Jonny Dubowsky is the lead singer of the NYC-born band with the Brit/pop/punk sound which bears his name, Jonny Lives! Jonny recently took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk to me about the band and their debut album, Get Steady. The album is due to be released on August 22nd of this year but impatient fans will be able to get a free download of the EP beginning today (June 13th) on MTVU.
I asked Jonny about the meaning of the band's name and he explained that it signified a new beginning, "like the Phoenix rising from the ashes." He also said that he has a fascination with dead rock stars named Johnny who died before their time like Johnny Thunders (who he said was a big influence on his music as well) and also with the movie Eddie And The Cruisers which ties into that same "Phoenix rising" theme.
I asked him about his own musical tastes and he said that he likes New York rock in general and then went on to list some of his favorite bands. He mentioned the New York Dolls, T-Rex, The Kinks, The Who, Arctic Monkeys, and Arcade Fire. "I like melodic songs", he noted, "I'm a big fan of melody." When I listened to their EP I got the feeling that there was a sound going on in their music which reminded me a bit of The Killers so I asked him what he thought of that. "We played with The Killers before," he replied. "They are really nice guys who came out of a very unique place."
I asked him where the band gets the inspiration for their songs and he said, "I like songs that tell a story, I think most songs are about storytelling. For example, recently we finished a tour with The Keiser Chiefs in England and then we went to the NME Awards and we had a wild time that night. We ended up hanging out with Dave Grohl and getting trashed in this bar. I got a bottle of tequila but we couldn't find anything to open it with so I smashed it off the wall and broke the top off. Then we drank out of the broken bottle. I wrote the lyrics to one of our songs based on that weekend while I was on the plane between London and New York."
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