Biography
The trio of frontmen in Regular John each contribute their own vocals and original material, which diversifies the band's grungy hard rock and at times adds metal riffs, punk thrash, or political discontent. Distance across Australia had to be conquered before the musicians could assemble. Ryan Adamson, handling guitar and vocals, had relocated repeatedly through small New South Wales towns steeped in country music instead of the Metallica and Nirvana he favored; there he found a like-minded ally in Caleb Goman, who plays bass and sings, while living in Manila. A subsequent move to Griffith brought encounters with Ryan "Macca" McDonald on drums and Brock Tengstrom on guitar and vocals. Those three launched Regular John, taking the name from a Queens of the Stone Age song, then headed to Sydney to pursue rock and roll ambitions. Goman likewise traveled to the city in search of compatible musicians for a new project, only to link up again with his old high-school friend.
Their debut Sydney show supported local band the Valentinos. The experience proved so discouraging—Goman had just switched to bass to complete the lineup and, being left-handed, performed on a borrowed right-handed instrument missing a string—that the group nearly dissolved at once. They honored one further commitment at the historic Annandale Hotel, where a small crowd still offered an overwhelmingly positive response that supplied the drive to persist. In 2007 they issued the Marrickville 2204 EP, tracked across five straight days and titled after the suburb they called home. They next recorded their debut album, The Peaceful Atom Is a Bomb, with Tim Powles, drummer for the Church, serving as producer. The sessions overlapped with Adamson's spinal surgery, so he worked throughout with steel pins in his back and a high dosage of painkillers in his system. Right after the final tracking day he entered the hospital to have the pins removed. The album appeared in 2009 and earned glowing praise in Australian Rolling Stone.
Their debut Sydney show supported local band the Valentinos. The experience proved so discouraging—Goman had just switched to bass to complete the lineup and, being left-handed, performed on a borrowed right-handed instrument missing a string—that the group nearly dissolved at once. They honored one further commitment at the historic Annandale Hotel, where a small crowd still offered an overwhelmingly positive response that supplied the drive to persist. In 2007 they issued the Marrickville 2204 EP, tracked across five straight days and titled after the suburb they called home. They next recorded their debut album, The Peaceful Atom Is a Bomb, with Tim Powles, drummer for the Church, serving as producer. The sessions overlapped with Adamson's spinal surgery, so he worked throughout with steel pins in his back and a high dosage of painkillers in his system. Right after the final tracking day he entered the hospital to have the pins removed. The album appeared in 2009 and earned glowing praise in Australian Rolling Stone.
Albums
Singles
