Away from his own music, John finds no experience more consistently exhilarating than arriving at a show half-an-hour late. The rush to grab tickets. The anticipation of descending some murky stairwell. A pulsating bassline spiking your heartbeat. Skin prickling as higher notes bleed in. The thrill of pushing through that door into the show space as the music just happens.
“It’s the kind of thing you’ve seen in movies dozens of times because it is so cinematic,” John grins. “You can throw off all baggage and all your bullshit, and be in a room that is purely energy. It’s a feeling I find as readily available at extreme grind shows as I do at punk shows as I do at pop shows as I do at folk shows. Music is a communal thing. I love how it can take our hurts – our individual bumps, bruises, scrapes, cuts, frustrations, stresses, loss, heartache – and allow us to springboard back into the brightness, to enjoy life with all the more dimension and contrast because of it.”
Six albums in – somehow all classics – Baroness simply refuse to deliver any less than transcendent elation. Keeping in touch with the live environment is vital to maintaining a consistent energy without artistic repetition. On one hand, their recent three-hour ‘Your Baroness’ deep dives allowed reconnection with overlooked corners of their own discography. Going in as a fan, though, can be even more vital. It is no coincidence that on a good week, John might attend as many as six or seven shows. On a bad week he’ll make it to “only” two or three.
“You progress as you innovate, as you evolve, as you adapt, as you encompass new sounds, new textures, new ideas,” he nods. “You have to have sharp instincts about when it’s genuine or when it’s not. The lacklustre jadedness of some ‘veteran’ acts isn’t just unpleasant. To me, it’s terrifying. I don’t ever want to be unimpassioned or bored. Sometimes when I’m watching a younger band, it might be absolute garbage music, but the conviction and the energy with which it's played – the swagger, the verve, the physicality – sells me, and I begin to question whether it’s really garbage music after all. I would always rather imbibe that youthful exuberance as it’s in line with my own thinking, my own excitement about playing music.”