And on the 5th day of Snowta PH gave to you.. an interview with Jon Wayne of JWP!

At Reggie’s, a popular venue on the South side of Chicago, there’s commonly simultaneous shows on either side of the split venue. I realized this when I asked someone outside, “Have you seen Jon Wayne and the Pain before?” I was answered with a confused stare followed by “Who’s Jon Wayne and the Pain?” I returned the confused stare, accompanied by a moment of silence and pondering. How do you describe a band that’s so eclectic? The group has dub, jam, reggae and rock influences that make it hard to label. It almost just depends on what night of the week it is.

Earlier this year, Jon Wayne and the Pain released full length album “Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe.” The album furthers the bands theme of a positive message with a sprinkle of political expression.  Early in the album, “Helpful” makes you want to call your best friend and tell her everything is going to be alright. “Keep my feet upon the path/ cause the foot work is the truth/ could I be helpful to you/ help me to speak only truth/ could I be helpful to you/ could I let go of control.” The track shows a very soothing side of the band that is only seen again in the bonus track, “Tryin’ Hard.” 

On the flip side, “Ganja Police” weighs heavy on the reggae tones with an outcry against the incarceration of people over marijuana, stating “the government has been reaping off the citizens plight”. Later on in the album, “Profit Over People” has a more electronic jam sound but continues the same message. This time,  broadly addressing other instances of our government putting “money over souls.” Finally, somebody’s talking about it. 

The band has spent  time touring as far East as Michigan, as far West as Oregon and much of the Midwest. Now, they’re getting ready to help ring in the New Year at Snowta where defining their genre won’t be a concern due to the varying lineup of the event.  

Snowta is a 2-day indoor music festival happening on the band’s home turf of Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Singer and guitarist, Jon Wayne, took time to talk to us about Snowta, things to look forward to in 2018 and his highlights of 2017.

I caught your show in Chicago on December 14, it was a good time, y’all were headed to St. Louis next. How did it go?
Really? The city [Chicago] is so amazing but the electronic jam scene seems disconnected because of the large size. The people have to travel forever to get to different parts of the city. I’m probably spoiled because Minneapolis is so tight-knit. St. Louis was awesome too, though! We played at The Old Rock House. They have a cool stage and we got to set up all the lights. There was a good crowd and the band, Back Up Planet, opened for us.

You’re gearing up to play your very first Snowta–what are you expecting?
I don’t know what to expect. I do know it’s going to be legit. Andy Warg, Zack Chazen and Alex Toffler have put in a lot of hard work. They’re awesome people and it’s great to see them doing this high calibre of an event.

What can we expect out of your set?  
We’re an electronic reggae-tronic dub group. We play acoustic based stuff with a good portion of jam but, for this set we’re leaning towards more electronic.  We don’t play tracks but, our basest, Chuckie Torgerson, fires off all these sounds that are influenced by dub or jam-tronic.

Chuckie Torgerson at Shangri-La 2017

How does big events like Snowta benefit local artists?
What happens is, people go because they love headliners such as Excision, Pretty Lights, Post Malone or whoever. Then, smaller artists, like us, benefit cause these kids would have never came to see our show, say at First Ave, but they came out to see those names and happen to catch our set. It’s all about making new fans and friends.

Are there any shows you plan on catching over the weekend?
It sucks that Pretty Lights  and Ott play the night before us. I’ve seen Ott solo and with his band, The All Seeing Eye and I love how he includes reggae. You don’t see a ton of that.  I’m looking forward to Sunsquabi, though! They’re either before or after so we will for sure see them and Wookiefoot, of course! And, Excision … I gotta catch that.

Are y’all currently working on any projects or have any upcoming releases?
In January the band is planning to go to a cabin in the woods for 3-4 days to start hashing out plans for a new album.

Myself, I’m working on a solo album with Mark Murphy of Wookiefoot.

Y’all did a bunch of festival stops last summer from Spread the Word to Electric Forest  to Shangri-La. Can we expect another busy festival season from JWP?
Just we gotta do ones that make sense with a path of show dates in between. Recently, it’s been a conversation of quality over quantity. In 2010 we played 230-240 and this last year we’re gonna break 100 — it’s a lot more manageable.

Since it’s almost New Years, what was your highlight moment of 2017.
I would say there was something magical about Wookiefoot’s Shangri-La Music Festival the vibe was incredible. Some nights are more on point than others but this one we were all “on”. It was a really special night.

JWP at Shangri-La 2017

Chuckie Torgerson & Weston Schick

Teeto Miller at Shangri-La 2017

If you’re looking to catch Jon Wayne and The Pain at Snowta NYE, they will be performing on Sunday night. Be sure to give their new album a listen and snag your tickets HERE.

Photos by Kara Ketcher (@kkphotosblog)