John Hughes – “Company Town” Who Do You Think It Sounds Like Steve Earle or Tom Petty? Probably John Hughes

This is the continuation of the interview with John Hughes.

Q: Could you tell us something about the song “Company Town” – (nice Tom Petty like sound)
John: I started to write it one morning about something quite different. It took a different turn, and started telling a different story than I had originally intended. That’s how it goes. The songs write themselves. Funny about your Petty comment. When I was writing it, it was sounding too “Steve Earle” to me. CopperHead “Roadish”. Never turned out that way, I guess. If Steve sang it with his twinge accent, it just might.

Photo by Chris Smith of the Funk Factor

Q: Could you tell us something about the song “Ginned Up”
John: Who knows? It’s just all in fun. The characters are all fictional. I do have a buddy I used to drink a lot of gin and tonic with who moved to Reykjavik, but it was a guy, not a girl and the answer is NO, before you ask…..LOL. Cool thing though, he and his wife drank gin and tonic and home sick and Reykjavik just happen to rhythm.

Q: How about the song “Runaway “– (The words sound like it should be a sad song but the music is very up beat and fun.)
John: Not intended to be sad. Well, no sadder than, say, Homer Simpson would be if his character wasn’t portrayed in a humorous fashion. The character in this song is pretty much telling the listener what a bad husband he is, and he’s so dumb, that he doesn’t even realize it. “If you come home, I’ll let you hold the T.V. remote?” Ha! This is anything but serious. I wanted the song to sound “campy” a “porch song.” When Tony Harrell (keyboard player on the album) asked me, ” would you mind if I tried some accordion to see how it would sound?” I said sure…let’s hear it. I liked it. I love Zydeco music and I have a stack of it here in my cd collection. I call the genre for Runaway, “Trailercana”.

Tomorrow will be the conclusion of our interview with John Hughes.

Till then check out the John Hughes Website and MySpace page.Don’t forget to get John’s brand new cd “Time” at his website or at iTunes

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