Wayne W. Johnson

[Photo By Laura Brazak]

There are many plateaus in a Rock musician`s life; recording your first CD, playing live to larger and ever-growing crowds of enthusiastic fans, and of course your THIRD West Side Dave interview! Caroline Blue`s Wayne W. Johnson has already achieved these lofty ambitions and is pursuing even bigger goals!

West Side Dave: How does "Not For The Innocent" compare with your previous albums? Wayne W. Johnson: While I think that "Slave to the Hourglass" is a great CD, I feel that "Not For The Innocent" is a better CD in virtually every category. However, don't take my word for it. Go to our My Space page http://www.myspace.com/carolineblue and take a listen for yourself-and don't forget to add us! (shameless plug) :) WSD: How long did it take to record the album?   WWJ: The whole process took about a year to do. Normally it wouldn't have taken this long but part of the reason for the length is that-with the exception of the drums (done by Monster Mike Merrifield) and a group backing vocal (which included Monster Mike, Nathan Angell, and Tom Catera), all the other parts were done by myself. In addition, I was the sole source of funding for this CD so that caused some delays too, as well as a few other things.... WSD: Tell us about the current band lineup.   WWJ: Currently, CAROLINE BLUE consists of Johnny Sniper on bass/vocal ; WWJ (me) on vocal/guitar & Monster Mike Merrifield (Temp. on drums). Johnny has been with the band since 2006 and is a great addition to the band. He's a great singer/bassist/writer and I couldn't ask for an easier guy to work with. He's stealing the hearts of women wherever we go :) . Monster Mike is an awesome drummer. He did all the drumming on the new CD and a good chunk of the drumming on the last CD. His main band, One Hard Krank, is what helps him pay the bills though so....while we're on the search for a permanent drummer, Mike helps us out as much as he can and it's most appreciated. WSD: What equipment do you use for recording?   WWJ: In regards to amps I used a Carvin X-100B (Original Series) head and a Marshall 100 Watt Dual Lead head. Our producer, Scott Patnode from Strangeland Audio (http://www.strangelandaudio.com/ ) got the Carvin to sound really close to the Marshall. He combined the 2 and got a great sound. The Marshall has that great bottom end and gain, while the Carvin has the brighter tone with more clarity-especially the clean sound.   -With guitars, the rhythms were done with an Ibanez IC500 Iceman and a Washburn PS-500 Guitar. For the leads I used an Ibanez RG570. For the acoustic stuff, I used a B.C. Rich Acoustic. Don't know the model number, but it has an electric neck on an acoustic body..... WSD: What are some of your favorite tracks on the album?   WWJ: Well, I love them all, and I come back to them all at various times. The one I come back to the most though is "Out of My Life (I Want You)."  "Deny" and "Nothing Will Satisfy You" also get hit upon alot. But again, I revisit all the songs alot so.... WSD: What are some of your favorite songs to play live?   WWJ: The ones by a band called CAROLINE BLUE. :)

Three shades of Blue! Left to Right: Monster Mike [drums], Wayne W. Johnson [guitar/vocals], Johnny Sniper [bass]

WSD: Where did you get the inspiration for some of the songs on "Not For The Innocent"? WWJ: Alot of these songs have come from some of the relationships I've had in my past & the bad things that happened in them. A number of them are different though. "Deny" is about the female body and the feelings that "arise" from that (HA!), "I've Seen the light Tonight" is about being friends with someone and it becomes something more than that. "Far Away From Home" is about a girl going to the big city to chase her dreams with a not so happy ending. You could say it's kind of the companion song to "Hard Life" from our last CD ("Slave to the Hourglass"). "Dead or Alive" is written about someone who's a stalker and trying to get into their head of what that person is thinking in regards to someone else. Finally, there's "Pain" which was actually written right after I went thru a very bad Cluster Headache. Took me 5 minutes. I just wrote how I was feeling and there it was....   WSD: How do you view yourself now, both as a person and a musician, as compared to, say, 5 years ago? WWJ: You mean besides being older & bigger? (HA!). That's a good question. As a musician, I feel that my songwriting is improving as well as my singing. Having said that, I know that I still have alot to learn in both of these subjects-as well as other things. The same applies to my knowledge of the business/selling end of music as well. I do honestly feel that my lead guitar ability has gone down to a degree-that's definitely something I need to work on more. As a person, I feel that as time goes on I've become more resilent to what happens with our music and the reactions to it-as well as to myself and anything that me and/or the band does. I've become better with sales/promotion but, like I mentioned before, I feel I still have alot more to learn. I've become more patient with some things, less so with others. I feel I'm still "grounded" and that's good. I'm also grateful for all the things that have happened in my life-even some of the bad stuff. Those events were lessions to learn and sometimes you have to learn the hard way. Like everyone else, my potential for growth as a human being grows every year. Sometimes I reach it, sometimes I don't. There are even times when I surpass that potential. But doing so is not a given. You have to take responsibility & make it happen. Another interesting thing is, 5 years ago it was all about CAROLINE BLUE and everything else was a distant 2nd. Nowadays CB is still up there, but other things are now very important to me as well-such as my health, my girlfriend, my financial education and more.....   WSD: What would you like to be doing 5 years from now? [besides ANOTHER West Side Dave interview!;)] WWJ: Well, that interview is a given! :) In 5 years, I see myself still involved in releasing CAROLINE BLUE CDs-and possibly other CB products. There are several different areas that I have an interest in and I look forward to making all those dreams & ideas a reality. Stuff like book writing, web site design, asset acquisition, video work....Hopefully I won't be getting a hair transplant and/or a liposuction and/or botox injections (HA!)..... WSD: What are your immediate plans for Caroline Blue? WWJ: Well, we need to restock our inventory of the new CD-they tend to go quick when we get them in! Then we're planning on getting back out to doing more live shows. New videos are also in the works. We might have a surprise-CD wise-in mid-late 2008. Me & Johnny have also started talking about the next CAROLINE BLUE CD. If you go to our blog on our My Space page http://www.myspace.com/carolineblue , towards the end of 2007 we have a year end review and some of the things we're planning to happen in 2008 are listed there. WSD: What is currently taking up space in your CD player?   WWJ: Mostly audio books about business, finances, selling etc. Musically-not too much-although I did catch a few tracks off the new CDs by Sixx AM & The Scorpions that sounded cool. I just bought a CD from a local band called Wishpool so I'll be listening to that as well..... WSD: Ok, finish this sentence: "Caroline Blue is......." WWJ: ...Alive & Kicking!" WSD: Last words? WWJ: Just again to thank you Dave for the opportunity to do another great interview with you (and he didn't pay me to say that either-HA!). In addition, I want to thank all the great people out there who have supported CAROLINE BLUE-whether you just got onboard or have been with us since the beginning-we appreciate all your love & support and deeply thank you all very much. Keep checking back with us & keep rockin! Thank YOU yet again, Wayne! I`m already dreaming up questions for Interview No. 4!;)