TEN THOUSAND ARROWS

Ten Thousand Arrows is out!  And another personal milestone has been reached. 

This song has been lurking around in my head since 2009. Ten Thousand Arrows and Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly) were the first two songs I wrote for Mechanical Clouds… before the theme and vibe of the record even presented itself. 

It started as a challenge by a friend. She said something to me along the lines of “You never write love songs. I dare you to write a love song!”  I initially protested. I’ve written hundreds of love songs!  But the challenge percolated in my head. 

It was one of those songs that just suddenly appears. One moment I was sitting in my ramshackle apartment in Cambridge.  The next my fingers landed on my fretboard and I began singing Ten Thousand Arrows. 

Of course, in typical Peter fashion, the lyrics grew a little twisted. The song took on a long, rambling structure, fashioning itself after something the Smashing Pumpkins or the Mars Volta would write. To go along, the lyrics soon began to portray a relationship from beginning to end, before the sudden key change at the outro of the song, where it becomes about moving on to someone new. But despite the ending twist, it still feels like a sweet song. 

TEN THOUSAND ARROWS

Angel

when you flew into my life 

I saw the sunrise for the first time

Colors cascade up into the sky

my heart flies for you

The songs I listened to had so much deeper meaning

stringing your bow

My heart pierced by your ten thousand arrows.

Eros…

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

Wait just a minute.

As my world’s crashing down

She was there for me.

Wait just a minute.

As my feet touch the ground

She was there.

Sweet little darling,

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you’re sweet as simple summer

No doubt about it

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you take it all and leave me behind

Wicked little devil

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you’re always into trouble

My dirty angel

Yes you got it, yes you get it

And you take it all and leave me behind

Oh, my heart it can’t help but break

But I gotta get up and drag myself along the shore

Oh the color it saturates

But I gotta get up

When when I’m alone she was there.

She was there

Without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

I don’t want to weigh you down with my love,

But I won’t waste another day without your love.

Rolling over oceans for you.

Navigate the lightning for you.

Come on over.

You’re sweet.

Undercovers we’ll meet.

Like a tiger in the moon

I will capture you.

Rolling over oceans for you.

Navigate the lightning for you.

Just so I can be there for you.

As I rebuilt the Johnny Stranger lineup in Boston, Ten Thousand Arrows and Bones became the first new tunes we workshopped. We played those two endlessly, discovering new details every time. I have very fond memories of those rehearsals. Before I decided to stop JS and move to California (but that’s a subject for the next single). 

But during those days, I met Maddie (my future wife). I always think about playing Ten Thousand Arrows at a show in New York… at Trash Bar. I remember finding her in the audience every time I sang those opening lines. She tells me to this day it’s one of her favorites that I’ve written. And I believe her because she has no problem telling me when she thinks a song I’ve written is trash lol. 

In other news… vocals for album 7 are past the halfway mark. Just a few more sessions and then I’m mixing that record. 

Demos for album 8 are also past the halfway mark. I’m delivering them to the live JS lineup as I complete them.  The band members have all agreed to help me record album 8. I’m very excited about their collaboration!

Aside from that, life is a frenetic race. Our label Shark Attack Records has exploded since 2019 and it keeps me busy. Plus, there’s a ton of artwork and visualizers to make for album 7. Oh, plus the reissues of the original 4 records. I’m certainly keeping busy. 

Finally, thank YOU for riding along on the Johnny train. I absolutely love hearing from everyone!  It makes me really feel special and gives me the strength to keep chipping away at JS mountain. So thank you!

JANUARY KNIVES

The second single off Mechanical clouds is out and hot damn!  The reception has been nothing short of astounding. 

First off, major thanks to my distributor KMG and Ryan Vaughn for all their hard work!  They’ve landed both these last singles on Spotify’s All New Rock and Apple Music’s New in Rock. Both are awesome places for the songs to be heard by a huge audience. 

