Getting To Know: The John Conference

We spoke to York based band John Conference band about the tracks that shaped their sound. It's a great mix that really help give some insight into their sound, which we can't wait to hear more of. Enjoy!

Radiohead – Stop Whispering

This song, along with a few others from Radiohead’s Pablo Honey album, really inspired the movement of the outro in our debut single ‘Thursday’. Thom Yorke himself may hate the album but he is silly and wrong because it is really bloody cool. That kind of build up into a wall of sound with manic distorted guitar noises was certainly drawn from Jonny Greenwoods work on that early Radiohead stuff.

David Bowie – Because You’re Young

The structure of ‘Thursday’ is almost identical to Bowie’s ‘Because You’re Young’. This wasn’t intentional, but it is undoubtedly a product of the immense and endless influence Bowie has on our songwriting. The man really knew how to craft a great song structure, and this verse-chorus-verse-chorus + extended outro form just works so well.

Flawed Mangoes – Surreal

According to our drummer, the drums in the outro section of ‘Thursday’ are largely inspired by the excellent drum work in ‘Surreal’ by Flawed Mangoes. Ridiculously dramatic, face-melting shoegaze stuff like this was also definitely an influence on the wall of sound finale of our debut single. The trick is to find the stupidest distortion/overdrive pedals and turn them alllllll the way up.

The Police – Driven To Tears

Another influence on the drums is the infinitely cool work of Stewart Copeland for The Police. His 4-on-the-floor groove in the verse of ‘Driven To Tears’ is very similar to the groove in the chorus of our debut single. The Police influence a lot of what we do (such as a wildly unnecessary yet cool reggae section in one of our unreleased songs) and Copeland’s unique approach to drumming within guitar-driven music is something we are ever fond of.

Bob Dylan – You’re A Big Girl Now

And finally, from a lyrical perspective, Bob Dylan is always a major influence (along with Bowie and Morrissey). This particular song highlights a certain desperation and sadness which is present in the lyrics of ‘Thursday’. Expect more of the same vague, trying-to-be-poetic-and-profound lyrics in our future releases.