The Johnny V Experience is an experimental band put together and recorded by Johnny Vines. All instruments and Vocals are performed by him. All Recording is also done at Underground Basement Studios, which is conveniently located in the basement of his house. THE "EXPERIENCE" CONCEPT After spending two successful years playing drums with the Elites, his first successful band, they stopped practicing, stopped existing, even didn't bother getting back together after their final show. Considering that this last show was the height of their career venue and crowd wise, a performance at the renowned Starland Ballroom (which didn't go too well, his snare drum broke irreparably on the first song), one would think that we would be practicing quite a bit to keep the momentum going. So he called to set up a practice the day after the show. No answer. This turned into multiple months of unanswered phonecalls (Even after I left messages). After the first three months, he began to look for other musicians to play with. The talented musicians he found were not dedicated, and the dedicated musicians he found weren't proficient enough at their instruments to be in a band. Three more months later, he was sick of looking for people to play with. So he taught himself to play guitar, bass, harmonica, and bought a recording box. Then he began to make his own music; a true one man band. Then, when release of his first demo (which was a quick and sloppy production, he knocked out 9 songs in less than a week), it recieved a very positive reaction, so he decided to carry on the Experience in addition to whatever bands he formed in the future. So far, he has recorded three demos and Two full cds, "Time and Place" (Sept. 2008) and "Frost" (July 2010) Both of which are still available today. As for the demos, they are rather low fidelity (recorded using a $10 microphone, rush-mixed, 1 take on each instrument no matter what, and completely unmastered), so he has decided to discontinue them. GEAR He plays hollow body guitars; "mainly Gretsch because their guitars are AMAZING". He also has been known to use a Fender Strat for Hendrix purposes, and a highly modified Lafayette guitar ("The Flying Suque") which was pretty much completely built by his dad and him. The Suque serves as his secondary guitar live in case the Gretsch of Strat break, and as a special effect in the studio when the mix calls for it's unique sound. His family also owns an Ibanez Articore and a Fender P-Bass, both of which have appeared somewhere on his recordings. His Amps Include 2 Peavey Transformer 112s and a Peavey Vypyr, along with a Motion Sound KP-200s and SW-15, which he uses for all of his keyboard instruments. His Keyboards include the Diversi Hammond Clonewheel Organ, Korg T3 Synth, Yamaha Clavinova, and Moog Taurus Bass Pedals. He has yet to acquire a real Mellotron, so the T3 serves as the substitute for that at this moment. He plays Tama Drums and Zildjian cymbals (his kit is and 9 peice drumset with 13 cymbals). He also plays acoustic music live (his acoustic is an Alvarez), and he probably always will until a cloning machine is invented. RECORDING / STUDIO JOBS Many people can not believe that for his recording, the only thing he owns is a four track box. In the recording world, this type of technology was outdated in the mid-1960s, although Digital recording didn't exist back then. However, having never taken a recording course of any form, he follows no conventional recording rules, instead experimenting with many different methods until achieving the sound that he wants. He follows the recording spirit of the late '60s and early '70s, when experimentation in the studio led to the greatest recordings ever made. Recording nowadays has become to cut-and-dry. With the success of the sound of "Frost," he actually achieved an apprenticeship in the summer of at Organic Sound Studios in Long Branch, which is located in the same building as the legendary Shore Fire Studios. Here, he leaned so much about additional recording techniques and mixing. After having heard what the proper equipment could do, he realized that he would not be able to bear putting another album sounding like the others that he had put out At the end of the summer of 2010, he invested in a real home Recording Studio, moving from 4 tracks to 32, and buying professional-grade microphones instead of the cheap ones he had been using. Most of the Mic selection was based around what he know Spock's Beard and Porcupine Tree used for their more recent albums, because out of all the bands he listened to, he believes that those two easily have the best production quality. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/John+Vines">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.