October 14, 2024 • 21 mins
Jon Toogood popped in to talk us through his debut solo album, track by track we hear the stories that inspired the songs on this powerful acoustic album from the Shihad front man.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio Hodarkeys Off the Record Podcast with Angelina
gray Good.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's Angelina here with you joining you this evening. John
too Good, known for rocking out and Gee How the
frontman has just released his debut solo album, Last of
the Lonely Gods. John is joining me to talk through
the album track by track from start till finish, a
full album playback, John, I know you've done you your
side deliances, shall we say the adults? That was more collaborative,
(00:29):
So this is just the first just you JTA just me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
A little bit of collaboration towards the end of the
project and the fact that I went over to Australia
to work with Scott Horscroft, that producer who's from Sydney.
He did like Empire of the Sun and co wrote
straight Lines by Silver Chair A yeah. And he's exactly
the same age as me, fifty three. He's got a
six year old and nine year old example wow, and
(00:54):
he just yeah. And when I played my demos, which
sounded a little bit like Bruce Bringsteen Nebraska because it
was just me and my goose guitar, he was like, man,
I get these words and come over and I know
a young piano player called Annie Mac He could be good.
There's a string player called Jennifer who lives just down
the road. I'll bring around any young drummer from a
(01:15):
band called the Middle Kids called Harry Day. Do you
mind if we just play around with it totally? And
because I've done the Adults, which is very collaborative, and
I've realized that the power of collaboration over just a
single vision. At times, I was so prepared for them
just to have a play over my music and it
was beautiful to watch, you know, awesome. Yeah, And I
(01:37):
think I think Lost in My Hometown is a really
good example of if you hear the original, it's very
it's just a acoustic guitar and vocal and this is just
so beautiful because it's got strings and a beautiful piano
playing and great groove. And we just had fun in
the studio with it, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So I'm presuming Lost in My Hometown is that about
you wandering around Wellington.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
It is actually wandering around Wellington at quite a tricky
point in the fact that my brother in law, Campbell,
had got really sick with cancer and just to sort
of stay sane at that time because we were helping
out with my sister and him. I would go for
walks around the streets where I grew up, around Alan
Bay and over Kilberni and by the airport and stuff,
(02:24):
and then and it's really up living in Melbourne. It
was really weird coming back and walking around those streets.
It makes you think about your childhood there and teenage
years and oh man, how did I end up here?
And blah blah blah. So I was lost in memory.
But then I one day I literally got lost and
I just thought, Okay, well that's a great, great title
(02:46):
for a song choice.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All right, well we're going to go to the first
track from the album we're playing at enfil He has
lost in my hotel.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Then down to see the streets of my child and memories.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Where I used to dream, Hey, what's your Name?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
A side just the.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Day Kodaki track number two from John too good solo
album Last of the Lonely Gods. It shouldn't leave it
like that. I've got John too Good here to tell
us about that tune. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So, basically, when my dad passed away twelve years ago,
I had one of those cool jobs where I could
actually put my head up and say I'm not working
anymore because I'm going to go and help out with
my mom and my dad. So I had spent the
last three year three months of his life with herm
and mum and helping out. It was really good. I
mean it was really hard and awful, but there was
(03:58):
nothing left done and said between me and my father.
Twelve years later, my mom gets really ill and she
goes into a coma before I could actually talk to her,
and there was things that I just felt like I
hadn't said and totally and that's just life, you know,
like you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. And
I think it was it was just a song where
(04:20):
I was like thinking about, Yeah, maybe I just I
should have I should have said spoken up when I
had the chance, because you never know when you might
not have that chance anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well we're going to go into the title track now
for track number three, last to the Lonely Gods. Yep,
and you said you said before it's about a friend
of yours, a song you wrote from mate of yours.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, a friend of mine who's an amazing chef. That
was he'd been working Bathlona and then he ended up
on a one of those super yachts owned by this
Tai billionaire in the south of France, being his personal chef,
living a crazy lifestyle. And he just got out of
a ten year relationship and came back to and stayed
(05:05):
with me and my wife and the kids because we're
really good friends from Melbourne. Actually I met him in
Melbourne even though he's from Topol, and he was pretty
down because he just felt like he was fifty. And
he was like, man, I've got nothing to show for
I've you know, partied here and done this and done that.
