I hear the cops a comin',
Rollin' down the street.
Except I live in Gary,
Where the law is obsolete...

- “Gary” by Johnny Travant

33: So Johnny Travant, where do you come from, sir?  Where did you get your start as a human being?
Johnny Travant: Well, I was born in Wisconsin, and then I moved to Minnesota.  Then I spent my teenage years in Gary, Indiana, which I feel is kind of where I grew up... the School of Hard Knocks.  It's pretty rough being the only white punk kid in Gary, Indiana.  But I grew from my experience. 

33: So in the early years, what were your early musical influences...what did you hear when you were a kid that made you decide that you wanted to do music as a art form?
JT: I remember as a tiny little person I listened to a lot of children's music, but I also listened to my mom's Beatles albums.  The Rolling Stones and things like that.  Honestly they aren't really big influences on my music now, but I recall from an early age wanting to be a musician... I had an advanced palette for such a young person.  I used to listen to my mom's records over and over again with the headphones on... I was still in diapers...the giant record player...listening to record after record after record, memorizing the lines to the songs, making up my own words to their songs, sort of making parodies of their songs, things like that. 

33: When did you first know you wanted to produce your own music, do your own thing?
JT: In high school I kinda got the bug.  I started a punk band.  After I'd done some years of classical training...singing.  I did backups for Kenny Rogers and a few other people.  The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I used to sing with them.  When I was in high school, it got to the point where I was able to take either an internship with an opera house in Chicago, or I could start a punk band with some of my friends.  So I decided to start a punk band, obviously.  We were called the Static Idols, the “ill-fated” Static Idols.  Now, I call 'em the Idols Static 'cuz we don't do anything.  That was where Johnny Travant first took a step into the music scene.  It's kind of been rolling steadily ever since. 

33: So what was the origin of the name Johnny Travant?
JT: Well, it's obviously not my real name.  Johnny is just sort of a generic name that I thought was cool.  Travant is from my recollection of a carnival ride that I was really terrified of as a kid.  It's in the movie The Sandlot - the ride that they all throw up on.  It's actually called the “Trabant” with a “b”, but I remembered it with a “v” for some reason.  I called myself Johnny Travant because that was really the first moment where I realized that not everybody is nice, while I was waiting in line to get on this ride, I'd pumped myself up to get on it, and just before I was ready to get on I stepped out of the line, and this carnie who was running it pulled me aside and called me a faggot and a pussy-ass... I was like ten, and I was terrified, so he put me on the ride and after that, after I got off the ride I was a totally different person suddenly.  I realized it's not all sunshine and rainbows; people are mean.  There are really bad people out there who are out to get you regardless of your age...especially carnies.  That was such an important part of my life I needed to memorialize it in my name. 

33: So how did you come from Gary, Indiana to be in Virginia Beach, Virginia?
JT: Well, I met my wife, and we have two beautiful children.  At the time I was a theater major at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.  I realized the starving artist lifestyle worked great for me, writing these avant-garde plays and things like that, playing music occasionally, but it didn't work out for supporting a family so I made the biggest mistake of my life - I joined the Navy.  Through that, the two really great things that came from it were I was able to provide a really great life for my family, and I was also able to come out here.  This is really the first place where I've ever been well-received as a musician.  Maybe I was too advanced, or maybe I was too behind the times for Indiana.  I was never really embraced fully in Indiana, but I feel like here I've finally found my artistic home, and I really enjoy the scene here.

33: I hear you talking about the scene here - the warm embrace of the scene here.  What was your first experience with the musical scene here where you felt so at home?
JT: I started playing open mic nights just to maybe sell some demos and get a couple extra bucks here and there at this place called the Half Shell that's now closed down.  I enjoyed the Half Shell a great deal.  I played their open mic night, which when I first came there was completely dead, but the person that ran it told me that I really sort of resuscitated that whole event that they had every Wednesday.  I played almost every Wednesday for a couple months, and then I played sporadically for the next few months.  So that's really where I got my start.  Really the person who threw me to the forefront of actually playing frequently...I played an open mic night at the Regal Beagle back when Tom Ass was emceeing, and he just started throwing random shows at me 'cuz he really like what he heard, and it's been up and up since then.  I've been getting lots of fans on MySpace and Facebook that I have no idea who they are who've seen me at these random establishments.  Pixima Records, my label, has got a lot of hits, too.  It's been great. 

