- where / Wellington
- what / Artist
- likes / Trance, Techno, Rock, Reggae, Psy Trance, Progressive, Noise, Minimal, Metal, Jungle, Jazz, House, Hardcore, Funk, Experimental, Electro, Dubstep, Dub, Drum and Bass, Dancehall, Breaks
johnnychrome is a pseudonym. johnnychrome is collective.
Glenn Robert Bellham & Paul Szymkowiak conceived of FEARvLOATHINC back in 1990 following the demise of Wellingtons 3 Plastik Men (3PM). FEARvLOATHINC's name is inspired by political references with some obvious drug-culture overtones. 3PM was Jason "Jache" Coley, Paul "Z" Szymkowiak and johnnychrome.
We were influenced back then by the huge amounts of industrial dance music (EBM) coming out of Belgium and America. The Genre leaders Front 242, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Clock DVA and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult along with labels such as Play it Again Sam, Netwerk and Wax Trax were all instrumental in motivating us to make electronic music in New Zealand. Some of our dance luminaries, The Car Crash Set, Skeptics, Tinnitus, Trash, Moral Decay, Dr VerSu V S, ACHE and The Headless Chickens are all world class New Zealand bands".
FEARvLOATHINC's first releases were in on cassette in the early nineties, "Fear & Loathing: Affirmation" was the first self produced release in 1991 followed by "Sex Loathing" EP and "Cyberfusion" featuring Wellington artist Sarah Anderson. In 1994 the release of FEARvLOATHINC "Icon Fashion" Cassette/CDR laid down the blue print for the next 3 years johnnychrome and Evan Roberts would spend recording and producing FEARvLOATHINC "Bombay Girl".
1995 saw the first complete demo of the project "Icon World". 13 songs programmed, recorded and produced by johnnychrome and Evan Roberts. As the project gained momentum a number of Wellington artists contributed to the album sessions. Peter Jamieson:keyboards and synthesizers, Phil Knight:Guitars, Mal Mezweski:Keyboards and Vocals, Jason Coley:Violin, Blair Macfarlane:Guitars and Antony “Antz†Smith on live drums & percussion.
The 1st FEARvLOATHINC shows were johnnychrome, Paul Z and a shit load of samples, synths and drum programs. We promoted ourselves as electronic musicians specializing in multi media performance art wank. Over the next few years we incorporated more musicians and more equipment and by 1995-96 the performances had grown to include guitars and live drums.
FEARvLOATHINC was always a different beast live than on the records. The idea being that we would plan our live shows around some full on rehearsal and incorporate as much live musicianship as possible. FEARvLOATHINC "Bombay Girl" album was released in December 97, by then we had a live line-up that could all play the songs really well, I would have loved to have dropped all the electronica just to see if we could have played the whole set rock'n'roll style, bass, drums and guitars".
The core FEARvLOATHINC live line-up from 1995 to 2000 was Peter Jamieson (Dr VerSu V S) Keyboards & Synths, Malcolm Mezweski (Emulsifier, Meatware) Keyboards & Synths, Evan Roberts (Trash, Meatware) Live sound and engineering and CroMag from Premature Autopsy playing guitars.
"The "Bombay Girl" album is essentially a compilation developed over the period 1992 - 1997. The album was produced by Evan Roberts and johnnychrome over a 3 year period and features a host of kiwi cyberpunk visionaries. A promotional video was made for "Two Steps (Forward)" and was nominated for a Flying Fish Video Award in 1999". "(Brand) New Home" features on the New Zealand Dark End compilation "v/a Blackmarket" released by Club Bizarre in Auckland and 3 "Bombay Girl" songs have been licensed to international compilation albums, "Two Steps (Forward)" and "Gintrap" are on the DSBP compilations "v/a Futronik Structures 2" and "Cyb0netix 99" DSBP are an industrial label in South America. The Track "Robotics' (U-Jak)" is on the Tinman Records compilation "v/a Ringworm V1.0".
In 1995 johnnychrome and Peter Jamieson started developing material for a FEARvLOATHINC album called "Spacetown(the further adventures of johnnychrome…)" with Peter Jamieson producing at The Original Music Workshop (OMW) in Wellington.
By 2001 the "Spacetown" project had evolved into lots of different music and collaborations. In 2003 New Zealand songstress Jordan Reyne collaborated with johnny and Evan on 4 of the “Spacetown†songs. johnnychrome vs jordan reyne. Electrical Soul Grooves and Sensual Vocals. Chrome Reyne is a beautiful down-beat melancholia, a fragile and dreamy groove, the ultimate amalgam of johnnychrome and Jordan Reyne.
The Cafe Del Mar 25th Anniversary compilation features Chrome Reyne "Newex 01". Café Del Mar Press. New Zealand cyberpunks johnnychrome and Jordan Reyne have made it onto the legendary Café Del Mar's 25th Anniversary compilation. The pair submitted their track “Newex 01†to Café Del Mar. An internet voting system was set up to compile the songs on discs 2 & 3 with the kiwis making it through to be featured on the 3rd disc under the name Chrome vs Reyne.
Ramon Guiral, President/C.E.O of Café Del Mar explains. "Our goal with the other two CD's was to promote new values with philosophies and styles similar to those of Café Del Mar. We made a request via the internet to unknown artists all over the world to send us their recordings, as long as they were unpublished. Of those we received, we made a first cut of some eighty recordings. We put them on the internet for three months for fans to listen to and vote on. We have picked through our web 82.372 votes of 37 different countries.
Based on the results of the vote, we came up with the track listing for cd's 2 and 3." The submission to Café Del Mar yields more tracks featuring Jordan Reyne. Most of these tracks were completed in 2005 and available to download @ johnnychrome.co.nz over the period 2006/07. The remix “Newex Midnight†johnnychrome vs jordanreyne is also available at amplifier.co.nz and myspace.com/j0hnnychr0me.
In 2009 Minimalist Experimental Club is the future. johnnychrome: smoothkiwiambassador.