I've really got nothing to show for it. And I
was like, well, the way I look at life, it's
(05:26):
always like if you wake up tomorrow, it's always a
chance to like start again, you know, it's always a
chance to start a new story. And that's how I
sort of keep saying. And I just want he's such
a nice guy. I just wanted to I just want
to write a song sort of give him that message.
You know, it's it's all going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know that is awesome. But he stoked it's the
name of the album too, all right, So we're going
to go into the title track, last of the Lonely
Gods Your Dreams.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
The smoke Kin runs.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
That you aren't stood.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
User. You see gread weapons, they don't work as they should.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Odaki, I bet you've heard that on air before because
we've been playing that fair bit. It's John too Good's
Gravity from a solo album. John is with us now
tell us about that one.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Gravity. Okay, Gravity is actually one of the last songs
I wrote out of all the songs. That was actually
when I was coming out of my sort of blues
and just looking at life and going okay, So now
that I know that life goes fast, way faster than
I thought it did when I was a kid, every
days super precious, and so I just like, it's just
(07:02):
a song about reevaluating what's important, you know, like this,
if I've only got a certain amount of time I
left on the planet, every day's got to count from
here on out. So that's Gravity is about that, about
the passing of time, what becomes important, what becomes less important,
And that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
What do you listen to when you were Were you
listening to any other music whilst when you're writing this album,
was there anything that really not.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Really no, not really. Actually, yeah, I was totally absorbed
in just what I could do with the acoustic guitar,
so like that, that's the instrument I started on when
I was seven. I did that between seven and eleven,
and then gave up and played cricket for a bit,
and then met Tom and started playing electric guitar and
she had and then so I sort of gravitated towards
(07:48):
back towards it because of a very versatile instrument. It's
like the whole band in one instrument. Bass, rhythm, top notes, melody,
everything's great songwriting tool. And also because I was feeling
fragile after all this personal carnage that happened in COVID,
I did music that was a bit gentler, I think,
(08:09):
you know. So, so everything started on the acoust guitar,
you know, and that was enough for me. I didn't
really need to listen to anything, you know, Like I
think if I did listen to music, it was probably
Kendrick Lamar because it was so different, you know, Like,
and I tend to listen to music that I don't
know how it's made because it retains its magic here, right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, a little bit of a brain break, so a
bit ye well, speaking of the tough time that you
went through during COVID. Of course when you were stuck
in Melbourne, you couldn't say good buddy, you mum chesnay comer.
You've got the song Lovers Forever, which is around that time,
all kind of about that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, and it's about the circle of life. I mean, like, yeah,
as painful as it was to lose my mom, it
was also it also made me look at the things
I had in front of me, which was a beautiful
family and a six year old daughter who had my
mum's eyes and my mum's legs. It was absolutely ball
of energy and life and it was like, well, there's
(09:02):
there's my mom in a different form, you know, and
and she's still with us, and and it just it
was comforting to me, you know, like just having that realization.
And that's the song basically amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Every time you talk about that, my glasses stuff fogging up.
So let's play the song. It's love, It's forever. On Hardraking, you.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Were there, now you're gone.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Just a picture.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
On the three days on waiting for someone could never come,
while you came. Wow you ca.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Wow, you can.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's John two goods Us against the World on Hurdaki
from the album Last of the Lonely Gods. Now, depending
on how you're listening to this, if it's maybe vinyl format,
that would be track one on side B. Yep, So
we're going to go into track two on side B.
