We recently connected with Johnny Chops and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Johnny , thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I had always wanted to live a creative life, from a very early age. I was always the kid daydreaming out the window during class instead of learning my multiplication tables. I’m not sure why, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year in college that two distinct events gave me a realization. I was attending SWT in San Marcos, TX in the Theater Directing program. I had chose that major without a lot of thought or planning. At that point it was just the next natural progression from high school as I had directed a one act play my senior year and found that very fulfilling. But for one of my motion classes, I wrote a short skit about an old, down and out musician who comes to life when he hears a particular song and his movements dramatically change as he pulled out a guitar and played along to the Johnny Cash song “Big River”. The entire class erupted into applause at the close of the song and I was instantly hooked on that feeling. The second realization was more pragmatic. I was working two jobs and trying to pay tuition, rent, bills, etc as well make all my required labs and extra time at school. I felt like it was time to start working at my chosen craft instead of learning how to do it in school so I didn’t enroll in the next semester and promptly started landed paying gigs as a bass player. I felt like at some point, I needed to just start doing the work instead of reading about the work, or having someone else tell me how it was done. There was definitely some good timing and luck involved but more than 20 years later, I’m still gigging regularly as well as writing and developing new creative avenues all the time.
Johnny , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started playing bass in country bands around central Texas about the year 1998. I had a little bit of musical training but mostly just a good ear and a willingness to learn on my feet. After being something of a journeyman for the first few years and working restaurant jobs, I landed a gig with the Randy Rogers Band in 2002. I had also begun writing a few songs and we ended up recording a few of them over the course of the next few albums. We eventually signed with UMG Nashville and recorded 4 albums with them, toured as a support act for several big country tours and built a significant regional following. After leaving our major label partnership, we continued to tour and record on our label and still do to this day. In about 2012, after settling down with my wife and a tragic family loss, I began channelling my creative energy into my own musical vision and recorded my first solo album called Sticks & Stones. In between RRB tour schedules I booked myself as a solo artist wherever I could and continued to write and record. I released a second album (Johnny Chops & The Razors) in 2018 and have since been writing and releasing singles with accompanying videos that I’ve written and directed. when the music industry shut down in 2020, I set up an acting profile on Backstage and landed a few small parts in online ads and promos and just finished my first lead in a short film set for a 2023 release. One of the things I’m most proud of is my writing. I feel like it’s always been the gateway to new and exciting opportunities. It’s where my journey as an artist always starts and ends and I’m usually the most fulfilled after writing something I think is meaningful and well crafted.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think “society” is a big word that basically means “people.” So as people, there are lots of basic small things we can all do to support the arts. In a word. participate. Go see an up and coming band at the small club on Wednesday night. Dig around a little bit past that first page of Netflix’s “popular” section. Don’t be afraid to discover something new. And most importantly, when you do find that fascinating new book, or unique little known film, tell everyone you know about it. The best kind of press is always word of mouth. It helps artists so much and requires very little effort. Share, share, share.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Last year for my birthday a fellow creative gave me Derek Siver’s book “Your Music and People” for my birthday. It’s a small volume broken down into concise chapters about how to build your own following as a working musician. It really provided some practical advice about how to think about your business from another point of view. How fans and industry people see your work and how you present yourself makes such a big difference in their acceptance of what you are doing. It was really inspiring and I continue to reference it all the time. It’s really good general business practice for those of us who mostly just think about our art and not necessarily the business side of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://johnnychopsmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnychopsrrb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnnychopsmusic/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RRBChops
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAZS1JOj6IO0jWkgnCs_FA
Image Credits
Brandon Aguilar, Cameron Gott, Brian Monnone