Johann TM (Johann Theo Meux) is an alternative pop artist with melodic songs that are as tender as they are attitude-filled, taking influence from every great artist you’ve ever loved. He writes songs that make him feel a lot, and he hopes this can be the case for others as well (especially if they’re powerful music industry people). "We Talk" is a slice of alt-pop sunshine with an anthemic and catchy chorus, sitting somewhere between Abba, Amy Winehouse and Oasis. All aspects of the writing, performance, production and mixing are handled by himself (“out of choice”, he shakingly insists).
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
What first got you into music?
Thanks for having me! What first got me into music? Well, this may sound a little pretentious, but I became interested in music before I was even born. I believe my mother played music to me while I was in the womb, and when I was born, I was obsessed with it, crawling towards the piano and the stereo and all that kind of stuff, so I guess it's always been there.
Are there any musicians who inspire you? What qualities do you admire about them?
Answer: There are a huge number of musicians who inspire me. I’m not sure if there’s a quality that is consistent throughout them that I admire other than their making music that emotionally affects me, whether it’s a happy emotion, a comforting emotion, or anything that is exciting or calming. When I was growing up, my home base became British Pop music, and when I was a teenager, that was definitely guitar-centric British Pop music. But since then, especially in the last five or six years, my tastes have completely blown out into every possible combination, which I think is the case for a lot of people who listen to music nowadays anyway. I try to be as open-minded as possible, but at the same time, I have strong opinions. And of course, there are certain artists that I consider particularly great, and whatever they’ve done to make the music really great, I try and incorporate that into some of my work.
Your latest track is "We Talk." Can you tell us about its history and if anything unusual happened during its creation?
Well, the gestation of this song, "We Talk," is kind of an interesting one because it’s a very old song. It was one of the first songs that I wrote, and I think it still holds up today. I started writing it when I was 16 years old, and when I was writing it, I knew it was pretty special for that period in time, but obviously that was nearly 10 years ago. I did an acoustic guitar demo a few years after writing it, and it’s gone through a lyrical evolution and stuff, and then this version that you hear on the single was recorded at the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, and in 2022 it was remixed and a new bass guitar was added. And now it’s out! Now, thankfully, I have many, many other songs apart from this one; otherwise, it would be a ridiculously slow work rate. But, you know, unusual things? No, not really; everyday occurrences for me include worrying about everything. Like nearly having a nervous breakdown while recording the vocals because I've had muscle tension dysphonia for ten years (which thankfully is getting better) and swinging between feeling extraordinarily, ridiculously confident and crushingly low and hopeless. Thinking I’m going nowhere, then thinking I’m better than everyone who’s ever lived, and then realizing both those things are equally horrible. Pretty normal artist stuff, right?
Which skills have you gained that help you perform effectively as a musician?
Well, I think I’m very much still learning, and I will never stop learning, how to be an effective performer. I’ve only done a few gigs as a solo performer, and I’ve enjoyed them. You’ve just got to open yourself up. It's as if an army is charging toward you, and instead of fleeing, you make yourself an even bigger target by holding your hands up and saying, "HERE I AM," you know. As I previously stated, voice issues can cause me anxiety, which is thankfully improving. I practice instruments every day, or at least as much as I can, trying to get better with feel, timekeeping, and performance in general. I think a general attitude of self-positivity and encouragement, like you’re your own student, is a good attitude to have and can be especially useful for the self-critical personalities that artists tend to have.
What are your favorite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
I don’t have any favorite musical genres. I think the concept of genre in general is falling out of favor with a lot of people. I don’t think listeners nowadays, especially young listeners, strongly identify with a genre. They wouldn’t listen to Olivia Rodrigo or Billie Eilish because they are considered "alternative pop" or whatever. They listen to them because they like the music, the fashion sense, the lyrics, and the image around them. I don’t think that I have any favorite genres. In my Apple Music Replay last year, it said that my most-listened-to genre was electronic/electronica, but I wouldn’t say the music I make is electronica, although there are obviously electronic influences. So no, I don’t really have favorite genres, and there are none that I really dislike. There are some I don't really listen to. I don't know any Reggaeton songs, but I have nothing against Reggaeton, and if I liked a Reggaeton song, I'd listen to it not because it's Reggaeton but because I like the song and how it makes me feel.
Are there people who help you with the production of the songs?