It's called Swallow Song. John Key tell us about those
two tunes.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Okay, So, so US against the World is about the
feeling I got when my brother finally called me and
said Mum's past and I realized just as as he
was saying it, Oh, I don't have parents anymore. That
means I'm there's nothing but between me and the universe Anymoah.
(11:02):
It's like, literally, I am the I am on the
conveyor belt. I'm the last one on the conveyor belt now,
so I'm I'm I'm the adult in the.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Room, right Appearence, then you, and then you Because.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Even though you know, Mum had got sort of earl
and stuff like that, and they got frail and I
probably ended up looking after them, but in their older age,
it was still like you still feel like they had
someone had your back, you know, And then when they go,
it's it's really hard to explain what it's like to
someone who hasn't lost their pearances. It's like, it's just
you and then there's the universe and that's it. And
(11:34):
so it was a feeling of vertigo. It wasn't it
wasn't awful. It was just really intense and it made
me go, all right, now it's just me and Dana
and Yah and yes, me and our two children, and
we've got to be the adults now, you know. And
that's so Yeah, I think that was what that Us
(11:54):
against the World was about.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And it's losing that that the last of the people
that know you from the day you were born.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, totally, totally, and you've got to be that now,
you know. And and trust me, these days I still
feel like a sixteen year old a seventeen year old
in my head. But yeah, it's just with a sawer back.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So to Swallow songs, the Swallow song that's wat.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The song's specifically about these long walks that I would
go on to try and escape the tonightis the COVID
related to nightas that I got in a really intense Yeah,
COVID complication, which is a documented thing. It's like if
you have pre existing tonight, as you've got a forty
(12:39):
percent chance of it turning it up if you catch COVID.
And that's what happened to me. And it caused massive
panic attacks because it was like a coraline going off
my head constantly, and it came out of nowhere and
I didn't know how to turn it off.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So was it one constant hypitch.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah. It was brutal. And and so I would go
on these huge walks, like I lost so much weight
because I was like, I was like I was trying
to escape myself, but I was carrying that sound with me,
but it just helped. So I'd walk around the cascades
around Howard, Okay, the cascades, and so if you've ever
(13:18):
been around the cascades, the only things that follow you
are swallows that they constantly flit around and because they're
attracted to the water, right, So they were my companions
while I was losing my marbles and questioning whether I
could actually have the strength to face what I was doing. Yeah,
And I basically wrote a song about that feeling, and
(13:40):
it's called Swallow Song.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, all right here it is on Hidark.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I wish I could dove lack swallow at the River's
che fusvive so up to all the world, and I'd
be there for a moment.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
That's best you can from John too Good. We're doing
Last of the Lonely God's track by track this evening
with John too Good. Tell us about best you can do?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
You remember, can I remember writing that? That's actually comes
out of conversations with my neighbors and how I'm actually
and hearing their stories and going, WHOA, that's really I mean,
it's a different story than my story, but it's still
really similar and I can relate to it. You know.
I think as a younger man, I probably wouldn't I'd
(14:40):
probably look for the differences in those stories. But as
I get older, I'm looking for the similarities in the stories,
you know, and the universal things. And I just it
was and it was about watching someone sort of reminiscing
about their sort of wild teenage years. But it also
I had found this beautiful piece with this family, you know,
(15:02):
and it was like, yeah, there's you lose something, but
you gain something, you know, like and I just had
a gentle bit of music that was lying around and
this melody line that I couldn't get on my head.
So and that's what it ended up being.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's how it was born. Yeah, We've got Maybe it
was Your Heart next.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, So basically maybe it was Your Heart. That was
a song about my wife Donna and a tough situation
she was going through actually with her family and not
because done is. Yeah. She's quite a unique individual and
very sensitive, very beautiful, like very generous, very very kind,
(15:41):
but quite different than the rest of her family. And
sometimes I think I underappreciated and I was just it
was just a little note to say, don't worry, we
see you, and we got you. Me and me and
the kids. We got you.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's so choice, all right, here we go. It's Maybe
it was Your Heart? John two Goods on.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Was You That was with You Down?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's the last track from Last blowne Gods from John Tugod.
