Kurtis John of The Last Goodnight

The Bay Area. That is my old stomping ground! But while I was in Las Vegas, The Last Goodnight was doing radio shows throughout Cali. After he finished his workout over at the gym, I had a chance to chat with lead singer Kurtis John  for a while. Fatherly advice, singing childhood cartoon themes, and the New England Patriots were just a few of the things we discussed.

Asif: Hey man, what's up?

Kurtis:  Not much man.

Asif:  So, you're up in the Bay Area right now?

Kurtis:  Yeah man. We're doing a quick radio show in the town we're in right now, and then we go to San Jose after this.

Asif: Sweet man! San Jose is my hometown!

Kurtis: (laughs) Right on man!

Asif: I want to ask you about growing up. You learned about music and how to play as a child from your father, who happened to be blind. What ways of learning or advice did you receive from your father that helped you the most then or now that maybe the stereotypical musician didn't have as a learning tool?

Kurtis: Well, both of my parents were always supportive and buying me instruments. I got my first drum set when I was five. I got a guitar when I was eight. My father played a lot of blues and jazz at the house. You know, him being blind, it gave us a lot of musical time to spend together. I had been listening to a lot of punk rock, like the Dead Kennedys, to Guns N' Roses and he would have on like Billie Holiday, and other great artists, and we just started bonding musically. And slowly, he showed me how to hear music. He showed me how to hear a melody and sing a melody and to put the right chords behind it. I mean, we were doing that when I was growing up and singing cartoon songs around the house. The way he played was differently too. It was just a different school of thought because he had never seen a piano. So learning was completely different than learning from a professional instructor. He really just told me how to hear music and how to keep it simple – on all levels – melodically, lyrical, creative, chords. When I was like, maybe 11-years old, I really started getting into piano. He didn't teach me much about piano, he just taught me the whole, like, perception of what is behind the piano and how I can use it to further my songs.

Asif: You mentioned singing cartoon theme songs growing up. I know, around the house, I did the same thing! My favorite to sing was always the theme for G.I. Joe.

Kurtis: (laughs) Same for me man! I don't know why it is, but it was G.I. Joe. And I created this melody between that and Inspector Gadget and The Pink Panther. Whatever was hot on Nickelodeon  and all those channels at that time, I would just sing it with like this jazz arrangement behind it.

Asif: You guys need to go record that in the studio and release it as a b-side somewhere!

Kurtis: (laughs) It would be amazing, right? We should totally do it!

Asif: I just want to say that I really dig "Stay Beautiful". I know there had to be a lot of pressure to follow up "Pictures of You", and I think you guys hit it out of the park with "Stay Beautiful".

Kurtis: Thank you man!

Asif: Back to "Pictures" for a minute though. As far as publicity and promotions go, "Pictures" has been used everywhere. From CBS to hype up their upcoming lineup, to ESPN's SportsCenter. What has been the coolest segment or spot, personally for you, that you've heard the song and thought "Oh man! That is so cool that they are using our song for this!"?

Kurtis:  Honest to God, okay. I was sitting in a hotel room. It was a Sunday. I was somewhere in Colorado. It was December. We were watching the Patriots game. I'm from New England, and we're all huge Patriots fans. There was a touchdown and "Pictures of You" came on. I had totally forgot that we had licensed it to the NFL. It was amazing! Just hearing it, I was like "Dude, that's so cool man!" I was getting tons of text messages from all my friends like "Dude! Your fuckin shit is on the TV!"

Asif: (laughs)

Kurtis: (laughs) None of them texted me when they saw the video [for "Pictures of You"]. All of them see it after the touchdown at the game and they're like "Dude! You'd like made it!"

Asif:  (laughs) So, are you still pretty bummed out about the Patriots?

Kurtis: Ahhh – yeah. When it happened [lost the Super Bowl] we were all pretty bummed out. We were in Seattle and that is where we caught the game. It was just so close man.

Asif:  Yeah dude. I personally thought it was one of the best Super Bowls I had ever seen. If not thee best.

Kurtis: Yeah..I see that. I do like seeing the underdog win because it is uplifting, you know? But it just sucks because we had such a great season. But whatever…it's all good.

Asif: Obviously you just got back from the gym. I know you like doing that when you're out on the road. What else do you like to do just to unwind when you're out there?

Kurtis: I run and workout in the morning. Our days right now are really packed, especially with this radio promo tour we're on. I mean, it's pretty busy. We do two to three cities a day doing different radios [radio stations] and performances for [contest] winners. To wind down at night we usually just sit around and maybe have some drinks at the bar and just kick back. There's usually a lot of internet going on. A lot of guitar playing going on. Mainly, (laughs) we go to bed pretty early.  The radio stuff starts really early. Like we do a lot of morning shows and things like that. When you wake up at like 6:00 in the morning and finish at 7:00 or 8:00 at night, it just sucks. You just need to go to bed! But to unwind we just chill and maybe just drink some beers and watch Family Guy.

Asif: (laughs) Hell yeah! Family Guy rules!

Kurtis: (laughs) Our tour manager just got the Family Guy spoof on Star Wars.

Asif: Yes! That is hilarious!

Kurtis: (laughs) It was amazing! It was like a 45-minute thing that was the funniest s**t!

Asif: As far as I am in the loop about things, I know you guys as a band have been very hands on with every aspect. Not just the music part, but the marketing and advertising and things like that too. You know…a lot of bands start out that way, and once they reach a certain level, they let everyone else in their camp take over. But that totally isn't you guys – and I love the fact that you guys aren't that way. Why is that so important to you?

Kurtis:  It's just one of those things man. We've always done it all ourselves. When we toured the country four times we had two independent records out. We had music on MTV and on Dawson's Creek. We were just an independent band. Me, myself personally, I've always been the frontrunner in that area. I know how my band feels and if we don't agree on something, we'll go over it. We'll argue to like the death. The label, management, our agent, or whoever – it's just a really strong team and it's a bit of a family.  With the label, it's really close-knit. There's definitely a love/hate relationship at many times, but in the end at the end of the day, we always come up on the up-side. I myself, personally, could never think of not having hands-on or people making all the decisions for us. Because if something goes wrong, you don’t ever want to have to blame someone. You don't want to regret that one fuckin' decision that they made that we can make as a band - a true decision – with a lot less politics.

Asif: That sounds great man.  How you feeling?

Kurtis: I'm super excited and this is all the beginning.  We couldn't believe what happened with "Pictures of You". It was a dream come true. We never thought that would be our first single. What we did think would actually be our first single was "Stay Beautiful".  So this is our huge chance to see if we were right.

Asif: By the way, the girl in that video is pretty hot. So good job on getting a hot chick in your video!

Kurtis: (laughs) Thanks dude! We try to do our best. We try to keep it unique and very very attractive. We didn't want to have like, this bomb ass Britney Spears chick.

Asif: (laughs) She's got that simple, innocent thing going for her.

Kurtis: (laughs) Yeah! Exactly!

Asif: Alright man, it was great talking with ya. I'll catch ya at a show soon.

Kurtis: Yeah man, for sure. Thanks!

www.myspace.com/thelastgoodnight

BY: The Asif

PICTURES: Courtesy of The Last Goodnight