Texas

On March 18th, 2011, Vestra Vera Press sent a representative out to Austin, Texas to see Josh Beech and The Johns. An up and coming band from the UK. They just recorded an EP called ‘She’. It’s available on iTunes now. On April 4th, they’ll make it available to buy the CD itself. Great, great guys. Fantastic music. If you haven’t listened, go to iTunes right now and check them out.

What’s your favorite part of touring?

Josh: Uh..Meeting the fans.
Martinelli: [laughs] Wearing Iron Man stuff.
Turnham: Yeah, wearing Iron Man stuff.

Has there been any on tour pranks or any embarrassing situations with you guys?

Josh: Uh, I don’t think there’s ever been a time in our day where there isn’t an embarrassing situation.
Martinelli: Yeah, seriously.
Josh: Yeah. We’re constantly making mistakes.

If you follow your twitter, you pretty much know something is always going on. (@iamjoshbeech @iamjohnmart @johnthedrummist )

[Laughing]
Martinelli: It’s always because you see Josh twittering.
Josh: Is that bad, is that bad? Or is that good?

No, it’s fun. It’s fun to follow you guys.
What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done or asked you asked you guys?

Josh: Uh…I don’t know if we can say that in a magazine.
Martinelli: Tell her.. Tell her about the dress.
Josh: Oh yeah, someone turned up in a wedding dress and asked me to marry her.

That’s creepy.

Josh: Yeah, in Milan.
Martinelli: In Milan!

Oh yeah, that’s crazy.

Martinelli: That’s outrageous

You guys have some crazy fans.

[Josh moves off to have a cigarette.]

This question is for you guys anyway (Turnham and Martinelli).
When the two of you are together how do they tell the two of you apart? Do you guys have nicknames?

Martinelli: How did we get together, you said?

Sure.

Martinelli: Well, Josh has known John for ages, they were in previous bands together. And then Josh found me somehow, we became friends and we all started playing.

Do you have nicknames to tell you apart?

Martinelli: I’m sorry?

Since you’re both John?

Turnham: I’ve just been Turnham.
Martinelli: He’s Turnham and I’m Mart.

No nicknames?

Martinelli: No, no, no. We’re boring. You can give us nicknames if you want.

I’ll think about it, I’ll tweet it to you guys.

[Laughing]
Martinelli: I want nicknames. But make it something cool like ‘Danger’.

We’re going to get your fans to give you nicknames.

Martinelli: I want good ones. Yeah.

What song off the EP is your favorite?

Josh: She.
Martinelli: She.
Turnham: She. Yeah, She.

Okay, Is there a standard writing process for you guys?

Josh: Uh, It’s changing at the moment, it used to be that I would just write the songs but now…he(Martinelli) and I started writing together. And John(Turnham) comes in with his own stuff.

Do you have any plans for a full length album?

Josh: Yeah, we’re writing it at the moment.
Martinelli: Yeah.

Awesome, I can’t wait for that.

Josh: Actually we expect it to be finished by August.
Martinelli: The deadline is in August.
Josh: Yeah August. Because we expect to have it out by October.

Who would you consider your musical influences?

Josh: Uhm, Thrice, John Mayer, Deftones, The Beatles.
Martinelli: Uh, Barry White.

That’s a good range right there.

Martinelli: It’s getting much better just now.
Josh: Blink-182



What motivated you to pursue music?

Martinelli: Thrice brought me to music

I’ve seen Thrice a couple of times actually.

Martinelli: I’ve seen them up from seventeen times. That’s how much I love them.

I totally understand.

Martinelli: They brought me to music.
Josh: Uh…The Beatles really.
Martinelli: Pink Floyd.
Josh: Yeah, Pink Floyd. My mum used to blast Pink Floyd when I was a little.
Turnham: The Beatles for me, my mum was a Beatles fanatic.
Martinelli: Yeah, like Josh said the Beatles. They were an amazing band.

If you weren’t in a band or modeling what would you be doing?


Josh: Uh, probably working in Starbucks
Martinelli and Turnham: [laugh] Starbucks
Josh: No, but seriously I think I would be doing something helping animals, really.
Josh: I love animals.