It's called Missing Paradise. Why that track to finish the
album on.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
There's just something about the music and the way it builds.
It just sounded like a good final statement. It's specifically
about the three and a half months of being away
from my wife and children and when I was stuck
in alter during the Omicron outbreak, and just that feeling
of yeah, wanting to my whole body wanted to be
(16:57):
with them, but I couldn't be there, you know. And
and yeah, so that's why it's called Missing Paradise because
it's sort of that's what it was like, you know,
And this is something the way it builds, I just
really like it's a real final statement song and I
really love it.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You're going to be doing this album live around al
Or curious to know? Are you playing every single song
from the album? How's the how are the show's going
to run?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna, Yes, I'm want to play
every single song and.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I guess thing that you've written it all acoustically, it's
it's not going to be hard to How's it going
to translate live?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I think it's going to be great. But I think
there'll be different versions than some of the you know,
the versions on the album, because some of the versions
on the album get quite grand and the fact that
there's also got pianos and string and drums and stuff.
I'm not going to do that. I'm going to I'm
going to show it like how I wrote it, you know,
like which is just me and a guitar, voicing guitar.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So when you when you originally wrote this album, you
went planning on tuning it into an album. When was
the moment that you went this is this is going
to be a finalized product. I'm going to release this.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I just think I got to sort of like song ten,
and I was like, going, ah, man, I really like
I love these songs. I might play it to a
few people, you know, And I've been playing it the
kids all near the words and my wife and stuff.
But I've been with Warner Music for years, like, so
(18:16):
it's family to me. Okay. So it's like it's not
like a big scary corporation or anything. It's like, I
know everyone in that office, and I trust everyone in
that office that they've always looked after she had and
trail it, you know, and treated it with respect. So
I thought, I'm going to play it to them. And
I remember playing it to Stevie and Lisa, and I remember, yeah,
(18:39):
being really nervous about it so personal that music, and
I couldn't even look them in the eye. I had
to turn away while I was listening to the first song,
and then no one made a noise, and I was like, ah, man,
maybe I'm dreaming. And I turned around and Lisa had
tears streaming down her face, and I was like, oh, okay, right, okay,
so maybe it does affect people like affixed me, you know,
(19:01):
like and then it was like, yeah, we'll put it
out like this if you want, and I was sort
of like, ah, yeah, I do. I'd be happy with that,
but I wouldn't mind working with Scott Horscroft. He's just
a really great producer and he's someone I've had on
my mind for a long time. He's super talented, really
good with pop music. And it wasn't pop music, but
(19:23):
I knew there were great hooks, isn't it? And I
just went, yeah, I just want to see what he's
got on it, you know, like, well what he can
do with it. And I think he did an amazing job.
It's like one of my best favorite sonically favorite producer.
It just sounds exactly like I want it a bit better,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's such a good feeling and no one else to
compromise with. Yeah, really, literally, did you exactly? Did you
find that a little confronting? Being like, WHOA, I don't
have these kind of I don't know people to shield
me from off it was cry if I can say,
oh it's that guy's felt or.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah nah, No, I wasn't worried about that because I
knew this is exactly what I wanted to say, is
exactly the melodies I wanted to use to say it.
The thing is, it was gentle music. It's very local music,
it's very personal music. I needed to do it myself,
you know, because it was about my experience. She has
an amazing thing like it's I love being in she hard.
