RockUrLife met the charismatic leader of the texan band, Nothing More, on the December 5th before their show in Paris at Les Etoiles. Jonny Hawkins told us more about the band, the tour and “The Stories We Tell Ourselves”, their latest record. Here’ s an authentic and honest interview.
First, congratulations for your Grammy nomination. How did you find out about it?
Jonny (vocals): We were in the van, we drove all night, we were all just kinf of passed out. And I heard Mark talking on the phone. I was like, “Mark shut up, I’m trying to sleep,” and he was going “What? No way? Are you serious? That’s great!” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was just trying to sleep, I was pissed that he was talking so loud, even though it sounded like a good news, then he hung up, and he told all us the good news, we all were like “fuck, that’s awesome!’ and then we fell asleep. (laughs) We were really tired.
Really? You didn’t even celebrate it?
Jonny: We did it later, but we had a really long night the night before… and the long road, we were all just dead. But then, we got a life back so we celebrated it!
Great! How is the tour going so far?
Jonny: Really good, really good. Definitely three times better than the last time. We have grown a lot since then.
You released your fifth album “The Stories We Tell Ourselves“. Who came up with this title? And what does it mean?
Jonny: It crossed my mind at the beginning of the recording process. I was listening to lots of life coaching things, self help, philosophy so like Tony Robbins. It was a kind of an idea boucing around of my head listening a lot of these people because a lot is focused on self-evaluation, taking a step back in your life, looking at where the moment that mistaking you and to go back to the game, not to end up over here. And I felt that the story we told ourselves was not just realizing dictating of my past life but it was also something that I tried to re write. I went through an eight-year relationship and we were married two and a half years ago. I was going though a divorce when we started the album. Basically, when you come out of such a long relationship there is a lot of fear, anxiety and rebuilding. And I realized how powerful this story I was telling myself about the future and about the past was because it defined where I’m going from here.
Why did you choose a powerful song such as “Go To War” as your first single?
Jonny: When we wrote that one we felt like it was meant to be one of the big singles of this record. We didn’t know if it would be the first single, but when we gave it to the label, we felt pretty good about this one. They liked it, but they didn’t think this should be our first. Then we went back to the studio a bit after and we ended up writting “Do You Really Want It?”, then “Who We Are”. We thought that “Who We Are” was gonna be the first single. Then Alison, she’s the head of the rock department of Spotify, picked “Go To War” and put it on playlist, so the label was like “maybe it will be the first single?” And we were like “told you so”. But we ended up with two other great songs.
When you wrote “do we feel safe?”, are you questionning yourself or your listeners?
Jonny: I mean It was for me when I was writting it, but it’s written in a way that it’s supposed to ask the question for people ask themselves. It’s a question in the back of your mind in any kind of close and intimate relationship when you feel vulnerable, and you let someone invade a deep part of you, and you or the other person back out or you change or something, the void is much more intense. At a time, my ex and I didn’t feel safe with each other, didn’t feel safe about the future. So our fears took over. This is what “Go To War” is about.
You ask a lot of questions in your songs. Have you found the answers?
Jonny: (Laughs) Excellent! Yes, many answers. It may sound cliché, but often the answers lead to more questions. But honestly, in the last years, I guess I was just going through phases where it’s like breathing, breathe in, taking things and then there are periods where you breathe out. When I’m on tour, I feel like I’m more breathing out. And when I’m at home, working on a record, I’m breathing in. I’m asking a lot of questions, challenging ideas I’ve had for years and wonder if they’re true. And so, last year, I answered a lot of these questions about my personal life and I’m still answering a lot of them, but I feel like I’m growing up a lot. I feel different from the person I was years ago.
You write a lot of personal songs. isn’t it difficult to perform them live?
Jonny: You can’t feel at 100% every night. Actually I’m not always thinking about the exact lyrics that I’m singing. I more just feeling of the energy of the room, so every moment is unique. It’s not the moment when I wrote the song with the guys. It’s a whole new moment and it just happened to the connecting point with everyone else was that old moment when the connection I have with people at that time is paramount. I like to see them as unique moments each night, and not try to go back in my head. But sometimes, I immerse myself in the lyrics, and I think about the moment when I wrote them, and it hits me, and sometimes I get teary, and I have to pull over from the mic. If you were there every day, every night, you would react in the same way as I do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be human.
Can you tell me a secret or something that we would have never guessed about Nothing More?
Jonny: Let me think. Daniel, our bass player, wasn’t the original bass player. And Mark and I wanted him to be in the band, but he refused for a while. And even Mark, when I met him for the first time, I asked him if he wanted to be in the band with me, because I was starting a band, and he also said “no”. But I was younger than him and Daniel. I’m thinking about it now and I’ve never thought of it that way, but I’ve noticed that in life, some of the greatest things that happen always start with a “no”. Not always, but I’ve noticed that some things meant to be with a little resistance. Like if there was something behind, and we had to get through. It’s like when you play a game, there are always dragons protecting the gold and you have to slay the dragons to get the gold. So both of them said “no” to me at first. So it took years of hard work and building and destroying different versions of the band. Then, we had a showcase for record labels, after eight years of work, and they all said “no”. But we had to get passed that, to get passed the no. But anyway, I think people don’t know that both Daniel and Mark didn’t want to be band originally. Actually, Daniel wanted to be a pilot. But he took a test, and found out that he was almost blind. So he went to the music ground, and he’s so happy that he did.
If you met someone who had never heard of your band, which song would you choose to summarize your music?
Jonny: Probably “Jenny” or “This Is The Time”. It’s a tough one. (thinking) I would say “Jenny”. Because it’s a ride, there is a bit of the soft stuff, the heavy stuff, it’s slow, and it’s getting faster. And it has a lot of meaning. So, I would say this one.
Speaking of that, can you tell us more about the “Jenny” video? And who is the girl in it?
Jonny: “Jenny” was the video that I got to direct and edit, so it’s a very important video for me. The girl’s name is Skyler. Actually it was just a girl who was at one of our shows, then she happened to be in the modeling and acting world. When my sister was younger, she had a particular look, and when she grew up, she changed a lot. Something about Skyler reminded me of my sister when she was younger. I don’t know. She had that dark side, there was something destructive underneath the surface. I wanted to get kind of a surreal interpretation of what is going on in the thought-world more than in the real world. Interrupted by scenes with the family with my mother when she was on her death bed fighting cancer, and my sister wasn’t there. And then we see the two guys with their fingers, one is pointing in and one is pointing out. The strongest is blaming the world and the other is blaming himself and seems weak. It’s like sadness and anger. Two sides of the same person, one who seems strong but who losing control because the world is destroying it. What do we also see? I have to see it again. But mostly, scenes of the girl in the bathroom, near to death, overdose, drugs and stuff. So this is the story of someone trying to escape with self-medication.
Last question: as we are “RockUrLife”, what rocks your life Jonny?
Jonny: What rocks my life? Obviously music. (laughs) I will say passion in general. Rather than telling yourself “I have to do this, I have to do that” because yeah there always are things that we have to do, besides which we have the possibility to follow a passion. So, I would say that passion in general rocks my life, and music in particular.
Website: nothingmore.net
