New interview of John Jeff Touch by Glory Daze E-zine
Category: Music

TOUCH, PAUSE, ENGAGE..
Interview with: John Jeff Touch
Written by: gdazegod
Date: 4 August 2008

A few weeks ago, we presented the debut solo album by Greek vocalist/musician John Jeff Touch. Entitled 'First Touch', JJT explored a variety of styles and sounds, incorporating different angles within the melodic rock genre. Certainly you could not accuse JJT of being one-dimensional. Coming to public notice in 2003 through the Finnish label Lion Music, John has explored many avenues that have been presented to him over the last five years. Much of his work is of a cosmopolitan nature, as many different musicians from different countries have been involved in his projects, or vice versa, where John himself has been involved in different projects. Surely this is representative of how the new European Union is supposed to work? lol! GLORY-DAZE was intrigued enough to dig a bit deeper, and to dwelve into the world of John Jeff Touch.

Hi there John, welcome in to GLORY-DAZE. Thanks for your time in giving us some answers to our questions.
Hi there George. First of all I d like to thank you for the invitation. It's my pleasure to give you this interview. It's an opportunity for me to unfold my past to you and your readers.

Firstly.. Can you tell us about your earlier work, both in Greece and elsewhere throughout Europe.
Actually I've played with many bands and musicians in the past, but my career officially started in 2003 when I signed with Lion Music. I collaborated with the Finish guitarist Lars Eric Mattsson and his band 'Vision'. I sung for their album called 'Vision - On The Edge'. It's a progressive/hard rock album with many high notes and rich backing vocals. After that I made a band with Lakis Ragazas called Phenomenon. We mostly played in Greece, supporting bands such as U.F.O. etc. The same time I started working with the German band S.I.N. In 2007 I met guitarist Angel Mourvatis and we made the pop-rock band Cosmicray. Our album 'Love Is' was released in 2008 by Plus Rec/Universal. I also auditioned for many bands such as Daniele Liverani's Twinspirits, Royal Hunt, Domain, Saga etc. and won many European and international vocal contests.

You mentioned German rockers S.I.N.. ultimately things didn't work out with thsm I understand. Was it a case of different styles, different direction etc?
They were looking for a new singer for their next album and picked me up out of many singers from all over the world. In the beginning everything seemed to be fine. We had many things in common. I liked their material and we've started working on their new songs. By the time I've started the recordings the rest of the band had problems with each other. The whole project stuck. So, after 3 months we've started gradually losing contact and in the end I decided to quit. That's the only reason we didn't do anything more.

We reviewed the Killer Sixgun album that you sang on for Lakis Ragazas, albeit only two tracks. Seeing as you are both Thessaloniki residents, any chance of a further collaboration in future? That would whet the appetite for sure, because it surely got a lot of people interested..
The period we had the band Phenomenon, Lakis was making his own instrumental album. He proposed me to sing two songs of his. Meanwhile I was recording songs with the guitarist Sotiris Gogos for 'First Touch' album. After those two songs we've started working with Lakis on further material. There was an idea of making a new album together. We recorded two more songs where I wrote the lyrics the melodic lines and all vocals. The result was awesome. We really liked it, but some months later that idea faded. I'm a very open minded person, but if two people have different directions, it is actually really hard to achieve anything. We are our choices. We are the only one who can make true all the things, our destiny reveals to us. If we refuse to see them or we pass them by it's another story. If you know what I'mean...

You have an array of vocal reference points in your sound. Who have you gravitated to most when making comparisons to other vocalists?
The previous years I worked very hard to achieve making my own sound. For me it's the most vital thing. I'm also a vocal coach and that's the most important thing I try to teach to my students. I try to focus on their own voice to find their own unique sound. There are many singers around the world who have wide vocal range, big variety of sound colors or sound like other singers, but there are few who sound unique. Singers like Freddie Mercury, Kip Winger, and Lou Gramm are some examples of unique sound. For me it's an inner journey. When you re about to find who you are and where you wanna go, you re closer to your sound. It's very interesting when I release an album and read the reviews. Each one comparing me to different singers. The truth is that I'm influenced by singers I liked all these years, but I have my own sound. I've worked in different styles in the past and that makes my voice flexible. I like rock, jazz, ethnic, classical, film music, electronic etc .I'm a mixture of all that. That's my point of view. When I compose music I don't think like to write a rock or jazz or ethnic song. I just dive into my soul, discover pieces of me and turn them into music. That's my way.

How long has 'First Touch' been in the making?
I was composing the 'First Touch 'album the last 3 and a half years, maybe more. Except for composing and choosing the right songs, it took much time for the album to be recorded, mixed and mastered. That's because, most of the musicians are living in other countries. UK, Italy, Bulgaria, L.A. The mastering took place in Fear studios (Italy). I and another sound engineer made the production of the album and that was really hard and took much time. As you noticed the most of the arrangements of the 'First Touch' album has many instruments, electronic sounds and that's not easy in the mixing session. The final issue was the artwork, which made by Kostantinos Sapanas. It took some time till we concluded how we wanted it to be.