Michael Johns – Entertainment Weekly – VIDEO
In his interview with Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly, Michael Johns admits unabashedly that he’s targeting baby baby boomers with his new album, Hold Back My Heart, set to be released June 23rd.
In the second half of the clip, Michael performs a soulful acoustic version of the Bee Gees “To Love Somebody.”
Also, listen to a little clip of “This is Goodbye”, from the new album.
Download Michael’s new single, “Heart on My Sleeve” right here:
Video after the JUMP…
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23 Responses to “Michael Johns – Entertainment Weekly – VIDEO”
hehe sorry mj i’m gonna get a little finicky but the bee gees song title is to love somebody
^^^ I knew that! Heh heh.
By the way, I’m posting this item somewhat reluctantly today, due to some of the behavior from fans in the last Michael Johns thread.
Just a warning to those who might attack or start fan wars here: You will be put into moderation immediately without a second chance. Just so you know.
Please follow my guidelines:
http://mjsbigblog.com/?page_id=1172
Awww, thanks for posting MJ! We’ll be good!! Well, I can’t speak for everyone, LOL, but I’ll be good. :cool1_tb:
I love Michael’s acoustic performance of To Love Somebody, but I have to admit that I wonder what the CD version is going to sound like with horns and did he say gospel style singing? Hmmm.
i really, really like the clip of This Is Goodbye and can’t wait to hear it in full!
MIchael sounds very excited about his CD and I wish him the best of luck.
Decent interview from MJ. Really loved the “This Is Goodbye” snippet, maybe there’s hope for the album after all.
A bit of revisionist history from Michael though, as I sort of recall Simon and the other judges telling him that the bluesy side of rock was his niche as opposed to Michael telling Simon that. LOL But, whatever gets him through.
But, dude, why are you wasting these opportunities by performing covers as opposed to your original stuff?!! He’s done that before and I just don’t get it, especially at this point when he clearly has other recordings done! Michael, Michael, Michael…
He filmed this appearance awhile ago. The single wasn’t ready then.
I really like Michael, but I kept thinking I’d heard that “Otis Redding version” of “To Love Somebody” somewhere else and better performed, and I had: Ray Lamontagne and Damien Rice do a phenomenal rendition of the song.
I’m still happy for Michael and hoping the studio version adds something new. I’ve already bought most of Michael’s other stuff and probably will buy this, too, but I’m just dying for something he does to sound truly “Michael” and not so much like a good cover of somebody else’s song or his actually improving on an original. He really has only done that once for me, with Dolly’s “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right.”
Sigh … I have really missed that beautiful voice. He sounds great — absolutely cannot wait for this CD. Sigh — bluesy soulful rockin Michael.
That’s cool then. Didn’t Slezak and he talk about a demo he’d recorded of three songs (and sent to Slezak) though? Oh well, guess I just really want to hear more of “This Is Goodbye.” LOL
Love the clip of This is Goodbye as well as the acoustic To Love Someone. I hope the gospel and horns aren’t too over the top. But totally looking forward to this album.
Well, I’m a baby boomer and I love this type sound. But, he probably should moderate how he presents that a little as he doesn’t want to turn off potential younger fans (or make us boomers feel like we are listening to “old folks” music, hah).
I thought it was a great interview. And I loved To Love Somebody and the snippet of This is Goodbye. I’m of a different mind about his target market. I’m a baby boomer and I love his sound. And it’s about f&*king time somebody wants to “target” my market! Like he said “If the kids get it, great”. I just hope he gets promotion and radio play. Maybe others like him will to. I’m tired of listening to the same classic rock station playing the same songs. They’re good songs, but we deserve some new stuff too.
Although I am a baby boomer, I don’t feel like his target audience at all, because I’m not one to long for the good old days–I listen to mostly current music. Heh.
So yeah, I take your point on that.
Watching and listening to Michael made me realize what a fabulous season #7 was. Compare his vocal to our current top 7, and you realize that last year had some incredible and diverse talents.
And, he’s gawwwwwwwwwwwwgeous.
me too MJ. It will keep us young!
The description of his album sounds great. Throwback music to Otis and Van Morrison. The big problem with this kind of music is how hard (impossible) it will be to get radio play. And then how crappy the sales will most likely be.
It’s really a problem because if they don’t produce stuff that sounds current, the album kinds of dies. Although as an Indie, he probably doesn’t need to sell many albums to sustain a career in music.
