Hellter interviews Ace Von Johnson (Faster Pussycat)!!
Hello Grue-Lings,
Today I am interviewing an amazing guitarist from a band called Faster Pussycat. Ace Von Johnson.
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Ace Von Johnson is the lead guitarist in the band Faster Pussycat. He used to be in punk/metal bands on the indie scene such as: Cheap Sex, Madcap, the U.S. Bombs, the Generators, Unwritten Law and Murphy’s Law. In 2010, he performed a song “Hollywood Tonight” for the Michael Jackson album “Michael”. Since 2012 he has performed with Faster Pussycat on the Monsters of Rock cruise. Two such cruises sailed in 2016 and one each in 2017 and 2018, with Faster Pussycat performing on each, making them the only band to appear on every cruise to this point. Please welcome Ace Von Johnson:
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HELLTER: What got you into music and playing guitar, and bands and guitar players you looked up to?
ACE: I got into music pretty heavily around 12 years old. I substituted my interest in comic books, drawing and action figures for a variety of rock, punk and metal music around this time. Mostly to blame are my older sister and KROQ, for turning me onto a large portion of what I was listening to. Bands ranging from Metallica to The Ramones to the Beach Boys and everything in between. The guitar just progressed out of boredom I guess, as we had an old nylon string acoustic in the house when I was a kid and I would mess around on that. Eventually my best friend in middle school and I both saved up enough money to each buy electric guitars at the local pawn shop, on the same day, and started a fake band. The guitar I bought was some awful 80’s looking Aria Pro II, and I messed around with that for a while, and eventually a few years later I got my first Les Paul for my 17th birthday, and the following week, started my first real gigging band. All of my early influences are still pretty relevant in my playing style now; guys like John Christ from Danzig, Slash, Captain Sensible from The Damned, and so on. I never took any formal lessons, so I picked and chose things from all sorts of different players over the years, like Jeff Beck, and Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers. Later on I took a bit more influence from the duel guitar attack of Glenn Buxton & Michael Bruce from Alice Cooper, and Scott Gorham & Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy.
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HELLTER: Great choices. Huge Alice Cooper fan. What are some of your favorite songs to play on guitar?
ACE: I like stuff that’s blues based and mid-tempo more often than not. I just did a cover of Alice’s “I’m Eighteen” several nights ago with Wednesday 13 and some friends in MA, and thats the prime example of the kind of stuff I enjoy playing. Great to solo over, along with all the little builds and nuances. I’ve always liked playing that classic song “Sleepwalk”, or The Ventures “Walk Dont Run”, anything from the first few Danzig records. Stuff that features a cool riff or melody that will keep me interested, really.
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HELLTER: I would love to hear you play I’m Eighteen. What bands did you play for before joining Faster Pussycat in 2010?
ACE: Well, that’s a long list. Mostly a lot of punk/rock bands in the CA area. Here’s a short list of some; I started a band called Cheap Sex when I was a teenager and wrote/recorded their first album. Then joined a band called Madcap and toured/recorded with them for a few years from the time I was 19 until I was about 22. The same thing with a Los Angeles based band called The Generators for a few years. I worked alongside a well known skateboarder/musician named Duane Peters off and on for about 8 years in the bands The U.S. Bombs, The Gunfight & The Great Unwashed. As well as doing stints with NYC’s Murphy’s Law, and later on started a group with some people called The Butcher Babies, which I left after recording their first demo once I joined Faster Pussycat. And most recently I did about an 8 month stretch playing guitar for platinum selling San Diego pop/punk/rock act Unwritten Law. There are a ton of others Im sure, but I can’t recall them all! A few female fronted solo artists as well like Diana Meyer and Shanti Wintergate. Americana rock band Charlie (Overbey) & The Valentine Killers, and plenty of “all star” type projects as well. I’m hoping that list will always continue to grow.
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HELLTER: How did you end up in Faster Pussycat?
ACE: I was playing for the above mentioned band Charlie & The Valentine Killers around the time I was 25 & his rhythm section for a time was Chad Stewart & Danny Nordahl of Faster Pussycat. Eventually, they needed a guitar player and I was brought in to fill the role. I never auditioned, I just showed up at Taime’s house and he gave me a disc of material and told me “not to suck”. Thats about it!
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HELLTER: (Laughs) That is so cool. Nice. What are some of your favorite Faster Pussycat songs to play live and were you a fan of their hit song House of Pain?