January Knives has also gotten some love in the press, thanks to Mikel from Purple Bite!  Here are a couple of my favorite quotes…

“Relentlessly zealous Johnny Stranger’s latest single “January Knives” ignites a spirit of perseverance amidst its volatile riffs. Brandishing their electrifying rock with the kind of dazzling rancor they’ve become loved for, the band hammers out the song’s anthemic and blistering racket into something chaotically hopeful.”

— Grimy Goods

“It’s a head banging good time complete with thrilling pitch-black basslines under punch-to-the gut vocals rising with fervor and warmth.”

— Earmilk

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the reception so far!  Coming out of Covid, I wasn’t sure if we had lost too much momentum to really come out with a bang. But these releases have exceeded my wildest expectations. 

So a bit about the song itself…

Most of the songs on ‘Mechanical Clouds’ were written when I was living in Boston. But I always like to add two or three new songs to every record I’m making, to shake things up and inject a little newness into the process. ‘January Knives’ was one of those songs. 

I wrote it as a bit of a retrospective on my first month of moving to Boston. I’ve been talking about this other places, but I guess I should tell the story again. 

It’s January 2008. Johnny Stranger just spent the last two years working out butts off in Washington State, our hometown. We had released two self-produced LPs and we were all very passionate. I decided I wanted to move out to Boston with the other members (they were attending music school out there), so I packed up my life and moved across the country. 

Things went sour pretty quick, and the other members left the group for greener pastures. I was suddenly on my own in a new city. I had to start over. 

‘January Knives’ is written about those early months of wandering around the city, dejected and lost. At the time, I was wrapped up in the negative emotions. But now - with the beauty of hindsight - I see the experience as extremely foundational for who I have become. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

There’s a lot of hope in ‘January Knives’. It was sort of raising the Johnny Stranger flag. I’m not quitting and I’m going to bring out all my knives. Slow. 

We have a third single coming soon and a fourth after that. The full Mechanical Clouds LP is coming in November 2022. We are in the process of rehearsing for our LP release show (announcing soon) and preparing some really exciting merch. 

In other news, I’m meeting weekly with Yan Perchuk and tracking vocals for album #7.  The sessions have been super productive, except for the sessions where we’ve been so engrossed in our conversation that we don’t record anything. Haha. But the goal is to finish the vocals by the end of September, mix in the fall/winter, and have album #7 completed in January 2023. Then I’ll have a few months of sharing around with industry folks before we finally release it. 

Looking ahead even further into the future… This last weekend, I got a terrific chunk of work done on the album #8 demos. We have 17 songs to work on before we shape it down to a sleeker record. Still lots more work to do, but everything is on schedule. 

Keep your eyes peeled for show announcements, merch announcements, and more music. All coming soon!  Oh, and the original 4 JS albums are all being released on Bandcamp starting early 2023. So it’s gonna be a wild year coming up. 

BONES (BURY ME DEEPLY & SWEETLY)

Photo by Madelynn Elyse.

I can’t believe it’s finally out. 

‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly)’ is the first track off our next album, ‘Mechanical Clouds’. And it’s a song that’s very near and dear to my heart. 

There’s a bit of history behind it… I started Johnny Stranger in 2006 as a studio experiment in Washington State (where I grew up). I had a circle of friends contributing to the record and we were all very enthusiastic about the project. We self-released two albums and built a little community around us. 

I would have been 22 or 23 at the time. And I wanted to pursue Johnny Stranger as a career. The drummer from Johnny Stranger (who was an incredible player and major cheerleader for the group) was moving to Boston for college at Berklee… so I made plans to follow, to keep that musical connection sizzling. 

It took me a few months of saving money and teaching guitar lessons, but I finally built up a little nest egg. I found a cheap apartment over the internet and arranged to fly out to Boston in January 2008. I had never visited, but I was going to move and pursue Johnny Stranger with all I had. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. After about a month in the city, the other members of Johnny Stranger were off to pursue other projects and I was left alone. Luckily I was able to convince the players to record one last record with me (what would become ‘Galacticus 9’). We played a sold-out return home show at the Capitol Theater (in Olympia WA).  But then - upon returning to Boston - things fizzled out. 

