Harry George Johns – Post Breakdown Blues
Dealing with depression and wondering about where your life is going is a feeling I’m all too familiar with. That feeling that you are spiralling out of control and down to the very depths of despair incapacitates your senses and ability to deal with simple everyday tasks. How you deal with these things and where you draw the strength from to get back on track alongside the help of friends and family is vital to getting well.
This is the reason why I can so resonate with Harry George Johns cathartic approach to his own problems two years ago. As you can imagine this mini album is no easy listen the pain is obvious heartfelt and very raw. Before i go onto review the record it’s important to remember Harry’s back story ….
having been previously a member of both Dinosaur Pile Up & Old Romantic Killer Band in his hometown of Leeds. Harry was well known for his raucous on and off stage antics, touring all over the world with bands like Supergrass, Sunshine Underground, Therapy and Von Bondies, as well as playing at Leeds and Reading festival in the UK and SXSW in Texas.
Says Harry –
“Over the course of one single week in December 2011, I lost my girl, my house, my job and pretty much my mind. I was sat in The Well in Leeds with a bag of clothes and my skateboard trying to figure out not what went wrong, but simply where I was going to sleep that night.
Drinking and drugs and all that stuff had taken over during the run-up to me losing everything. I knew I had to finally go talk to the doctors and therapists people had spent months urging me to see.
If there was anything that was going to help me pull through what looked to be the most heartbroken, poorest new year so far it was a handful of friends that let me sleep on their sofas, eat their toast and play their guitars.
It was my time spent with hometown-friend Matthew Wright in his humble home studio that we created ‘Post Breakdown Blues’. This record is just some of the soundtrack to my breakdown, my loneliness, introspection and just trying to get fixed.”
Dropping on Feb 11th the mini longplayer will be available on a pay what you want basis from his Bandcamp as on all these occasions i urge you to pay what you can afford.
I’m not actually even sure I can review the album as to try to convey in words the pain expressed will I feel in some ways dilute the power of the content via the written page. This is in no way meant to be a kop out trust me this one of the most powerful and emotive records i’ve listened to in a long while. It’s as raw and bare as Josh T Pearson in my book, another twist to the release is that those who want to get to know the man behind the music will have the opportunity to write Harry a letter – that’s right, an actual physical letter, and Harry will reply with a personal note and exclusive tracks only available via old fashioned snail mail.
At the end of last week Harry released a video of one of the tracks ‘All You Can Do’ Please take the time to listen HERE
Some live dates have also been just announced in intimate venues with more to come of which Harry says “I’m excited but ultimately extremely nervous about playing these shows, it’s going to be a really stripped down set, very bare. I have my brother in tow to do harmonies which i’m really pleased about. Baring myself that honestly in a live environment will be hard for me, but hopefully the performances will be pretty special.”
February 5 – London, The Slaughtered Lamb (w/ Amelia Curran)
March 7 – Wakefield, The Hop
March 9 – Norwich, Olives
March 14 – Leeds, Sela Bar
March 23 – Coventry, Inspire
April 06 – Carlisle, The Royal Scot
April 13 – Lincoln, Café Aroma
April 20 – Edinbrough, Hendersons @ St Johns
You can grab a FREE download of his track Hospital Blues from soundcloud HERE
All things Harry HERE
Comments
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
No incoming links found yet.