ACE: As for Faster Pussycat material, my favorite songs to play live are: “Where There’s a Whip”, “You’re So Vain” & “No Room For Emotion”. I was aware of the song when I was younger, but I wasn’t a big fan of the ballad until much later. I was mostly only familiar with their first record for a long time.
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HELLTER: Great songs. What are some of your most memorable shows?
ACE: More recently, I played a brief set of Guns N Roses & new original material with drummer Steven Adler (Guns N Roses), about 2 weeks ago at the “Ultimate Jam Night” at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. That was a lot of fun, and being able to participate in that event nearly every week that I have been home this year, has allowed me to play with a ton of amazing names like Steve Ferlazzo (Avril Lavigne), Michael Starr (Steel Panther), Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr Bigg), Chris Wyse (The Cult), and so many others. Those really stand out. As well as this past weekend, I organized and played guitar for The Rocking Dead; which is an “all star jam band” that played its second annual set at the Rock & Shock horror con in Worcester MA. We did 10 songs that featured something like 15 artists. Beyond that, any time Faster has gone down to South America, has always been a total blast and very memorable. But everything else all just seems to run together at this point.
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HELLTER: Some legend’s your jamming with. Any cool or funny road stories?
ACE: There isn’t enough space to answer this correctly. I guess the story I get asked about the most is the time last year when my bass player was so intoxicated that he fell over onstage and crashed into the drum kit. The video of that went viral. Its pretty funny; just search “faster pussycat bass player falls over” and it’ll come up. There’s a ton of other great stuff but most of it I will probably take to the grave with me.
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HELLTER: I never heard of that story. I need to look this up (laughs). How would you describe your guitar style?
ACE: Well, according to my drummer; I play like Slash – if he had a couple of broken fingers. He thinks he’s funny. I don’t know, really. I guess I would say that I’m a blues-based rock guitar player. I don’t really “shred” like a lot of contemporary players do, nor do I care to. I like tasty licks and Chuck Berry riffs.
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HELLTER: Two facts about you I learned. Please explain to our audience more about it. You recorded a song on a Michael Jackson album and you do voice over work?
ACE: Yes, well technically I did record music for the posthumous Michael Jackson album, Michael, however it was cut from the album by the label/project manager in favor of a altrnate-dance version of the same song. It’s a long story, but it was great working with my engineer friend, the late James Murray & grammy-winning producer Neff-U on the track. I heard it may come out on a deluxe edition at some point, but I leaked the track last year after I got tired of sitting on a mixed finalized version of something I was so excited about doing, that never got to see the light of day. So thats out there online floating around now.
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As far as the voice-over work, it was something I dabbled in for a little bit over the years. I’ve done a couple of regional spots for some things, and a ton of radio spots but nothing really worth bragging about. I studied with several voice over coaches in Los Angeles as well, and did some workshop stuff too, but I found it to be too difficult to try to balance pursuing an “acting” career, along with my music career – which is my main focus. So every now and then, when things come up, I will do them but its not something I am actively pursuing. That being said, If I could get involved in voicing some things for a cartoon, I would be ecstatic but so far everything I have done has been plain narrative stuff, just my normal speaking voice. But if anyone is interested in hearing my VO demos; they are available on my website to be heard. And yes, ALL the voices are me.
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HELLTER: Wow, that’s so awesome. Any advice you would give to a young hungry guitarist?
ACE: Practice until you hate it. Play all the time. Play when you’re watching tv or laying in bed. On a normal day, I practice for a good 2-3 hours, or more. I wish I had done that when I was younger, because I would probably be a much better player now. Use YouTube to check out video lessons and cull from that, especially Phil X’s work with the Fretted Americana channel – that has a lot of insightful stuff on there alone that will change your world. And most importantly; network. Always make friends and allies. Its not a competition, just be cool and try to build upon that. You never know when someone will call you up and ask you about a gig.
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HELLTER: That’s good advice. Describe what your side band The Rocking Dead is about and whos in it? Also any shows coming up?
ACE: The Rocking Dead is the all-star band that performed at this and last years Rock & Shock convention in MA. Last year we had Kriz DK from The Genitorturers, Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein from The Misfits, Alex Story from Doyle/Cancerslug, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God, Wednesday 13 from The Murderdolls, Allan Roberts from Life of Agony, Virus from Dope, and myself on guitar. We did a set of classic Misfits songs and it was amazing. This year, we had a lot more players and variety in the set. We had Doyle, Alex Story and Wednesday 13 returning along with Mark Damon from The Pretty Reckless, Ash and Nikki from New Years Day, Bret Von Dehl from The Relapse Symphony, Acey Slade from Joan Jett on bass, Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat, Roman Surmon on guitar and Kyle Castronovo on drums from The Murderdolls/Wednesday 13 band as well. The set featured songs by Alice Cooper, White Zombie, The Ramones, Dead Boys, The Stooges, Joan Jett & a few Misfits tunes. Unfortunately there are no more shows lined up, as we will only be performing at Rock & Shock, at least for the time being. But who knows what the future holds.