(20:14):
It's a grand It makes a big sound, you know,
but this wasn't about making a big sound. This was
making music that was very personal and very local. But yeah,
you're always going to get people that go, you know,
oh's them, where's the Roughs bro? And it's like, well,
it's not about that, you know, It's not about that,
And so I'm very happy with that.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Oh thank you John too good so much for joining
us today. For more information, we can hear to your
website for two days.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely, thank you very much. Yay, thanks having me Man.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate us
five stars?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot mz it
Welcome to Radio Hodarkeys Off the Record Podcast with Angelina
gray Good.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's Angelina here with you joining you this evening. John
too Good, known for rocking out and Gee How the
frontman has just released his debut solo album, Last of
the Lonely Gods. John is joining me to talk through
the album track by track from start till finish, a
full album playback, John, I know you've done you your
side deliances, shall we say the adults? That was more collaborative,
(00:29):
So this is just the first just you JTA just me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
A little bit of collaboration towards the end of the
project and the fact that I went over to Australia
to work with Scott Horscroft, that producer who's from Sydney.
He did like Empire of the Sun and co wrote
straight Lines by Silver Chair A yeah. And he's exactly
the same age as me, fifty three. He's got a
six year old and nine year old example wow, and
(00:54):
he just yeah. And when I played my demos, which
sounded a little bit like Bruce Bringsteen Nebraska because it
was just me and my goose guitar, he was like, man,
I get these words and come over and I know
a young piano player called Annie Mac He could be good.
There's a string player called Jennifer who lives just down
the road. I'll bring around any young drummer from a
(01:15):
band called the Middle Kids called Harry Day. Do you
mind if we just play around with it totally? And
because I've done the Adults, which is very collaborative, and
I've realized that the power of collaboration over just a
single vision. At times, I was so prepared for them
just to have a play over my music and it
was beautiful to watch, you know, awesome. Yeah, And I
(01:37):
think I think Lost in My Hometown is a really
good example of if you hear the original, it's very
it's just a acoustic guitar and vocal and this is just
so beautiful because it's got strings and a beautiful piano
playing and great groove. And we just had fun in
the studio with it, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So I'm presuming Lost in My Hometown is that about
you wandering around Wellington.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
It is actually wandering around Wellington at quite a tricky
point in the fact that my brother in law, Campbell,
had got really sick with cancer and just to sort
of stay sane at that time because we were helping
out with my sister and him. I would go for
walks around the streets where I grew up, around Alan
Bay and over Kilberni and by the airport and stuff,
(02:24):
and then and it's really up living in Melbourne. It
was really weird coming back and walking around those streets.
It makes you think about your childhood there and teenage
years and oh man, how did I end up here?
And blah blah blah. So I was lost in memory.
But then I one day I literally got lost and
I just thought, Okay, well that's a great, great title
(02:46):
for a song choice.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All right, well we're going to go to the first
track from the album we're playing at enfil He has
lost in my hotel.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Then down to see the streets of my child and memories.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Where I used to dream, Hey, what's your Name?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
A side just the.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Day Kodaki track number two from John too good solo
album Last of the Lonely Gods. It shouldn't leave it
like that. I've got John too Good here to tell
us about that tune. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So, basically, when my dad passed away twelve years ago,
I had one of those cool jobs where I could
actually put my head up and say I'm not working
anymore because I'm going to go and help out with
my mom and my dad. So I had spent the
last three year three months of his life with herm
and mum and helping out. It was really good. I
mean it was really hard and awful, but there was
(03:58):
nothing left done and said between me and my father.
Twelve years later, my mom gets really ill and she
goes into a coma before I could actually talk to her,
and there was things that I just felt like I
hadn't said and totally and that's just life, you know,
like you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. And
I think it was it was just a song where
(04:20):
I was like thinking about, Yeah, maybe I just I
should have I should have said spoken up when I
had the chance, because you never know when you might
not have that chance anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well we're going to go into the title track now
for track number three, last to the Lonely Gods. Yep,
and you said you said before it's about a friend
of yours, a song you wrote from mate of yours.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, a friend of mine who's an amazing chef. That
was he'd been working Bathlona and then he ended up
on a one of those super yachts owned by this
Tai billionaire in the south of France, being his personal chef,
living a crazy lifestyle. And he just got out of
a ten year relationship and came back to and stayed
(05:05):
with me and my wife and the kids because we're
really good friends from Melbourne. Actually I met him in
Melbourne even though he's from Topol, and he was pretty
down because he just felt like he was fifty. And
he was like, man, I've got nothing to show for
I've you know, partied here and done this and done that.
