Strange Brew: the London atmosphere pervades the singer-songwriter’s new album
BA Johnston has built his career on being funny.
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BA Johnston has built his career on being funny.
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So when an audience laughed after the singer-songwriter jokingly thought of calling his next album Werewolves of London Ontario, he did just that.
And Johnston doubled the fun by having longtime album and t-shirt illustrator Paul Hammond – a Halifax-based illustrator born and raised in London – design the album cover.
“I loved the idea,” said Hammond, who stayed in Halifax after graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the late ’90s and handled the design of the t-shirts and sleeves. Johnston’s album for more than a decade.
“He wanted a parody of the Strange Brew album cover (the soundtrack to the cult comedy starring Bob and Doug McKenzie played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas), except with werewolves. He always has crazy ideas and this time he wanted to go even further. I thought it was perfect. Every time he throws a new idea at me, it’s crazier than the previous one.
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The cover references several London landmarks, including the now defunct nightclubs Call the Office and the Embassy, Storybook Gardens and Labatt’s. It’s also packed with 1980s pop culture, like horror hostess Elvira and the Hamilton-based TV show The Hilarious House of Frightenstein starring Vincent Price.
Werewolves of London Ontario is Johnston’s 13th studio album, the tracks all dripping with humor, such as My Heart Is a Blinking Nintendo (2005), Call Me When Old and Fat Is the New Young and Sexy (2006), Stairway to Hamilton (2008), S—Sucks (2015) and The Skid Is Hot Tonight (2019).
Johnston’s real first name is Christian, but the nickname BA, or Bored Again, has stuck since high school.
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He doesn’t consider himself an actor.
“No, I play music,” said Johnston, whose new album won’t be released until June but was heard by fans last Saturday during a virtual listening party.
“It’s funny but I’m not necessarily a comedian. But I play acoustic guitar and nothing makes an audience more freaked out by music than a guy with an acoustic guitar. I like to think of myself as a low-rent Vegas show similar to Sammy Davis Jr., but not as good.
Although he was playing a cover of Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London for a pre-show warm-up when he suggested it might be the title of his next album, his music is mostly original.
“I’m not good enough on the guitar to play covers by anyone,” he joked.
His song titles are also dripping with humor, like We’re All Going to Jail (Except Pete, He’s Going to Die) and I Miss 90s Hash from his latest album and Why Can’t Tonight Be Wing Night and GM Can Sit on It, which also offers commentary on plant closures.
“If you make a sad song funny enough, people feel less depressed,” Johnston said. “I use humor to show the truth.”
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