Johnny Goudie

John Charles "Johnny" Goudie (born October 14, 1968 in Miami, Florida, United States) is a Cuban-American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumental musician, record producer, actor, and podcaster based in Austin, Texas. During a career that has spanned four decades he has received acclaim for his unique vocals and a constantly evolving musical style with its roots in classic rock.

Early life and music career

Raised in the Miami, Florida area, Goudie comes from a family of Cuban medical doctors. On August 5, 1982, at age 13 Johnny saw Cheap Trick in concert at the Sunrise Musical Theatre in Sunrise, Florida, which he credits with changing his life forever and inspiring him to become a musician and play in a band. Later that year Goudie started his first band, which he called ZEPHYR.^[1][2] His family was supportive (his father had also been a singer in a band).^[2] At age 16, Johnny became the guitarist of the band Cry Wolf, the side project of Carole King's guitarist Mark Hallman. On October 13, 1985, when Johnny was 16, his mother, Natalie Antonetti, was beaten over the head in her apartment. She died 18 days later. The crime went unsolved for 23 years until a tip led police to arrest Antonetti's ex-boyfriend Dennis Davis.^[3] On April 15, 2011 Davis was convicted of the murder.^[4][5] Grief-stricken by the traumatic loss of his mother, Goudie channeled his grief into his music, writing 150 songs in the months following his mother's death.^[6]

In 1988 while living in The Woodlands area outside Houston, Texas Johnny started a funk–soul band called Panjadrum.^[7] Shortly after recording a 4-track EP entitled Chuck, Panjadrum broke up in 1990, and Goudie formed another band called Lovetree as well as pursuing a side career as a solo artist.^[7] In 1992 Lovetree recorded an EP entitled Sorry About the Drum Machine. Lovetree's sound was influenced by rock, funk and Latin music.

By 1993 Goudie had left Lovetree and moved to Austin, Texas where he fronted the rock band Mr. Rocket Baby, which included former members of Panjandrum and Lovetree.^[7] The band's philosophy was to play 70s-influenced rock music while dressing and acting like they were from the 70s. Mr. Rocket Baby's first shows were opening for Davíd Garza and Bob Schneider before crowds of hundreds, and they became an instant hit in Austin. The band secured a management deal within two weeks of their first concert and began touring the country. The band also landed a weekly residency at legendary Austin club The Steamboat where they shared bills with other famed Austin acts such as Joe Rockhead, Storyville, Arc Angels, Ian Moore and Vallejo. In 1993 Mr. Rocket Baby was voted best pop band in the Austin Chronicle's readers poll,^[8][9] and they came in third place in voting for best new band overall.^[10] Mr. Rocket Baby released one album, Make Believe, which was produced by Mark Hallman, before parting ways. At the suggestion of former Steamboat manager Danny Crooks, Mr. Rocket Baby reunited for one concert on December 6, 2014.^[11][12]

On April 10, 1994 Johnny married Traci Campbell in Austin. The couple were married for ten years. Their divorce was the subject of many of the songs on Goudie's 2005 album Boy in a Box.

After the breakup of Mr. Rocketbaby, for the next few years Johnny toured as a power trio with bassist Einar Pedersen and a drummer Kyle Schneider. The trio independently recorded an album Fantastic at Congress House Studio in Austin in 1996 with producer Billy White. In 1996-1997 Johnny played guitar for the band Sunshine and also played drums on the album 4-Track Mind with the band Jez Spencer,^[13] an early incarnation of Spencer Gibb's band which would become 54 Seconds. He also co-wrote the song "Stuck in a Hole", which ended up on Darin Murphy's 1998 album Solitarium^[14][15] as well as co-writing with Mark Addison the song "Sun Earth Moon" which appeared on The Borrowers second album Overcoming Gravity and was also featured in a commercial for The Cleveland Planetarium. In late 1997 Goudie was again working on his own material and decided to put a new band together.

Goudie 1997–2002

see main article Goudie (band)

In the Spring of 1998 Johnny's new band, simply named Goudie played the South by Southwest festival in Austin, and happened to catch the attention of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who was looking to sign bands to his new record label The Music Company, a subsidiary of Elektra Records. Johnny's band was the second band signed to the label.

In July 2000 Goudie released their first album, Peep Show, to critical acclaim. The band set out on a year-long tour supporting the album, touring with such acts as Blur, Veruca Salt, Agent Orange, Supergrass, Alejandro Escovedo, Davíd Garza, Juliana Hatfield, and Unified Theory.

In June 2001 the band left Elektra and joined forces with friends at independent Austin label India Records, which released the band's critically acclaimed second album ...Effects of Madness in March 2002. However later that year, the band split up.

Post-Goudie career

After the breakup of his band, Goudie returned to his biggest passion: writing and recording songs in his home studio. He independently released an album of self-recorded demos entitled 18 Unreleased Home Demos 1996-2001 as well as a Christmas album Johnny Says Ho which was released only to his fan club. The popularity of these releases led to a series of other demo collections entitled Return of the Handlebar, I Think I'm a Genius, Electric Boogalo, Helloprah! and The Loyalist; the latter of which consisted entirely of covers. He appeared on Eliza Gilkyson's 2002 album Lost and Found, Colin Gilmore's album The Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way and Jeff Klein's 2003 album Everybody Loves a Winner and served as producer during pre-production sessions for the album and played guitar and keyboard in Jeff Klein's live band. During this time, he continued to perform in several other bands, including God Drives a Galaxy, Lowery 66 and Ennui the Fawn. He continued to write his own material and in the summer of 2003 he released a solo album entitled I Love Elke on Strangelove Records, a label dedicated to artists making records on their own terms. Johnny supported I Love Elke with a tour with God Drives a Galaxy and Einar Pedersen as his backing band. Johnny also found the time to co-write the song "Intertwined" which appeared on Canvas's 2004 album Four Days Awake. He joined the popular Austin band Endochine for their Day Two tour and was voted best keyboard player in the 2004 Austin Chronicle music awards.

