- When did you first start music?
“Hi I’m John Harvie, on record what's good? I first started music, I've done music for my entire life as a basic answer. I’ll never forget I really first wanted to do it when I got my first guitar at eight years old. My dad got me that and he got me a stereo, my dad is a pastor for reference and so he got me one CD for the stereo and it was an album by DC Talk who is this legendary christian band. It had Toby Mack in it, the singer of Newsboys. It was awesome. That was kind of one of the first experiences i had just by myself with music, and everyday whenever i was going to baseball practice or the foo fighters or muse or linkin park. I saw Skillet when I was 8, in the front row and after I saw all that pyro i was like “I gotta do this” you know? So yeah I've been doing music since I was 8 since that was when I first started getting lessons. So yeah, 14 years now which is crazy to think about.”
- Who were your biggest influences?
“For this project it's been a whole whirlwind of influences, the first record was pretty much a pop punk album. I’d always been inspired by Sum 41, Fall Out Boy, Paramore and Green Day. A lot of Green Day. And for the new stuff, it’s been a lot of Wheezer, Nirvana, Deftones, and Suicide Boys and anything really huge and commercial sounding. I love it, I love anthem songs.”
- Following up the releases of figure 8, and roses what was your creative process like for those songs?
“The creative process for these songs was so chill, Figure 8 was really interesting. I was at one of my friends' houses. Her name is Erin, and her artist project is called SUNBABY so check that out she’s dope. We were both in this rut of songwriting, and I pulled out my acoustic guitar and I was like “all you gotta do is freestyle some melodies and play like four chords and see if anything hits” and I ended up making the chorus of figure 8. The very next day in the session I had, I brought it into the room and made it in a day. It was super easy. For Roses, I was in with my producer Andrew Gomez and Katie Cecil who is one of the writers and we had nothing to go off of that day. It was just like any other normal write that we have, and I freestyled the first three lines of the chorus and we were all like “oh holy shit”. At the time I was kind of going through some shit, with abusing alcohol because I was in just a weird spot in my life, I had just gotten dropped by my label and I was just super sad. So i wrote that song about my girlfriend who helped me get out of all that shit and we wrote that in like 2.5 hours it was so quick, it was really beautiful how it all turned out. And fun fact: all of the vocals on roses were the vocals i did the day we wrote the demo, i never had to recut any vocals because i was just feeling it that day. So it was fun and that was the process for those two.
- What are you working on next?
“To be completely honest with you, everyone thinks I have an album right now under my belt that I’m not telling them about and I’m just confirming that’s not true. There’s no album as of yet, I’m flirting with the idea of it. For the new stuff, I have really honestly just been rediscovering what I love about music, I think for a little bit the business side of it I just really saw the ugly sides and you know as much as I like to think im a tough mother fucker it messed me up a little bit. So now is just me coming back to the roots of why do I make music? I just fucking love it, I can’t not do it. So I’m writing songs for me that I think are fucking cool, and I’ve been thinking about the audience last to be completely transparent. I had the mindset of “if they like it, dope. If they dont. Its whatever”. But for the future of what we’re going to do, I’m laying down plans of making something a little more cohesive building up towards an album. So that’s really what's next for me.”
- What is your dream lineup? Who are the openers, and what venue is it at?
“If I’m headlining my own thing, hm. Let’s just pretend I was really fucking big and I can have any bands. I’d love to headline Bridgestone Arena, my Nashville Arena. I’d love for it to be me on the bill, and then I’d love for it to be Bring Me The Horizon, and I’d also love to have the Suicide Boys on there with me as well. I’d want it to be just straight chaos and a lot of moshing, and I’d also love to take one of my homies Games We Play with me as well. I actually have like seven songs on his album that he’s coming out with. I wrote over half of it with him. It's amazing there are so many cool songs on it. Everyone is going to love it, it’s so pretty and badass. I feel like a part of me, a piece of me is a part of that album. That’s honestly to do with the last question on what I’ve been working on most. I’ve been writing for a lot of people. I got sidetracked, so that’s the lineup I would do.’
- What is your favorite / least part of touring? Do you have any funny storys to tell?
