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Your Brother Whackin

2004-04-11

Category: prose

I present to you a radio interview by Greg Basely of Music Histories News with Claude Johnson of the band Your Brother Whackin.


B: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm here tonight with Claude Johnson, the lead singer of the pop group Your Brother Whackin. Good evening, Claude.

J: Good evening, Greg. It's a real pleasure to be here.

B: We're glad to have you. Let's start at the beginning. When did you join Your Brother Whackin?

J: Like the other guys, I started when I was thirteen. We were really noticing the girls a lot and thought that a band might be the thing to help us.

B: So you were just interested in the girls?

J: Oh yea, we were thinking about them all the time.

B: Did you go out right away with your band?

J: No, we were a little afraid of what our parents or friends would say so we sort of kept it in the closet. It would be a while before we were comfortable enough to do it in front of an audience.

B: The audience seems to enjoy it now.

J: Oh yea, it's really great when you hear the announcer call out, "And now what you've all been wanting see, Your Brother Whackin!" The crowd goes wild. Then we get to go out there and do our thing in front of hundreds or thousands of people. It's such a rush.

B: I know from the requests we get here at the station that everybody wants to hear Your Brother Whackin. As the lead singer, how much control do you have in what goes on in the show?

J: After all these years I have quite a bit of control. Though we go on with a general plan, we can adjust by the reaction we get from the crowd. Sometimes they want us to pick up the pace and do it fast. Other times they want it to last all night. Since I'm the one standing there up front, the others rely on me to signal what they should do.

B: So you're the driver?

J: I prefer to think of my self as a handler. I can only guide the show a little but I can't make it go anywhere.

B: On some of your songs you have played guitar. Is there a reason why you don't do more of that?

J: I'm not really that good at the guitar. My fingers don't do as good of a job as they should. Besides, we got Pete and he's the best lead guitar you could want. He lives the thing. We'll find him alone, enjoying himself, going through all his licks. There's not much need for me to play.

Beeping sound on the radio followed by a few bars of a Your Brother Whackin song.

B: Uh oh, you know what that sound means. That's the opportunity for one of our lucky listeners to call in and win backstage passes to see Your Brother Whackin.

J: That's right, Greg, and they get to be an honorary roady for the band. Won't that be fun!

B: It sure will, Claude. Let's go to the phone lines. Hello, caller, how would you like to be a roady for Your Brother Whackin?

Caller: (A female voice very excited on the phone.) Oh my God! Oh my God! I can't believe I won backstage passes! I can't believe it.

J: You can believe it, caller.

Caller: Is that Claude? Oh my God, you are so my favorite. I can't believe I'm talking to Claude Johnson. I have a poster of Your Brother Whackin on my bedroom wall and I stare at you every night when I go to bed.

B: That's right, caller, and soon you and a friend will have the chance to talk to Claude and see the other members at the Your Brother Whackin show.

Caller: Screams of excitement

B: What's your name, caller?

Caller: Oh my God, I'm Jillian. Oh my God, I can't believe I won.

B: That's right, you won. I need you to stay on the line while our guys get all of your information so we can get you your tickets. Before I send you over to them, tell our listeners who you can't wait to see.

Caller: I can't wait to see Your Brother Whackin.

B: That's right, Jillian. As for the rest of you, keep listening because we still have five more chances for you to see Your Brother Whackin.

A voice says something barely picked up by the microphone.

B: What's that? Only three? Can't I say it's five anyway? Ok, I'll make the correction. Sorry folks, it seems I misrepresented things. We've only got three to give away and not five like I said a minute ago. Still, that's three big backstage packages to give away.

Plays a gong sound effect.

B: Claude, tell us about your tour.

J: Well, Greg, we think that everybody would like to see Your Brother Whackin. It's also a good time to promote our new album.

B: Your album is really great. There have already been several hit singles. Why did you release so many of the songs as singles?

J: It was important to us to see how the songs would do by themselves. Any song can seem to do good if it's partnered up with at least one other good song. This gives us a chance to let the songs take care of themselves.

B: That's an unusual strategy.

J: Others in the industry have looked down on us for doing that. We had to create our own label because none of them would play with us. The strategy has worked so far and we've done just fine playing with ourselves.

B: So you have. What future plans does the band have?

J: For now we're just trying to get through the tour. After that, our plans are still soft. There will probably be a vacation, some time to just roll over and go to sleep. After that, if we have good inspiration we'll work on another album. If the inspiration isn't there, we may hone our tools by going solo.

B: I know all our listeners are hoping to hear more from you. You guys are great. We really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk here tonight. Thanks a lot.

J: I'm happy to have the opportunity to talk a bit and reach out to the fans.

B: I'm sure they were happy to hear you. Thanks for coming on our show. All right all you Your Brother Whackin fans, keep listening for your chance to win and you to can go backstage to see Your Brother Whackin.

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