I've really got nothing to show for it. And I
was like, well, the way I look at life, it's
(05:26):
always like if you wake up tomorrow, it's always a
chance to like start again, you know, it's always a
chance to start a new story. And that's how I
sort of keep saying. And I just want he's such
a nice guy. I just wanted to I just want
to write a song sort of give him that message.
You know, it's it's all going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know that is awesome. But he stoked it's the
name of the album too, all right, So we're going
to go into the title track, last of the Lonely
Gods Your Dreams.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
The smoke Kin runs.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
That you aren't stood.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
User. You see gread weapons, they don't work as they should.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Odaki, I bet you've heard that on air before because
we've been playing that fair bit. It's John too Good's
Gravity from a solo album. John is with us now
tell us about that one.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Gravity. Okay, Gravity is actually one of the last songs
I wrote out of all the songs. That was actually
when I was coming out of my sort of blues
and just looking at life and going okay, So now
that I know that life goes fast, way faster than
I thought it did when I was a kid, every
days super precious, and so I just like, it's just
(07:02):
a song about reevaluating what's important, you know, like this,
if I've only got a certain amount of time I
left on the planet, every day's got to count from
here on out. So that's Gravity is about that, about
the passing of time, what becomes important, what becomes less important,
And that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
What do you listen to when you were Were you
listening to any other music whilst when you're writing this album,
was there anything that really not.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Really no, not really. Actually, yeah, I was totally absorbed
in just what I could do with the acoustic guitar,
so like that, that's the instrument I started on when
I was seven. I did that between seven and eleven,
and then gave up and played cricket for a bit,
and then met Tom and started playing electric guitar and
she had and then so I sort of gravitated towards
(07:48):
back towards it because of a very versatile instrument. It's
like the whole band in one instrument. Bass, rhythm, top notes, melody,
everything's great songwriting tool. And also because I was feeling
fragile after all this personal carnage that happened in COVID,
I did music that was a bit gentler, I think,
(08:09):
you know. So, so everything started on the acoust guitar,
you know, and that was enough for me. I didn't
really need to listen to anything, you know, Like I
think if I did listen to music, it was probably
Kendrick Lamar because it was so different, you know, Like,
and I tend to listen to music that I don't
know how it's made because it retains its magic here, right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, a little bit of a brain break, so a
bit ye well, speaking of the tough time that you
went through during COVID. Of course when you were stuck
in Melbourne, you couldn't say good buddy, you mum chesnay comer.
You've got the song Lovers Forever, which is around that time,
all kind of about that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, and it's about the circle of life. I mean, like, yeah,
as painful as it was to lose my mom, it
was also it also made me look at the things
I had in front of me, which was a beautiful
family and a six year old daughter who had my
mum's eyes and my mum's legs. It was absolutely ball
of energy and life and it was like, well, there's
(09:02):
there's my mom in a different form, you know, and
and she's still with us, and and it just it
was comforting to me, you know, like just having that realization.
And that's the song basically amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Every time you talk about that, my glasses stuff fogging up.
So let's play the song. It's love, It's forever. On Hardraking, you.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Were there, now you're gone.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Just a picture.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
On the three days on waiting for someone could never come,
while you came. Wow you ca.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Wow, you can.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's John two goods Us against the World on Hurdaki
from the album Last of the Lonely Gods. Now, depending
on how you're listening to this, if it's maybe vinyl format,
that would be track one on side B. Yep, So
we're going to go into track two on side B.
It's called Swallow Song. John Key tell us about those
two tunes.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Okay, So, so US against the World is about the
feeling I got when my brother finally called me and
said Mum's past and I realized just as as he
was saying it, Oh, I don't have parents anymore. That
means I'm there's nothing but between me and the universe Anymoah.
