Tell us about your creative work.
So I’m the front man to the spoken word post punk electro fusion band, Austerity Dogs. I started in comedy which I still partake in. Play and screen writer with a stage play out end of the year and multiple pilots that don’t get further than “yeah sick, that”.
How did you get into spoken word punk?
So me and Lachlan, part 2 of the duo, used to live together. Lockdown hit and I had no creative output. He is a rapper and producer so we both sat there bored putting beats behind poems I wrote.
After a while we thought let’s do a band, but neither of us can play live if that makes sense. I can play drums then after a bit me timing goes. So we looped stuff and messed around stuff to create this band.
We seen Sleaford Mods and thought we can do something like that. So we named ourselves after one of their albums.
What inspired you to tackle serious political themes in your work?
I’m from a satellite town in Liverpool, and an Irish Catholic background. Growing up, I seen a genuine Protestant/Catholic divide. I still get a bad taste in my mouth if someone says they’re in the orange lodge. I come from an area with nothing. And now live in an area with nothing. Empty promises and gentrification. The politics come natural if you’re in an environment that says its all out to get you.
How do you decide which topics and experiences are going to become a song?
So we will sit together in our home built studio. Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. I’m the front man and lead writer Lachlan is the genius to piece my ramblings together. We will make multiple takes of different poems and whichever one makes us pull faces or want to throw a chair out the window makes the cut.
What is your process for channeling those subjects into your art?
Serious and jokey sense. Letting go. Lachlan is a pot head. I have a drink. We scream during takes. We cry. We drink and smoke more. We order food. Phones off. We have recorded things that sound like we’re reading from a piece of paper. But this take I’ve had a drink and a cry. Lachlan has looked at a text from his mum that’s wound him up. This next take is the one that makes it.
What do you hope people take away from your music and comedy?
Music I want you to dance. Comedy laugh. We’ve got some songs that can make you do both. I just want you to feel something. Hear me shout and feel like it’s the thing you wanted to say. That you feel like I get you. Because I do.
Have you got anything exciting coming up soon we should look out for?
We have a our new EP (8 tracks, we treat em like albums since we have quick turn around) called Necropolis. Few singles from that. Punk as anything, but we’ve introduced a new wave synth undertone.
I have a sci fi one-act play out hopefully at the end of the year called “silence between sounds”. Basically an alien invasion story if it was penned by Ken Loach. A family in a council house having a last supper as aliens descend onto Earth. Are they evil? friendly? We don’t know but the family have a few things they need to talk about before its too late.
Do you have any advice for anyone hoping to get into similar creative projects?
Do it. It’s terrifying. My first gig as a comic was, music was. But the comedy I was on my own. Music, I had friends like Sian Davies (my sister from another mister) who championed me and pushed me.
I’ll be that to you. Wanna make the jump and do something creative to a crowd? Tell me and I’ll be in your corner hyping you. It’ll still be scary but you’ll have us to cushion it.
Jono is appearing on our next episode of Broadcast Avalanche on Monday 24th June. Find out more here.
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You can keep up with Jono’s band Austerity Dogs by following them on Instagram and YouTube and checking out their music on Bandcamp.
