AN INTERVIEW WITH WESTERN GRIP

1. In this interview, we welcome Western Grip to All the Cores and More. Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself and what you do in the band?

Hi! Thanks for having us. I'm Shane Patrick Johnson and I play Bass, Guitar, Organ, Synth, Percussion, and vocals on the record.

Hey there. I'm William Edward Haring and I play Guitar, Piano, Percussion and also sing on the record.

2. How would you characterize your sound?

Shane: I would say our sound has an overall haunting feel which was intentional. When we were writing the early stuff, we wanted to use repetition and space. We wanted the live show to invoke a feeling. We played with a touring percussionist on our first show and they said we sounded "like doom country" and we ran with it. Seems we're a category of one so far lol.

William: Shane had this idea of huge drums with reverb etc. I feel like this helped us have unique structure and then we could just fill in the blanks, being mindful of space.

3. What are the major influences this project is inspired or informed by?

Shane: I’ve been obsessed with all things “spaghetti western” guitar licks for the last 10 years. Ennio Morricone. It was fun to consider “what if” scenarios where we could add a drum machine in the vein of bands like Suicide, Big Black, or old rap records with 808’s that sound massive and what that would sound like over Outlaw country kinda stuff? I really loved the drums on the first Jesus Lizard record too. We both love Johnny Paycheck, George Jones, and Eddie Noack.

William: I basically grew up listening to country music via the radio, whether at home in the kitchen or on the way to visit grandparents in the car. Garth Brooks tape was a game changer. My uncle gave me a Weezer tape in 5th or 6th grade and that started the road toward rock n roll.  

4. How did the group come together and what made you want to continue pursuing it?

Shane: William was asked to play a solo show opening for one of the Dismal Niche shows (amazing non-profit event programming here in Columbia, MO) back in October of 2024. I wasn't playing with anyone at the time and was just looking to play. I'm pretty sure I just begged him to let me play the show with him. Luckily he said yea! William’s also been an incredible songwriter and I loved his old band Jowlz. He let me play on his solo records and we found out pretty early on that we work well together.

William: I had met Shane at a DIY show a decade or so ago and was very impressed with his musicianship. At the time I was very drunk and said something like “you know what you’re doing…”. Several years later we played a show in Jefferson City and when we were soundchecking there was a magical moment that still impresses me. We were just jamming and making noise but it fit perfectly.  

5. What about your own journey into alternative and experimental music? How were you introduced to this world and what bands/artists were foundational for you? Take us through that journey down the iceberg if you would.

Shane: My parents had a pretty cool record collection and music was always "on" in our house growing up. I didn't really like much of what they listened to but came to appreciate it later in life. Up until I was 16 or 17, I only listened to rap and hip-hop but I started to dabble in classic rock a little in high school. I didn't listen to anything on the alternative or experimental side until I met a guy at the hardware store I worked at. He skated and gave me a Misfits tape and a bunch other stuff. That kinda changed everything for me. Him and I are still close friends and luckily neither of us have to push carts anymore. 

William: I remember when I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and I absolutely hated it. It hurt my ears and honestly sense of well being. That would be my first encounter with experimental music. Years later in high school a band I was in covered a Pixies song. We all came to appreciate The Pixies and Black Francis’s songwriting. Also went through a classical music phase and much of it can be considered experimental. Also TLC’s “Waterfalls” was a very influential outlier type of song influential to me.

6. Let’s talk about Follow Your Nightmares. It’s being released worldwide by Vina Records—how did that relationship come about?

Shane: A total accident or chance? Like I've done 100's of other times when a label has "liked" a post or a song, I would reach out and say "we'd love to collaborate on a release." 99.9% of the time that message is never read or even replied to. We got lucky and played with American Motors who had Vina Records as their Euro distro for their amazing record Content. Anyway, we said we'd like to collaborate and they asked what we were thinking? Both William and I talked about pressing vinyl as a goal for the first release.

Getting to video chat with Francesco about our vision of the record felt like talking to an old friend who just wants your music to get out in the world! They were just fans of music like us. It was pretty surreal for me and they've been incredibly supportive and kind throughout the mixing, mastering, and pressing process. 