33: Any plans for an album anytime soon?  Anything studio recorded that would be exemplary of your style of music?
JT: Yes, I'm working with some members of Jackmove and Anubis as well as Tom Ass to put out a studio album with an actual backing band.  I haven't decided what the band is called.  I do know what the CD is going to be called... Black Noun, which is an anagram of my birth name [Nolan Buck].  Not the coolest name for playing music, but I like the Black Noun, so that's what I'm going to call it.  It's going be really cool.  It'll be a band, but it'll be really stripped down, something kind of Violent Femmes-y.  I'm really looking forward to it. 

33: Any local artists that you would recommend to anybody else?
JT: I'm a huge Jackmove fan.  I love Eazy-D's solo stuff as well.  Anubis is great.  Know Eye-D is one of my favorite bands that's on a constant rotation in my car.  Anything that Tom Ass touches turns to gold.  There's a lot of local artists that I really like that I haven't had a chance to meet yet, so the names of the bands escape me.  But I really love the scene out here.  I'm a huge fan of it.  Everyone that I've played with I've been pretty much blown away by. 

33: What would you say are the strengths of the local scene right now?
JT: I think the open-mindedness.  A lot of times playing in punk bands in Gary, Indiana, you'd be met with a lot of hostility, especially in a strictly punk rock sort of scene, before I made the move to just playing acoustic sort of folk punk music.  It's really weird that their not open to new ideas by any means.  They kind of shoot you down when you try to bring something new to the table.  And here, if I had a cool idea that might be completely off the wall from what I usually do, there's more than enough people who are willing to run with it, and there's an audience for it.  People are thirsty for original music here, and that's extremely unique for a music scene.  It's so stagnant everywhere else. 

33: You see the potential, so what do you think the local scene needs to do?  What congealing factor needs to happen to make it progress more?
JT: I think unification.  A lot of bands, when they come out they're only in it for themselves, and they want to make it big.  But like I said, I have a record label, Pixima Records, which is really more of a creative commune.  We sort of take whatever music we love and don't really sign them to anything.  We just try to put their music out.  The scene here is bigger than me or any individual band.  It's really like an entire movement that needs to be brought into the limelight on a national scale, and it's not gonna happen until people stop thinking like, “Oh, well.  This is a gig that's good for me, and we want to make it.”  All the musicians in the area really need to support each other and be there for each other and try to make it as a general scene. 

33: Do you see enough originality in this area, not in any one specific genre?  Is there enough originality here to support something that could be substantial?
JT: Absolutely!  If someone had an independent label or an internet radio station, something like that, putting out the local music.  I think people would tune in, and people would really dig it.  Every town, especially a town with a huge tourist trade are gonna have a shitload of bands that play a shitload of covers and don't write their own music.  I really feel that there's musicians, and there's people who play music, and there really needs to be a line in the sand that says, “OK.  Here are musicians, people who make music, who make original music, who love music, and it's not really just a job for them.  And then people who are like 57 years old who play a bunch of Lynyrd Skynyrd covers at the country bar three times a week.”  It's easy to lose track of the originality of the scene when really the bands that are getting the most press are shitty cover bands, for lack of a better way of describing it.

So cats and kittens, do yourself a favor, go find yourself a Johnny Travant show.  This guys got chops like kung fu and wit so sharp you can shave your aunt Susan's mustache off with it.

MySpace.com/JohnnyTravant

Facebook.com/People/Johnny-Travant/1313708036

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe

The Wolfe was born to a small litter in the mountains of West Virginia and transplanted to suburban Virginia Beach in the iconic year of 1984.  Left to the public school system, he soon became immersed in the varied subcultures of suburbia. Quickly he became a connoisseur of the rich substrata of disaffected youth in post-Reagan America.  Having to leave corporate tool-hood behind, the Wolfe prowls the silent alleyways in search of the next great spark of local music - the incendiary device that will reignite creativity in a music world gone wrong (apparently in the throes of Bieber Fever).

And other fun facts ...

Age: 33
Place of Birth: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Gender: Raoul Duke
Religion: Gonzo
Likes: Good music.  Drinking.  Smoking.
Dislikes: Ignorance.  People who take themselves too seriously.  People who say "I just wanted to touch bases with you."  It's "base" asshole, not a baseball reference.