I’m not sure telling the younger audience the album isn’t for them is a smart marketing ploy though.
You are not wrong, jpfan, it has to have a current sound or you are in trouble.
You can sell soul and blues but you have it give a modern twist. HOMS is actually more pop soul which might make it more marketable.
And the soul blues niche does tend to appeal on the whole to older folks and it’s not an oversaturated niche like many others.
I am sure when he played at a college last night, he was a judge for a college version of American Idol, I hear it was good calibre talent! he didn’t discourage them.
I wouldn’t be wanting to discouraging younger fans, though, there are always younger music fans who don’t want to listen to what the majority of their friends are, rebels or adventurers, kids who know who Led Zeppelin is for example or heaven forbid, Otis Redding. Of course if you are a rebel do you care who else is buying the song or album or you’d be following your peeps like the rest of the lemmings, bwah. T.I. whoop whoop!
The other thing is there are just some songs that come along and don’t necessarily fit a format but just resonant with a wide variety of people, sometimes it isn’t even explainable. I would cite James Blunt because I still don’t get it.
But then I am sure many artists consider their audience when you are giving interviews – if you are doing a radio interview on an adult contemporary station you are going to tailor what you say vs a pop format vs Top 40, etc, or I would manage. I wonder what the EW demographic is, bwah.
The Damien Rice version is very interesting and a bit spooky, like the BeeGees chanelling Van Morrison as opposed to Adam last night, the BeeGees channelling Sam Harris.
Im just gonna say it, i dont like MJ. I really dont like him. He comes across as arrogant and egotistical to ME. He has a good voice but like with Danny, I just cant get past the personality.
I have tried to like him, have listened to a lot of his stuff and I just cant get the mojo going for him.
This is goodbye sounds like an amazing song. I think his kind of music can sell. His songs appeal to the melody and the voice. There are lots of artist having success doing that in today’s market. I think that if he comes up with something unique in that direction he can be very succesful.
Okay thanks Slezak for getting MJ to talk about music. He’s a very likeable dude when he’s not sounding like an asshat. I am wearing out Heart On My Sleave, so I can’t wait for more. I really like Michael’s voice.
I guess I’m in the younger range of his target audience, but I like knew stuff too.
I really enjoy Michael Johns and I love this interview. Michael is a very talented young man and I will buy whatever he records. His Pre-Idol music got me hooked.. I love the passion he has for music and I hope he gets the success he deserves IMO. Dieing to hear..” This is Goodbye” WOW!
Love the interview, love the performance of “To Love Somebody,” and of course I love Michael Johns! I can’t wait to hear “This is Goodbye,” it sounds amazing from what Slezak shared…June 23rd can’t come soon enough for me!
I enjoyed the interview and song clips. Can’t wait to hear more of “This is Goodbye” and the rest of the cd.
I’m a baby boomer and I listen to what I like. It doesn’t matter what the “target demographic” is or the age or image of the artist. I shudder to think what kind of ideas marketers get in their head when they target my demographic. It will be a cold day in you-know-where when a marketing strategy determines what kind of music I should like. If I like what I hear from Michael Johnson, or anyone else, I will be interested in buying it. Otherwise not. And I agree with an earlier poster — I’m not interested in reliving the musical past. I want to hear new stuff.
I agree. And doesn’t Michael fit that description too? I mean, he’s more Gen-X than baby boomer and he loves the throwback sound. There are a lot of us like him. So we’re not necessarily pining for the good ol’ days but we just prefer new stuff influenced by certain genres. Actually what I love about the ’90s is that while marketing folks tend to generalize that era as grunge, I heard a lot of diversity in rock music in those days, though maybe not in the mainstream but they held their own. Maybe that’s also what he kinda means–doing the kind of music that doesn’t necessarily fit in the ‘current’ perception of what’s popular in pop or rock, past Hinder and Nickelback as Slezak put it.
As for me, I listen to both old and new stuff that I guess would fit in the general category of pop and rock. But I do think that most new stuff in pop and rock mine from the old, anyway. There are artists today influenced, consciously or not, by the ’80s and ’90s; some borrow elements from folk, and like Michael, blues and soul. As for me (I was a kid in the ’80s and a teen in the ’90s), I also like what I like but I think I tend to like those in the latter group.
Me too. I know Michael’s been saying it’s like a Stax record but I want something with a tad more HOMS-style polish to it compared to his indie label CD. I’m scared of the horns, haha.