Open on Thursday September 4th to see April & Thom live!
Shiver - Spotify
TICKET LINK 4 SHIVER SINGLE RELEASE GIG
SUPPORTS MENTIONED
ALL IMAGES TAKEN BY Jaz Cooper (@jjazcooper)
