Not so Regular John?

Did you know that a Regular John is a term for a customer in the sex industry? It’s also the name of a Queens of the Stone Age song. But your education of mindless facts doesn’t stop there, Regular John are also a band, and a bloody tops one too. Ryan Adamson could tell you that, but what does the lead singer of Regular John know about other stuff? Or does he know anything at all? The answer to that question is yes. It turns out Ryan Adamson is a rather articulate man on loads of subjects.

It’s hard to box the Sydney based four piece into a genre which is why Ryan feels that Regular John is such a fitting name. “Regular John is kind of like an anti-name, its two common words. We could have been a metal band and called ourselves a really psycho name or been an Emo band and called ourselves “Second wait for autumn Tuesdays” or some shit,” says Ryan. “But Regular John doesn’t sound like anything. It could be a country band or a rock band or even like a rapper. So that is why we really dug it. It is kind of like; let the music do the talking. We are all just regular cats you know. We aren’t some elite species of rocker.”

These regular cats have got it made with Regular John touring around the country to celebrate the release of their debut album. ‘The Peaceful Atom Is A Bomb’ covers a range of rock genres. Ryan wants everyone who attends the shows to be prepared for some volume. “We’ll be bringing loudness, a good time, and some good old fashioned amplifier worship,” says Ryan. Punters may also get to witness some on stage nudity. “We played a gig once and our drummer Macca got nude. About the third song in we held a poll to see who wanted our drummer to get naked and he did.”

Aside from spontaneous nudity, the band hold legendary comedian Bill Hicks and film extraordinaire Stanley Kubrick as some of their main influences. “He (Bill Hicks) is quite socially aware. When you listen to him you can laugh your ass off but when you come away from it you can leave thinking that you have actually learnt something because he puts forward some really cool points and it’s a big influence in that sense,” reveals Ryan. “We wanted our music to be the type you can rock out to or you can listen to some of the lyrics and think about what they are saying and come away from our music with something to think about too.” Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is also a favourite of Ryan’s. “His meticulousness and his dedication are amazing. Sometimes I put the volume down on 2001: A Space Odyssey, play along to the images and make my own soundtrack to it.”

The future looks bright for these rockers from Sydney, but things haven’t been easy for the boys in the past. “We moved from Griffith up to Sydney, (except for Caleb, he is from Tamworth.) If we had stayed in Griffith we would still be playing to people who were covering their ears and yelling out for Chisel covers, which is bullshit. We don’t want to play other peoples songs. That is boring, it may pay better but there is no soul in playing other peoples stuff,” says Ryan. “We had to do it. It took some confidence but it was for our own sanity.”

By Vivienne Hill

Catch Regular John…
Thursday 2nd July, Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast.
Friday 3rd July, Step In, Brisbane.

‘The Peaceful Atom Is A Bomb’ is out now through Difrnt music.

p.s. Cheers to www.abc.net.au for the pic.