I spent a lot of time wandering around Boston, freezing cold and upset. I did my best to soothe my bruised ego, but I was 23 and not well-equipped to see outside my narrow point-of-view. I got a job at a Blockbuster in Central Square and just sort of… existed. 

But I never stopped working on Johnny Stranger.  And I was never truly alone. My good friend Blake (and his incredible family) lived an hour train ride out of town and they even allowed me and Blake to track ‘Galacticus 9’ and ‘Iliad & Odyssey’ at their farm. I made some great friends at Blockbuster too. And I especially valued the musicians who offered to join Johnny Stranger to help it grow. I might have felt alone, but - in retrospect- I was blessed to have so many incredible friends. 

Over the next two and a half years, I rebuilt the Johnny Stranger lineup and wrote a batch of songs for a record called ‘Mechanical Clouds’. For me, the songs just hit different. More serious and dark, with even more jazz chords and progressive song structures… it felt like my experience in Boston.   I moved before we could track the ‘Mechanical Clouds’ material in Boston. But - as you can likely surmise - I have held onto these tracks, waiting for the right time. 

‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweely)’ was one of the first songs I wrote for Mechanical Clouds. And I wasn’t entirely sure what I was singing about at the time… but in retrospect I was singing about holding onto my confidence in the face of defeat. It’s about believing in your intuition. It’s about trusting in yourself. I needed to hear that back then. Heck, I still need to hear this. But it was especially intense at the time. 

Maybe I’ll do a more focused deep-dive into the lyrics if anyone is interested. Let me know if you are. 

But to zoom out a bit… I am in an incredible place and so fucking thrilled with all of you Johnny fans out there. More singles and videos are coming. And vocals for Album 7 are being tracked as we speak. And demos for Album 8 have already commenced. My hope is to just keep music rumbling out of the station, year round, till we hit album #12. 

Thank you all again for your messages and shares. You know how to make an indie band feel HUGE!  🦁 

BONES

Hey Strangers,

It’s finally happening. Our 6th album has been delivered and songs will soon start dropping. First up is our song ‘Bones (Bury Me Deeply & Sweetly)’, which is available to pre-buy now on iTunes. The song is being released June 15th.  This is a really special song to me, but I’ll save that explanation for another time. 

We’ve been hunkering down and rehearsing our little booties off. The band is in good spirits and sounding great!  We’re very excited to play Los Angeles again, although we aren’t looking to actually perform till this fall. 

We’ve also been putting together merch, recording album 7, demoing album 8, and preparing to re-release the original 4 records on Bandcamp. 

So lots coming.  Thank you all who have reached out and kept in touch during these last 3 years of Covid. Things are feeling good and we’re grateful to have had the chance to get so ahead of ourselves. We’ve hit GO and there’s no stopping until we hit album 12. 

“All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What A fool I was to defy him.” - HST

Peter

June 27th update

Hi everyone. Just a bit of an update, since I’ve been quiet for a while.

First, thank you to all of you who have been reaching out and checking in. It’s amazing to be connected to so many of you who have been along for this JS journey, from fans of the old records to the new records!

Album #6 has been done for a couple months now and I’ve even (mostly) completed demos of album #7. I have single art for all of the album #6 songs (still not entirely sure what will be released as a single). As I’ve been putting artwork together, I’ve had a few ideas for how to diversify how I approach social media for JS. I’m not personally a big social media guy, so it’s a slow process, but I’ve got some fun ideas… including a podcast I’ll be doing with Adal Jamil called ‘Naked with Strangers’. That one will be more about being a musician in general and less about JS specifically.

Things are opening back up here in LA and the band is going to be getting back together to start rehearsing. Very excited to start playing with these guys again and hope to be playing shows again by Fall 2021. Music from album #6 will start coming out in 2022 (likely January for the first single).

Back to work. Thank you again to everyone who keeps reaching out! Lots of good times ahead.