(11:02):
It's like, literally, I am the I am on the
conveyor belt. I'm the last one on the conveyor belt now,
so I'm I'm I'm the adult in the.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Room, right Appearence, then you, and then you Because.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Even though you know, Mum had got sort of earl
and stuff like that, and they got frail and I
probably ended up looking after them, but in their older age,
it was still like you still feel like they had
someone had your back, you know, And then when they go,
it's it's really hard to explain what it's like to
someone who hasn't lost their pearances. It's like, it's just
you and then there's the universe and that's it. And
(11:34):
so it was a feeling of vertigo. It wasn't it
wasn't awful. It was just really intense and it made
me go, all right, now it's just me and Dana
and Yah and yes, me and our two children, and
we've got to be the adults now, you know. And
that's so Yeah, I think that was what that Us
(11:54):
against the World was about.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And it's losing that that the last of the people
that know you from the day you were born.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, totally, totally, and you've got to be that now,
you know. And and trust me, these days I still
feel like a sixteen year old a seventeen year old
in my head. But yeah, it's just with a sawer back.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So to Swallow songs, the Swallow song that's wat.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The song's specifically about these long walks that I would
go on to try and escape the tonightis the COVID
related to nightas that I got in a really intense Yeah,
COVID complication, which is a documented thing. It's like if
you have pre existing tonight, as you've got a forty
(12:39):
percent chance of it turning it up if you catch COVID.
And that's what happened to me. And it caused massive
panic attacks because it was like a coraline going off
my head constantly, and it came out of nowhere and
I didn't know how to turn it off.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So was it one constant hypitch.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah. It was brutal. And and so I would go
on these huge walks, like I lost so much weight
because I was like, I was like I was trying
to escape myself, but I was carrying that sound with me,
but it just helped. So I'd walk around the cascades
around Howard, Okay, the cascades, and so if you've ever
(13:18):
been around the cascades, the only things that follow you
are swallows that they constantly flit around and because they're
attracted to the water, right, So they were my companions
while I was losing my marbles and questioning whether I
could actually have the strength to face what I was doing. Yeah,
And I basically wrote a song about that feeling, and
(13:40):
it's called Swallow Song.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, all right here it is on Hidark.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I wish I could dove lack swallow at the River's
che fusvive so up to all the world, and I'd
be there for a moment.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
That's best you can from John too Good. We're doing
Last of the Lonely God's track by track this evening
with John too Good. Tell us about best you can do?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
You remember, can I remember writing that? That's actually comes
out of conversations with my neighbors and how I'm actually
and hearing their stories and going, WHOA, that's really I mean,
it's a different story than my story, but it's still
really similar and I can relate to it. You know.
I think as a younger man, I probably wouldn't I'd
(14:40):
probably look for the differences in those stories. But as
I get older, I'm looking for the similarities in the stories,
you know, and the universal things. And I just it
was and it was about watching someone sort of reminiscing
about their sort of wild teenage years. But it also
I had found this beautiful piece with this family, you know,
(15:02):
and it was like, yeah, there's you lose something, but
you gain something, you know, like and I just had
a gentle bit of music that was lying around and
this melody line that I couldn't get on my head.
So and that's what it ended up being.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's how it was born. Yeah, We've got Maybe it
was Your Heart next.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, So basically maybe it was Your Heart. That was
a song about my wife Donna and a tough situation
she was going through actually with her family and not
because done is. Yeah. She's quite a unique individual and
very sensitive, very beautiful, like very generous, very very kind,
(15:41):
but quite different than the rest of her family. And
sometimes I think I underappreciated and I was just it
was just a little note to say, don't worry, we
see you, and we got you. Me and me and
the kids. We got you.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's so choice, all right, here we go. It's Maybe
it was Your Heart? John two Goods on.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Was You That was with You Down?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's the last track from Last blowne Gods from John Tugod.
