About Me
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V3.6 !
All right let’s see... I was born in King City, CA. Don’t worry, I’m sure you never heard of it. It’s a little shitty town in Central California. My parents are from Portugal, so yes, that means I’m full blooded Portuguese. I bet you would’ve never guessed! I got into music after the first time I heard KISS. Me, my brother, and some of my cousins were obsessed with KISS. We’d listen to them everyday and pretend we were them. So I got into music at a very early age. I was into anything that rocked. From AC/DC, to ALICE COOPER, to LED ZEPPLIN, AEROSMITH, and BLACK SABBATH, to VAN HALEN, etc. I also remember being into REO SPEEDWAGON when I was a kid. Hi-Infidelity was a killer album. A classic!! Later my musical tastes would also include bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Poison, Def Leppard and anything that had loud guitars, long hair, and leather. Yes, I was a product of the Glam era. I LOVED THE 80’s. You gotta admit. It was fun!! Anyway, my parents bought me my first guitar on my 12th birthday. I haven’t put it down since.
Fast forward a few years, I left high school early to pursue my music career. Bad move!!! So in the early nineties I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area because I figured my chances of going somewhere were better there than in King City, and L.A. was just too far from home. The first band I formed in the Bay Area was called Cheshire Cat. It was a glam hard rock band. We did pretty well in the club scene, but it really didn’t amount to much. So after that band broke up, the keyboardist and I formed ATTITUDE. This was around ’91-’92 and three guys from Seattle decided to piss on our parade. At the same time, our drummer got into a serious car accident and no longer had the use of one of his arms. Since we didn’t have Def Leppard’s money, we couldn’t afford to get him a custom electronic drum set, so he had to leave the band. After a few months of trying to find a replacement, the band dissolved. That’s when I decided to go solo, and I’ve been solo ever since.
In 1995, my parents gave me some money to record my first solo album. It was released in 1996 independently here in the states and released in Japan through Fandango Records. Somehow the album made it’s way to Europe and the buzz started happening. Soon after I went back in the studio to record my second album "Shine On". I had the pleasure of mixing that album in England with Gary Hughes from the band Ten. Well, I didn’t do any mixing, I was mostly sight seeing. That album came out in 1999 through Frontiers Records (Europe) and Nippon Crown (Japan).
Soon after the release of "Shine On", I was invited to play at the GODS OF AOR show in England. This would be the first time I would be on stage as a solo artist, and the first time singing live since ’92. That show was a blast, and the European crowds are much different than they are here in the States. I don’t mean any disrespect to my fellow Americans, but I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was an awesome experience and one I will never forget. I mean, where else can you go on at 6pm and play for a packed house. Definitely not here, unless your freakin’ Bon Jovi or something.
I went back to England in 2000 again to perform, and when I got back, I spent my advance money and bought studio equipment so I wouldn’t have to "watch the clock" while I was recording my next album. 2001 was a pretty busy year for me personally. I got married in June to my lovely wife Cara, and our son was born in December. Needless to say, with wedding plans, getting reading for the baby, etc., I didn’t have much time to work on my next album. So music was put on hold for a good year. "Made In California" finally came out in 2003. Even though the album did pretty well for me in Europe, I still couldn’t get anything done here in the U.S., and Japan dried up for me as well. My business relationship with the production company I was signed to was going downhill, and I was pretty dissappointed with the way I was being promoted.
By this time, I merged my little studio with Suspect Studios which is where I recorded my first two albums. Funny how things go full circle. So I began work on my next album. I decided to re-record my debut album from ’96 since it has been long out of print. Why re-record it? Well, I wasn’t too happy with the original production, and since I didn’t have to pay for studio time, it would’ve been very easy (and cheap) to re-record it. For the longest time I wanted to release that album again, so this was the time to do it. Personally I was quite tired of burning copies for people who were having a hard time finding the album, and I was a little annoyed seeing it being sold on ebay anywhere from $29.00-$40.00. So 2005 saw the release of my 4th album titled "Version 1.2". This album was only released in Europe via Escape Music, but is available in the U.S. and the rest of the world through Digital Distribution (iTunes, Yahoo! Music, etc.).
So that brings me to the present day. I’ve been keeping myself busy in the studio recording other artists, either in a production role, or just an engineering role. I wrote and produced 3 songs for an upcoming Bay Area Hip Hop duo called Haz Mat and I recently finished writing and producing the new Dirty Penny album. If you love your rock and roll raw and dirty, I’d suggest you give these guys a listen. A very fun album to listen to. I’ve also been working on some new songs for my next solo album and will be recording that new album beginning in January of ’08. I plan on having the album released sometime in the summer. Stay tuned!
So what the hell am I doing on myspace? Well, I’m here to promote my music for one. I think MySpace has given us artists a killer opportunity to share our music with thousands of people. I’m also here to network with other artists and music professionals. And of course, I’m here to meet new people. In the short time I’ve been on MySpace I’ve met some very cool people all around the globe. I’ve also met some amazing new artists here. Some that are so good, I just can’t understand why they’re not all over the radio, and MTV yet. Keep checking back for updates and don’t forget to tell all your friends about my music and where they can purchase it. Peace & Love.... Johnny