“I unfortunately have too many funny stories to tell, but I’m trying to think of my favorite and least favorite part of being on the road. I think my favorite part of touring is, I just can't sit still. If I'm home for too long I get the depressies, straight up. I like that even if i'm just sitting in a car i feel like i'm doing something that makes me feel productive. I love that I have a schedule and a regime to follow, I have a lot of routine on tour its my favorite part about it. My least favorite part of touring is probably.. Shutting the fuck up after shows, i hate being quiet so whenever i have to rest my voice I have the hardest time resting my voice. I love talking, you know? That's definitely my least favorite part is the rehabilitation of it all to just make sure I'm playing every show the best I can. For funny stories, I boxed jellyroll in kansas city. I was on tour with shinedown and jellyroll about a year ago, and i dont think jelly liked me at first. He told me straight up he didn’t like me at first, so I can put that on record cause he thought the label got me a tour. That wasn’t true, so he just misjudged me at first a little. So the first day he wanted to test me out, he came to my green room and busted the door open and said “where's harvie” and i said “here” and he said “whats up motherfucker you wanna box?” and i said “yeah lets go”. So we went outside of his bus in Kansas City on the concrete and it had to be 90 degrees outside too, and he brought a trainer with him because he had been focusing on his health, so this guy used to train UFC fighters and what not. So we did 30 minutes of glove lessons, and then me and Jelly went 3 one minute rounds against each other, no headgear nothing. I got a nice lick on him in the second round, like punched him right in the fucking face and I backed up and I was like “hey im not trying to break anyones nose before a show”. And he looked me dead in the eyes and said “motherfucker if you break my nose i’ll give you $10,000” and I will never forget that moment as long as I live. It was nuts, it was crazy. But he really took me in, and treated me like a little brother which was really cool for the rest of that tour, and we just talked about life. He hooked me up with all sorts of things to make sure I was in the best position, and I can't speak highly enough of Jelly. I'm really so proud of him and so stoked for all of the success he’s had. I have a lot of pride about it so it’s really cool to see him do his thing.
- What is your go to karaoke song?
“Hmm, probably I think I’d wanna do something by Bon Jovi. You Give Love A Bad Name by Bon Jovi would be my go to karaoke song. My dad, and my mom are big Bon Jovi people, I think that would be my song. Last time I did karaoke I went with a friend and we did Boyfriend by Justin Bieber. I did all the rap parts and she sang all the actual parts. It was awesome. I loved it.”
- What is one message you would give to your fans?
“I think the one message I would give to my fans is number one, I love you so much I really forget that people give a fuck about the music so it makes me really humbled and happy when they listen. And I would say that you deserve to be here, and as someone who has gone through some shit in the past year, there were moments where I wanted to quit not to get heavy, but I wanted to quit and I'm really glad I didn't. I think you know, there's a lot of ways that you can get out of that shit and it starts by straight up talking to someone. I know how it feels to feel like you have no one to talk to, and you don’t want to bother anyone and you feel like a burden and you feel like no body gives a fuck but you happen to be the person to take on everyone elses problems because you care so much about other people. You know, if you can just flip it you would do it for someone else and you let someone else do it for you. That would be the one message i’d give, and also don’t be a pussy mosh at my shows.”
- Can you give me one fun fact about yourself?
“I have perfect pitch, I don’t know if a lot of people know that. Am I as fast as Charlie Puth? No. But I do have perfect pitch, but yeah I always tune my guitar by ear. I've never had to use a tuner or anything like that so it’s been a blessing and curse. Some people don’t always believe and then they test me out, and I pass every time. It’s my party trick.”
- What are your 5 favorite riffs?
“That's a tough one, 5 riffs that are my favorite. I gotta say, Stick Stickly by Attack Attack that's one of my favorites I will never forget it. I would say, 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins I think is a good one, Beat It by Michael Jackson. I’m happy with my first three so far, I think I love In Bloom by Nirvana. I’m torn between a couple right now, uh I think I gotta go Out Of the Black by Royal Blood iconic ass riff. I’m happy with those 5, I’m locking in those answers. I got a little bit of everything there, those would be my picks. For my honorable mentions I wanted to throw Somewhere I Belong Linkin Park and I wanted to say brakence as a whole, i've been loving listening to brakence as of late.”
