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Written by Dan England
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Friday, 28 March 2008 |
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Kevin Johnston, formerly of Greeley, plays Johnny Hamilton, guitarist and singer for fake band the All-For-Nots.
Kevin Johnston is living out a dream, touring the country with his new band, the All-For-Nots, getting major exposure on the Internet and playing big shows like the South by Southwest music festival.
He just hopes people don’t think he’s a jerk.
He’s really just a nice kid from Greeley. He’s 29, he graduated from Greeley Central, and all he wanted to do was play guitar in a rock band. So that’s exactly what Johnston is doing. Cute, right?
Except the band isn’t real.
Well, it is, kinda.
Confused?
Let’s start with “This is Spinal Tap.” If you’re 15 and never heard of the movie, it’s the groundbreaking 1984 mock-documentary of a heavy metal band trying to make a comeback. That’s the idea behind the All-For-Nots, only there are some differences, namely innovations that probably would have made the guys in Spinal Tap think you were smoking something pretty good.
The All-For-Nots is a series of video shorts played on the Internet —Webisodes if you will — although the TV channel HDNet is showing them as well. Johnston plays Johnny Hamilton, the band’s guitarist, vocalist and main singer/songwriter. The guy has some good qualities, although he’s a bit delusional and thinks he’s far better than he really is.
The first episode premiered last week, and you can watch the second offering on the Web site, just as soon as you’re finished reading this story (and not before).
“When we go around and meet people after our shows, I’m no longer in character, and I really do wonder,” Johnston said in a phone interview. “I mean, I’d like to think I’m different from (Johnny) in real life.”
Produced by Vuguru — former Disney leader Michael Eisner’s independent new media studio, and Thom Woodley and Kathleen Grace of Dinosaur Diorama — the series follows a crew filming the fictional indie rock band as it travels the U.S. on an ill-fated, poorly planned, under-funded tour. The band visits 24 cities during the filming of the series. Each episode incorporates music from the band and will run between 7-10 minutes in length with a short or two to go along with each episode. Dinosaur Diorama is best known for its first Web-only series, “The Burg.”
Johnston wasn’t planning on being an actor even if he did go to college for it. When he was growing up, his parents were heavily involved in theater (his father, Noel, was a longtime director for Greeley Central and still directs local theater plays in Greeley) and put Kevin on stage rather than hire a baby-sitter. He eventually went to the University of Evansville to study theater, and there he met Eli Thomas, who became his roommate. Thomas and Johnston were burned out on acting their senior year and plans for graduate school weren’t working out, so they decided to be in a band.
Johnston played trombone in high school and sang and also played guitar, so the move wasn’t as out there as you might think.
“Still, I needed to break out and do something a little risky,” Johnston said.
Three years in Denver and an eventual move to Brooklyn with Thomas paid off when a friend from college told him about the All-For-Nots gig. The team producing the show came to watch Johnston performing a gig with his band, and that turned out to be his audition. See, the thing is, the guys in Spinal Tap can play, too, even if they are mainly tyring to be funny.
“The band is supposed to have been playing for a few years.They’re supposed to have some chops, and it’s pretty difficult to cheat that if you want it to look like a documentary.”
They just finished shooting the season, but the All-For-Nots continue to play gigs, including the recent music festival.
“In the words of our creators, the band has gone beyond their expectations,” Johnston said. “We’ve become a real band.”
That means real rehearsals. And the band members write songs, although Johnston writes in his character’s voice, not his own. It’s still a bit blurry as to what is real and what isn’t. The band members have blogs and fans can comment on them and maybe next season could attend a show and become a tiny part of the story.
“I might make different word choices, like maybe not use the first word that comes to mind that rhymes with the last word,” Johnston said. “But I know he would think that it was awesome.”
Johnston isn’t sure where the show or the band will go, but there’s already talk of a second season, and if that doesn’t work out, maybe Johnston and the rest of the All-For-Nots could continue with the band.
“That would be pretty funny,” he said. “You would have a real documentary about a fake documentary about a real documentary. All I know is we do all enjoy rocking out.”
About the Show:
To see episodes, shorts and read blogs from the band members, go to www.theallfornots.com. Each episode runs between 7-10 minutes in length, and a new one premieres every Tuesday.
The episodes also appear at 5:30 p.m. Sundays on HDNET and air throughout the week at various times.
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