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HELLTER: I would love to hear that. What would you say are the highlights of your career so far?
ACE: I’d say I’ve covered most of them, but definitely the Michael Jackson session, playing for Pussycat, getting to do several sets of Misfits songs with Doyle, touring alongside The Damned in the UK in 2009, participating in the Ultimate Jam Night regularly, and being one of the only bands to perform on all of the Monsters Of Rock Cruises – which are always very memorable.
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HELLTER: I heard you have a love for horror. What are your favorite horror films? And you can talk about films for any horror genre.
ACE: Well as far as horror movies go, I have always had a love for the classics. Films like The Creature From the Black Lagoon to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Angry Red Planet and so on. My dad would show me all of those kind of flicks when I was a kid, so I grew up watching them for as far back as I can remember. When he was a kid, he lived down the street from director William Castle and got to see House On Haunted Hill at the director’s home before it was released in theaters with all the neighborhood kids. So all of that stuff is really engrained in who I am. But overall, most of my favorite horror movies are the type stuff that is visceral and fucks with your mind, like The Shining and Suspiria. Of course I love the classic Universal and Hammer films but mostly I have a soft spot for all the 80’s horror films I grew up with: Creepshow, Return of The Living Dead, TerrorVision, Critters, Dolls, and so on. A large portion of my tattoos are even horror related. Newer stuff, I really liked The Babadook, Teeth, and most of Rob Zombie and Adam Green’s films.
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HELLTER: Wow, you really do love your horror. If you were to be a killer in a famous horror film, would you rather destroy dreams as Freddy Krueger, ruin a camp experience as Jason Voorhees, torture trick or treaters as Michael Myers, be chainsaw happy as Leatherface, or be a guardian for hell as Pinhead?
ACE: Ah, well I love all of these characters for their own unique reasons, but I suppose I would want to be Freddy since he is the only one with a sense of humor. Plus, that glove is awesome and he’s got a great fashion sense as well. Everyone else is just slow moving & silent. Not to mention Freddy always had the best one liners; “Welcome to primetime, bitch!”
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HELLTER: I love that line. Such a classic (laughs). Why do you think horror and metal music go hand and hand and describe the documentary coming out that you’re in called The History of Horror and Metal?
ACE: I think the reason that heavy metal/hard rock music has a tendency to go hand-in-hand with horror movies, is that they both lean heavily on those dark elements that some people are just genuinely attracted to, and they usually play on the dark side of the mind, and for most people who enjoy being scared, they also seem to also be attracted to this kind of music. And when I think of some of the biggest and hardest names in rock and metal, you get all of these obvious nods to horror – whether it’s film, written or just lyrical content. From Sabbath and Cooper, to Manson and Zombie, it’s everywhere. And regarding the documentary, its called The History of Horror and Metal, which examines this very idea. It has a long, growing list of huge names in it, from musicians like Corey Taylor, Alice Cooper, Kirk Hammett, Doyle, all the way to horror icons like Tom Savini, Doug Bradley, Sid Haig and Gunnar Hansen. It goes into great detail as to why they’re so interconnected and examines all the common ground that both categories share. They are currently looking to raise money to help finish the project, so if you’re interested in contributing, finding out more about the film or seeing the trailer, You can find all of this information on The History of Metal and Horror at METALHORROR.com
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HELLTER: I really want to see this. Thank you for joining us today. Anything else you would like to discuss or promote, any projects you are working on that I havent mentioned?
ACE: No sir, I think we have covered all of the bases for the time being. That being said, please check out Faster Pussycat if we’re in your town. And if you’re an animal lover like I am, I encourage you to donate to your local shelter. Also, if you’re thinking about getting a pet, please adopt from a rescue/shelter. Don’t buy from breeders or pet stores who do! And if you’re on the inter-webs like I am, you can find me on Twitter & Instagram at: @acevonjohnson, and on Facebook at: Facebook.com/AceVonJohnson or direct at my website: acevonjohnson.com
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Thanks for having me and be good to each other out there!
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