William: I still can’t believe it…. Vina Records has been very kind and helpful!

7. What was the writing and recording process like for the EP?

William: I feel like all the songs were just kind of realized. This is the first band I’ve been in where I haven’t written all the lyrics. It’s been refreshing to focus on the song as a whole. Shane is a great lyricist in my opinion. Dan was wonderful to work with and is an excellent engineer. 

Shane: I remember William and I having a conversation about what we wanted the record to sound like and we both kept coming back to big drum sounds and getting it tracked by someone to try to match "how we hear it in our heads." Both William and I work full time, have families, and just the act of getting together to rehearse, write, etc. requires a lot of planning. I'm also super impatient and would rather have someone who knows how to work on the fly and can entertain all our weird ideas we have without losing any momentum or time. We asked an old friend Daniel Ruder of Standard Recording. Dan was in one of my two favorite bands to ever come out of Missouri (Jack Buck, iykyk) and it was a perfect fit. 

8. Can you walk us through each track on Follow Your Nightmares?

IN THE DARK

We rented a space for a few hours to write and the bones of this song are the result. Bill sang this question “When was the last time you were afraid of the dark?” off the cuff and it stuck. This song is heavy and the repetition and space is intentional. What happens when an entire apartment building accidently falls on your head? Hard to ignore what your eyes tell you these days.  

STICK AND POKE

Shane: The characters and imagery for this song is a permanent picture of my memory of northern Kentucky (where I grew up). We were trying to write something that had a quicker pace. The story is about choosing the right time to stand up. I wrote this around the time that I had “Colorado Cool-aid” by Johnny Paycheck on rotation and I also wondered what role did the Mexican friend have in this fight? Surely he wasn’t a passive participant. Fun recording story about this: I went to the store during the time we tracked this to get some lemons and some tea since we were gonna track vocals. I was gone for maybe 15 minutes and when I came back Bill had already wrote and recorded the piano part on the chorus. Amazing stuff.

SIDEWALK

This is the 3rd song we wrote. This is a first-person narrative of the scene at the corner of delay, deny, & defend (CEO that was gunned down in NYC) Hard luck. This was the final arrangement we landed on. We stumbled onto this drum beat first and ran with it. There is a bleakness in this, murder ballad-esque.  

FOLLOW YOUR NIGHTMARE

A love song for the scaries in the bunker? Bill says it feels like a love song. Shane says it feels like the end of the empire. This was a last-minute addition to the recording session. The lyrics are a response to this question, If the American Dream is failed, why not try the nightmares? What's to lose? We’re indebted to Dan Ruder for his patience and guidance on this track and to Colin Webb for the very comfortable stay during our recording session. 

BACK PILLS

This is the 1st song we wrote as a band. This has had several variations to date, but this is the one we landed on. All the lyrics are direct quotes from Emergency Room patients. Bill kept building these layers of guitars that worked perfectly. Bill also wrote the piano parts on the spot in the recording session. He added the second descending session and taught it to Shane. We thought it had a Slint-kind of feel since we’re both fans of Pajo. We both played piano track together on one take I think. It was a giant baby grand and Dan had some cool mic techniques.

CONCLUSION

We had been using this sample from Nimrod Workman talking about the gun thugs in Harlan County when we played live and it just seemed right to add it as a parting gift to the record, a warning. The fiddle part was taken from the Library of Congress and we added the effects and tweaked it a bit.

9. What have the major highlights of the project been so far?

William: We were able to open for Swamp Dogg aka Jerry Williams Jr. He is a great musician and songwriter and happens to have cowritten a song I’ve always loved.  

Shane: We can fit our entire live show in the back of a Subaru hatchback. That is a weird point of pride for us. 

10. What have you got on the docket for the rest of 2026 and perhaps beyond?

William: Very excited to be going out on tour and would love to play abroad. Having our music out on vinyl is also really exciting.

Shane: We've got a small Midwestern tour lined up with some cool bands and venues. We're opening up for Laura Jane Grace at The Blue Note here in Columbia in May which is really exciting.