Goudie also took to the role of record producer, producing albums for scores of local bands and musicians. In 2004 Johnny produced Canvas's third album Painting The Roses. On the subsequent tour for Painting the Roses, Johnny played as opening act with Canvas as his backing band, and then played keyboard with Canvas during their headlining set. Goudie also played several acoustic shows with Canvas frontman Joseph King and was briefly a member of King's post-Canvas band which became Deadbeat Darling.

Later in 2004 Johnny played on Pale's album Here in addition to completing his second solo album Boy in a Box, which was the debut release of F+M Records. The album again won him critical praise and is regarded as his strongest work to date and is also his best selling album. Johnny's band for the 2004 - 2005 Boy in a Box tour was an all-star group consisting of Ryan Holley (of A+ Machines and Plow Monday) on guitar, Brad Byram (of Canvas) on bass, and Alan "Alski" Adams (of A+ Machines, Falling Jupiter and Flywater Washington) on drums. The tracks "Back of a Magazine" and "Everyone Remembers (When You're Cool)" from Boy in a Box also found their way onto the soundtrack of the 2006 short film Surf Gang. 2006 also saw the release of Johnny's acoustic album All You Can't Undo, which he supported with a cross country unplugged solo tour. In 2007 Johnny joined long-time friend Ian Moore's band, The Lossy Coils, on a nation-wide tour, playing guitar and keyboard. Johnny also plays in the 70s-80s cover band SKYROCKET! which he formed with Trish Murphy, Darin Murphy, Paul English, Benjamin Hotchkiss, Kyle Crusham, and Mike Belile. SKYROCKET! was voted best cover band in the 2006 Austin Chronicle Music Awards and also won the Critic's Choice Award. In addition to being a member of The Lossy Coils and SKYROCKET!, Johnny still plays live shows as a solo artist, and has assembled a super group, Johnny Goudie and the Little Champions, which includes Brad Byrum (bass) and Scott Thomas (drums) of Canvas and Ryan Holley (lead guitar) and Sweeney Tidball (keyboard). The band released their debut album El Payaso on February 3, 2009. The Little Champions experienced several lineup changes depending on which musicians were available for shows and tours - including an all-female lineup which was dubbed "The Lady Champions", which included Suzanna Choffel and Kathy Valentine. Johnny has also played in Kathy Valentine's bands "The Impossible" and "The Bluebonnets" and in 2014 he recorded an EP with Valentine, on which he co-wrote two of the songs.

Johnny recorded the song "I Wanna Come Home For Christmas" with the band Saturday's Radar for a Christmas album in 2009. In 2010 Johnny joined a new band called Liars & Saints along with singer/songwriters Kacy Crowley and Jeremy Nail. In May/June 2011 Liars & Saints recorded an EP and released it in August 2011. Johnny played his last shows with Liars & Saints at SXSW 2012, leaving the band to focus his attention on his solo career; however the band reformed to play two concerts at SXSW 2013 and continued to play other shows throughout that year. Goudie sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town on the 2012 Austin Christmas album. In 2014 he played guitar, piano, organ slide and sang harmonies on Kimmie Rhodes's album Cowgirl Boudoir. The album also includes a cover version of the song "I am Falling", which Goudie wrote (the original version appeared on his 2003 album I Love Elke). In late 2014 Goudie also provided backing vocals on Paco Estrada's album Bedtime Stories.

Podcast

Inspired by WTF with Marc Maron and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, in 2011 Johnny started broadcasting a podcast entitled "How Did I Get Here" in which he interviews fellow musicians and people in the entertainment industry.^[16] The podcast gained instantaneous popularity within the Austin music scene, and as of January 2015, he has recorded over 300 episodes.

Selected discography

Selected filmography

Television roles

References

1. ↑ Lesa Pence (2000-06-06). "Interview With Goudie". 
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 David A. Cobb (2004-11-24). "10 Questions for Johnny Goudie". 
3. ↑ Noelle Newton (2009-06-17). "Arrest in cold-case murder shocks victim's only child". Archived from the original on Jul 4, 2014. 
4. ↑ "Man found guilty in 1985 murder". 2011-04-15. 
5. ↑ Steve Albert (2011-04-15). "Dennis Davis found guilty in 1985 murder case". 
6. ↑ "48 Hours Mystery: Who Killed Natalie Antonetti?". 2012-06-09. 
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Julie Martin. "Biography: Johnny Goudie". 
8. ↑ "Austin Music Database". 
9. ↑ "Austin Music Awards Best Performing Bands". 
10. ↑ "Austin Music Awards Best Overall". 
11. ↑ Raoul Hernandez (2014-12-06). "Mr. Rocket Baby Reunion". Austin Chronicle. 
12. ↑ Peter Blackstock (2014-12-04). "Architect goes back to the future with reunion show and ‘Hedwig’ band". Austin American-Statesman. 
13. ↑ "Jez Spencer: 4-Track Mind Album Credits". 
14. ↑ "Darin Murphy: Solitarium Album Credits". 
15. ↑ "Texas Platters". 1998-11-02. 
16. ↑ William Harries Graham (2013-07-09). "How Johnny Goudie Got Here: Podcast asks the tough questions". The Austin Chronicle. 

External links

• Johnny Goudie on Myspace
• SKYROCKET! Official website

• Interviews
  • Doin' It For The Ladies
  • Interview with Goudie
  • 10 Questions for Johnny Goudie