It's called Missing Paradise. Why that track to finish the
album on.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
There's just something about the music and the way it builds.
It just sounded like a good final statement. It's specifically
about the three and a half months of being away
from my wife and children and when I was stuck
in alter during the Omicron outbreak, and just that feeling
of yeah, wanting to my whole body wanted to be
(16:57):
with them, but I couldn't be there, you know. And
and yeah, so that's why it's called Missing Paradise because
it's sort of that's what it was like, you know,
And this is something the way it builds, I just
really like it's a real final statement song and I
really love it.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You're going to be doing this album live around al
Or curious to know? Are you playing every single song
from the album? How's the how are the show's going
to run?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna, Yes, I'm want to play
every single song and.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I guess thing that you've written it all acoustically, it's
it's not going to be hard to How's it going
to translate live?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I think it's going to be great. But I think
there'll be different versions than some of the you know,
the versions on the album, because some of the versions
on the album get quite grand and the fact that
there's also got pianos and string and drums and stuff.
I'm not going to do that. I'm going to I'm
going to show it like how I wrote it, you know,
like which is just me and a guitar, voicing guitar.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So when you when you originally wrote this album, you
went planning on tuning it into an album. When was
the moment that you went this is this is going
to be a finalized product. I'm going to release this.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I just think I got to sort of like song ten,
and I was like, going, ah, man, I really like
I love these songs. I might play it to a
few people, you know, And I've been playing it the
kids all near the words and my wife and stuff.
But I've been with Warner Music for years, like, so
(18:16):
it's family to me. Okay. So it's like it's not
like a big scary corporation or anything. It's like, I
know everyone in that office, and I trust everyone in
that office that they've always looked after she had and
trail it, you know, and treated it with respect. So
I thought, I'm going to play it to them. And
I remember playing it to Stevie and Lisa, and I remember, yeah,
(18:39):
being really nervous about it so personal that music, and
I couldn't even look them in the eye. I had
to turn away while I was listening to the first song,
and then no one made a noise, and I was like, ah, man,
maybe I'm dreaming. And I turned around and Lisa had
tears streaming down her face, and I was like, oh, okay, right, okay,
so maybe it does affect people like affixed me, you know,
(19:01):
like and then it was like, yeah, we'll put it
out like this if you want, and I was sort
of like, ah, yeah, I do. I'd be happy with that,
but I wouldn't mind working with Scott Horscroft. He's just
a really great producer and he's someone I've had on
my mind for a long time. He's super talented, really
good with pop music. And it wasn't pop music, but
(19:23):
I knew there were great hooks, isn't it? And I
just went, yeah, I just want to see what he's
got on it, you know, like, well what he can
do with it. And I think he did an amazing job.
It's like one of my best favorite sonically favorite producer.
It just sounds exactly like I want it a bit better,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's such a good feeling and no one else to
compromise with. Yeah, really, literally, did you exactly? Did you
find that a little confronting? Being like, WHOA, I don't
have these kind of I don't know people to shield
me from off it was cry if I can say,
oh it's that guy's felt or.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah nah, No, I wasn't worried about that because I
knew this is exactly what I wanted to say, is
exactly the melodies I wanted to use to say it.
The thing is, it was gentle music. It's very local music,
it's very personal music. I needed to do it myself,
you know, because it was about my experience. She has
an amazing thing like it's I love being in she hard.
(20:14):
It's a grand It makes a big sound, you know,
but this wasn't about making a big sound. This was
making music that was very personal and very local. But yeah,
you're always going to get people that go, you know,
oh's them, where's the Roughs bro? And it's like, well,
it's not about that, you know, It's not about that,
And so I'm very happy with that.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Oh thank you John too good so much for joining
us today. For more information, we can hear to your
website for two days.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely, thank you very much. Yay, thanks having me Man.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate us
five stars?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot mz it
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