WILD CHILD
Johnny Manchild’s Garrett talks Ben Folds, punching pianos and personal songwriting
You’re being fake on the internet.
Jonathan Garrett is guilty of it, too, but the Oklahoma City singersongwriter just needed to vent about it. That’s how the song “Valencia” was born under his musical moniker Johnny Manchild.
“It was one of my drunken middle of the night writings,” he told
The Oklahoman. “It’s basically just me complaining about the insincerity of Tinder and Facebook, and how people seem to have lost the ability to be themselves. You pick your favorite things about yourself, then blast those on social media and everyone just looks so perfect.”
“Valencia” is the title track on Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards’ debut EP, whichlanded digitally Friday and will get celebrated in concert. Garrett, 21, plays alongside a sizable band, all with University of Central Oklahoma connections.
Ethan Neel (drums), James Thompson (bass), Ben Wood (trumpet), Taylor Doak (trumpet) and Jamey Levy (guitar) round out the current Poor Bastards lineup. The band recorded in Edmond and raised funds via the crowdsourcing website Indiegogo.
I caught up with Garrett via email to talk about his piano-led pop balladry and new album.
Q: Your biography mentioned that you’ve been working on music for a dozen years. What’s the path been like leading up this debut EP?
Garrett: My first experience was actually playing drums in a band from Norman called Refuje with Ford Chastain, Troy Cheshier and Jay Harp. This was in 2006, so I was 10 or 11 at the time. We did pretty well, even got flown out to Los Angeles by FOX for a TVshow. After we broke up, around when I was 12, I used my portion of the band funds to get some recording equipment, and I think that’s when I started writing my own songs.
I learned guitar, bass and piano during my time at Classen SAS, and my songs started to suck less and less as time went on. Around 18, I played drums for Corporate Ghost for a hot second, while I was working as a recording engineer at our own studio, Wasted Space. I joined the Army Band, left for about sevenmonths and then came back to join The Happily Entitled as a songwriter and bassist. That ended in February of last year, and I decided at that point that I wanted to put a band together to play live and actually give my own music a shot.
Q: What have your shows been like so far?
Garrett: Our shows are the best shows I’ve played, out of everyband I’ve been involved with. Our first show at Sauced on the Paseo was packed. I’m not even sure how honestly. Every show we’ve played has been a blast, and people seem to dig it, which is always a plus. I’ve cut my hand up a little punching my piano at shows, but it just sounds and feels better when we play. I’m not sure how our shows will evolve, but they get more fun every time.
Q: I imagine your music gets you comparisons to Ben Folds? Would you list him as an influence?
a major Garrett: influence,I would say yes. he’sI heard him the first time when I was 8, even though I didn’t know it. He had a song, “Lonely Christmas Eve,” on the album from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” I’m a massive fan. There’s so much that I like about him. It’s honestly hard to pick. He doesn’t have a perfect voice, and the music has mistakes, but it’s human and it’s great . ... He does his own thing and writes the music he wants to write, and I think that’s exactly how it should be.
Q: You’re not afraid to throw in some salty language into your songs while you dig through what feels like some honest storytelling. Is that intentional?
Garrett: I have language in my songs just because that’s the way I talk. I never think too hard on the lyrics, and I think things tend to come out more honest that way. The majority of these songs are extremely personal. A lot of it is about getting screwed over by musicians I’ve worked with, losing a girl over some not so awesome decisions I made, cheering up depressed friends and calling out a girl who was not so nice to me. It’s all stuff that happened, and I wrote it out the best I could.
Q: What was it like working with Bryce Zabric at The Music Group in Edmond?
Garrett: Recording with Bryce was the absolute best decision we made. I posted on Facebook that I wanted to work with some engineers at my own little studio at home, and he messaged me about working with him. We did “Annie” with him with the intention of only recording that one song, and ended up doing everything we could to do the entire EP . ... We only planned on doing five songs, but it all went so well and so fast that we went ahead and added two more. The record sounds amazing, and I’m still happy as hell that we managed to fit so much in with so little time.