In the vibrant and cultural landscape of Salt Lake City, many people are yearning for new and local artists in the area. I had the privilege to speak with two up-and-coming college bands, The Johns and Door City.
The Johns
The Johns is an alternative-pop band with members Jeff (John), Tony (Big John) and Shayn (Lil John). The inspiration to start and create the band came as mostly an outlet for Jeff. He said he was writing songs and had no idea what to do with them.
This led him to the idea of creating a band to share his music with the world.
“I didn’t have this big plan, it was pretty much passion-based,” Jeff said. Things began to shift once Tony and Shayn joined the band.
“I think he’s gonna stay, I think he likes us,” Jeff said jokingly about their drummer Tony. The boys explained to me how they got their start — more specifically how they recruited Tony as their drummer.
Tony had met Jeff and Shayn a few months back at one of their first performances. Tony explained that he DM’d them on Instagram saying if they ever needed a drummer to just message him. The Johns, struggling to keep a drummer afloat messaged Tony, only to see his message months later.
“We were brought to each other,” Jeff said as they all laughed. Once again, the invisible string theory has been proven to bring us our friends, lovers and bandmates.
“We started taking it more seriously and things started getting crazier” Shayn said on the success and start of their band. Rooted in each of the boys’ passion to play and share their music, their main goal is to just be in a band. Without giving into society’s pressure, the boys are here for the good times, good music and good vibes.
The Johns describe their chemistry and music “as a language” that only they can understand.
Door City
Connor, Ben, Sam and Carson are all members of the up-and-coming band, Door City. “It was like the Avengers assembling,” Carson said about the completion of the band.
The band was first created by Ben and Connor, both students at the University of Utah. Conner went on to say how he met Carson through a summer job and Sam through an app called Vampr, which he described as “a dating app for bands.”
Similar to The Johns, each of the boys from Door City has a driven passion to write, create and perform their music. They all rely on music as their outlet to express their feelings, thoughts and creativity. Their favorite thing especially is the storytelling the boys do individually and as a band.
When asked about what song they would want new listeners to listen to, the response from the band was “God Complex.” The song was written together as a band with Carson’s addicting vocals and sings the story of a terrible landlord. The song itself is quite catchy and follows a similar chord progression to Declan Mckenna’s “Brazil,” which the boys said they are a huge fan of.
“It’s a mess of individual recordings that we send to each other,” Sam said, regarding their music creation process. Ideas are sent back and forth to one another until they can meet again and take the time to progress further on songs together.
With many artists and bands putting the pieces and work together when creating music, the process is different for everyone.
“Me and Connor have differences within this,” Carson said when asked if the band creates their lyrics first or the production. “For me, the lyrics are the next thing, I prefer to figure out a melody before.”
Despite creative differences, Door City still composes their music with each of their unique and different perspectives.
Mark in the Music World
Each band draws inspiration from several different artists. The Johns enjoy Nirvana and Radiohead while Door City loves The Beatles and the Wallows. Even with their influences, both of these bands make their unique and individual mark in the music world.
Check out The Johns’ latest single “Red Tears” and Door City’s “God Complex.”