No, it’s all me, every single thing. Although I do have to give a shout-out to my friend and ex-bandmate Matt Dell’Unto, because we were in a band called "Indigo" together for around two or three years and we worked extremely hard, and he’s a really gifted sound engineer and producer. He taught me quite a lot, and a lot of the stuff I do is based on things that we worked on together and that he showed me and helped me hone. I’m developing my own style and will do so for the rest of my life. I think I’m quite an effective producer and performer, and I feel very confident as a songwriter and lyricist, but the songs I’m putting out could sound better, and I would like to record them in a professional capacity. not necessarily a big, glitzy studio, but with people who are at the top of their game. excellent engineers, mixers, and producers. I just want to wait until I can work with people that I consider really great because I don’t really want to work with someone who I don’t think is going to help me make the very best version of the songs that I write. I’m very protective of my songs and am equally aware of how incredibly fucking preposterous that is because they’re just pop songs. I’m editing these answers that I’ve dictated into my phone, and I come across as an absolute nightmare. Is this why celebrities complain about their press image being different from who they really are? Good god.]
What are your long-term goals?
Well, obviously, I want to become as successful as I can and make music that emotionally affects me. Obviously the latter is much more important, although that sounds like a copout. I would much rather never become very successful and make music that moves me. Actually, I’ve already done that; actually, I think I’ll just end this interview now and give up! No, I guess only success remains, and people need to catch onto my stuff and hear it. I’d like to travel the world, have fun experiences, and have the odd mental breakdown and court case like you should when you become successful. Slap the odd photographer, knowing full well that it’ll actually increase press coverage because the child inside you is crying out for acknowledgement. Say something outrageous on TV and deny it the next day. I will be an embarrassment to my family until someone needs money and I become the golden child. You know, the usual contradictory, useless, narcissistic, and amusing nonsense.
What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?
That’s a very philosophical question, ma'am. What about music makes me feel passionate? I don’t know. I mean, like yesterday, I was poncing around to one of the songs of the moment, which is "Under Belly" by Blawan. It’s probably the hardest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, and it just makes me want to smash up everything. I actually messaged him on Instagram in the heat of the moment yesterday, saying that if he ever reads it, which he won't, he’ll probably think I’m an absolute tosser. I think it’s pointless to explain why it makes me feel passionate. It just does. It makes me feel something, and I don’t know why it does it. I don’t really like intellectualizing stuff, but if music critics want to do that so they can feel better about themselves and sputter drivel into fellow critics' faces, then good for them. The rest of us are too busy just making music and trying to create an obnoxious image.
How do you feel the Internet has impacted the music business?
I hate people who say everything was better in the old days. I think it’s the most pathetic, miserable position to hold in life. You think things were better back then just because it’s what you grew up with. As I was born in 1997 (a great year for music, I might add, obviously apart from the disastrous occurrence of my birth), I am the last generation that experienced the world pre-mass Internet and mass smart phone usage in my very early childhood. But do I yearn for those days? No, not at all. I prefer a world with the Internet, where I can access the history of the world on my phone and listen to music from every time and place. I know musicians' income is a problem, but we’re not going to go back to opening record shops that have closed. The big HMV on the high street where I grew up closed many years ago, and quite frankly, I don’t care, although I’m obviously sorry for anyone that is put out of a job. I’ve just never felt emotionally attached to specific shops; it's just a place to get music that I can now get online. Obviously, artists need to be paid more fairly, and I’m not qualified to talk on that subject yet as I’m not making any money from this shite (NME commentator: "Does he not see how his attitude is part of the problem here?"). But we’re not going back, so we have to find a way to move forward and change the musical landscape for the better, and I think making empty, vapid, self-congratulatory statements like I have just done can really spur that on. I like the Internet. I think I’ve used the Internet well. I’ve used it to learn about music, watch food porn, and watch cats knock over priceless objects. Just don’t let it completely take over your life. Remember to try and connect with the outside world. But I'll tell you something: I'd rather be miserable now than in 1973 without YouTube. That sounds horrendous to me.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, immediate plans for now are to, first of all, somehow survive the existence of being in a full-time job and taking music very seriously at the same time. And I'll be fine because I have a ruthless level of German resilience from my mother and a furiously stubborn sense of English stoicism from my father, which have gotten me through everything so far. More than ever before in my life, I feel I have something that deserves to be heard, and I don’t really care if people agree or not—it’s my opinion. If my tongue-tie release, which I’m having next month, is successful, and as a result, my singing gets better and my songwriting keeps being good, then at some point I have to go somewhere because I have everything else figured out; really, people just need to catch on. So apart from that, immediate plans are to carry on promoting this debut single with a limited budget, and I have to try and get a bit lucky with that and then carry on releasing home-produced music until some big greasy inebriated record label person stumbles into my life and blurts out "Oooooh, you can make some money for me and my shareholders... come in, my boy!" And then we'll have a passive-aggressive conversation, and I'll make a lot of money only to have 85% of it taken away from me.But you know what? I can be as cynical as I want, but I don’t really have a choice. It’s either this or some miserable existence in a job that I don’t want to be in, so I’ve got to carry on trying my best. Anyway, thanks a lot! see you later.