How do you think the music scene in the UK differ from the US?

Martinelli: They’re mental here.
Josh: Uh..I think like..the UK to the US? It’s hard to tell at the moment because we’re only just coming over here. This is our first time ever playing here. It’s like we’re a new band. And they don’t know who we are. We’re trying to build it up and I think time will tell. Everybody who we’ve met who’s come to our gigs is like been so nice. It’s like really lovely, warm people. We’ve all been in bands previously that weren’t quite big. When you’re not big, people just fucking talk all the way through. Shit. In England they do it the whole time. Here they don’t. There’s a lot, yeah, a lot of respect. More respect for musicians, I think. So, I’ll have to say it’s better in the US, I think.

This is for Josh. Do you know you have fan blogs on the internet?

Josh: Uh…yeah, he winds me up about it.
Martinelli: Yeah, it’s quite funny. It’s funny.

An owner of one of the blogs (Karla from Josh Beech Daily), asked us to ask you a question.

Josh: Okay?

She wants to know what your favorite Jeff Buckley song is.

All three: Oooh.
Martinelli: That’s a great question.
Josh: Grace.
[Pause]
Josh: Oh..wait. Is it Grace?
Martinelli: Are you sure? Yeah, it’s probably Grace because Grace is so good.
Josh: Is it Grace that uh [hums melody]? Is that it?
Martinelli: I have no idea.
Josh: Oh and Last Goodbye is so sweet. [sings lyrics] No, yeah. I would go with Grace.

For the two of you (John and Mart). On the internet, we can find anything out about you. We need a couple of facts about you guys(John and Mart).

Martinelli: Couple of facts. Okay, uh I don’t know about this.

I have you on record.

Martinelli: Oh, I know. No, I know. I’m just trying to be reasonable. But…a couple of facts. Want to help us, Josh?
Josh: With what?
Martinelli: She wants a couple of facts.
Josh: What? About you two?
Martinelli: Yeah.
Josh: He likes pasta. And his first band played in Japan before he was like [mumbling] seventeen[?]
Martinelli: And uh, I like brunette girls.
Josh: You can have a go, because he likes brunette girls.

Well, that’s another one. They’re going to come following you.

Turnham: I like blondes.
Josh: I don’t have a fancy
Turnham: When I’m not playing music with them. I work for Green Smoke Records, a Hip-Hop recording company in the UK.

Okay, well that’s all the questions. I guess we’re done.

Josh: It’s done?
Martinelli: Well make up more questions!

Yeah, how are you going to put me on the spot like this?

Josh: Oh come on.
Martinelli: Think up with something really weird.
Josh: We don’t mind because you’re really cool.

Really weird? Ask each other weird questions. Go.

Josh: What color is your penis right now, mate?
Martinelli: Really, really red.

I’ll be sure to include that. that’s another cool fact for them to know.

Josh: Uh, And also you should put We love partying. Like some of the videos of us on the internet, right. Don’t take them too seriously. We’ve never actually killed anyone, that’s a lie.

Now we have that on record.

Josh: None of us have girlfriends.

Well there, you go something else your fans would love to know. Now you can only be bombarded and you can only blame yourselves.

Martinelli: That’s alright.
Josh: Bring them on.
Martinelli: We’ve only done it to ourselves.
Josh: You want to meet our guitar tech guitar tech, Dan Lancaster?
Dan: Hi

Well, since you’re here you’re going to have to give us a fact about yourself.

Josh: Uh, He is the first official member of the crew.
Martinelli: Yeah, yeah. He’s a pretty big deal.
Josh: I’ll tell you a fact about Dan Lancaster he’s probably the worst guitarist out of anyone in the band.
Martinelli: The worst guitar tech ever. [Laughs] Well, that’s something you want in a guitar tech.
Josh: And he likes, what color girls? Oh, yeah he likes tall girls.
Martinelli: Tall girls.

Alright, tall girls. They’re going to be all lining up and you’ll only have to blame yourselves. But I think that’s it.

Martinelli: Thanks a lot.
Turnham: Yeah.
Josh: Thanks so much.

Great interview. Lots of laughs.



(via http://joshbeechdaily.tumblr.com/post/4203890545 )