Welcome on Metal Perspective, Johnny. Thanks so much for taking the time to grant this interview. 

Thank you for being interested enough to want to take the time to interview me. I appreciate the support.

May we go back to the beginning of your music adventure? How did everything start? Which were the first bands you participated in?

It started when my parents bought me my first guitar at the age of 12. That was one of the greatest memories of my youth. I think I actually fell in love with the guitar. I never wanted to put it down. It was like a drug for me. Needless to say, my grades dropped tremendously after I got the guitar. My very first band was called The Tasmanian Devils. Started with some friends of mine from school. I came from a very small town, so their wasn't many musicians to play with. It was pretty cool, but far from a professional band. My first professional band was a band in the Bay Area called Cheshire Cat. After about a year the keyboardist and I parted ways and formed Attitude which went on to have much more success in the scene than Cheshire Cat. After Attitude the only other band I was in was Velocity. I played bass guitar in that band for 6 months, then I quit. 

How did your parents react to all that?

My parents have always been very supportive of me. They even allowed me to quit school early to pursue my musical ambitions. Not a great choice, but my parents always gave me the freedom to make my own decisions in life even if they were the wrong ones. I guess they knew I'd learn from my mistakes.

It's been 13 years since your debut, yet only four albums (Version 1.2 was actually a re-mastered version of that debut) were released during that period of time. Why's that? 

Yeah, I can't believe it's already been that long. Wow!! Well, there's many reasons why I haven't released an album every year. One being that music isn't the only thing I do in my life. It's not easy to make albums when your life is so preoccupied with doing other things. I'd love to put an album out every year, but right now it's not possible. 

The last years you were lending your production and engineering skills to bands like Dirty Penny, Diamond Lane and Freakshow. How was it working with musicians of the calibre of Jeff LaBar (Cinderella) and Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot)? 

It was amazing. Not only were those two great musicians, they were great people. To me that's more important. Recording them was so easy because with musicians like that, you just have to sit back and let them do their thing. I'm pretty sure my 7 year old son could've engineered and mixed that album. That's how easy it was. I hope I have the opportunity to work with them again.

Your latest album is damn fine melodic hard rock, one of the few I really enjoyed the current year. I do believe that "Livin' Out Loud" is the most mature and confident work you've recorded so far. Are you content with the end result and the feedback it's getting?

I'm not only content with the final result, I'm 100% satisfied by the results. This is the best I've ever felt about one of my albums. Just to give you an idea of how much I love this album, I still have it in my cd player. I'm still listening to it everyday, and still enjoying it like it was the first time I heard it. I usually don't do that with album's I've worked on. Usually after an album's complete it would be months before I'd even want to listen to it. With this one though, I'm still getting a major kick out of it every time I hear it.

How many tracks were written before the final selection? Or to put it differently, how many were left off? 

There were two tracks left off of the album. "Nowhere Left To Go" which was given away to my mailing list before the album came out and "Naturally Beautiful" which only a handful of people have, so if I ever see it on a torrent sight I know who's ass I'm going to kick. HAHAHA!!

Producer, engineer, songwriter. Besides the fact you seem to have made huge progress in all these departments, I'd like to ask you just this: are you a perfectionist?

No, not really. When I record I try to capture a performance that "feels" right. It's all about feeling to me. So a vocalist can sing a part perfectly in tune, but if it doesn't have that "magic" or "feeling" then I'll have the vocalist do it again. There's been times even on my album where the vocal was slightly out of tune, but I kept the take because the performance was stunning. You can't recapture the magic in the studio. Magic comes and goes. So when it comes you need to capture it and keep it, even if it's not perfect. That's more important than having a drummer perfectly on beat, or a singer perfectly in tune. Not even the greatest singers can sing an entire song perfectly in tune. That's why it drives me nuts when I hear engineers using Autotune to tune the vocals perfectly. You just suck the life out of a performance when you do that. Instead of it sounding like a person with feelings, it ends up sounding like a fucking robot.

The whole album breathes positive energy and feelings. I guess the studio recordings must have been quite a fun experience. 

It was, but the main reason why the album came out like that was because of who I was making the album for. I was making it for the fans. Not for a record company, not for myself, but for the fans. It's no secret that I'm really grateful for my fans, and that I love my fans unconditionally. My fans inspired me to make the best album of my career. Most artists start to fade out after their 4th or 5th album. I feel like I'm just getting started. My fans deserved a great album that excites them. Entertains them. I truly believe I gave them what they deserved.

Tell us a few things about your guest musicians. With some of them the story goes a long way back, doesn't it?

Craig and I have been friends for many years. He's actually the one that introduced me to my wife. I've always admired his playing. I can always count on Craig to deliver stunning performances that don't take a long time to get. Danny Danzi and I have also been friends for close to 12 years now. We've always talked about doing something together, so one day I was on the phone with him and just asked if he'd lay down some solos for a couple of tracks. I sent him the files and he sent me back some killer solos. I met Christian on MySpace. We co-wrote some songs together, one of them happened to be "Nowhere Left To Go". I also asked him if he'd record some solos for the songs. So on the more mellower melodic type of stuff, Christian was my go-to guitar player. All three of them are guitar Gods in my eyes. Craig is the new Yngwie (although I don't allow him to do any of that turkey gobble guitar shit on my songs), Danny's the new Eddie Van Halen, and Christian is the new Neil Schon/Steve Lukather.

You've said elsewhere that your dream band would be consisted by Angus Young, Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee. I guess you're an AC/DC and Crue fan (no, I'm not going to ask about Bon Jovi!). What were your earlier influences? 

My earlier influences were KISS, AC/DC, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Queen, and the list goes on. Of course Bon Jovi, Ratt, Poison, White Lion had a major influence on me later on.

Being a rocker nowadays isn't exactly fashionable, although things seem to be taking a turn for the better, at least in Europe. How things are in the US? 

Europe has always been great to me. That's where I got my start, and even back in 1996 when no one from my own country gave a shit about me, the Europeans made me feel like I was on top of the world. I think things are good now in the U.S. as well, however I think when it comes to music there's a big difference between Americans and Europeans. Americans seem to use music as background noise. Europeans are more passionate about music. It's their life. I don't really see that much enthusiasm from Americans. Now, I'm not putting down my own people, I'm just making a point from my observation of our different cultures. I think Europeans are less interested in what's "in" and more interested in what's "good". Here in America, there's only interest in you if you're on MTV or being played on the radio or if you're on Rolling Stone Magazine. I'm still a firm believer that if you make great music, no matter where you're from, people will eventually get it.

What's your opinion regarding radio networks and Internet? Do they help good music reach the audience or they are the calamity many believe them to be? 

I think any outlet that has the ability to have thousands of people listen to your music is important. I think the only difference is, we don't "need" MTV or radio anymore in order to reach our fans, and the fans don't need radio or MTV to discover new artists. The internet and especially MySpace have given artists the ability to reach thousands if not millions of people. I wish I had MySpace back in '96. I'd probably be a huge star by now. HAHAHAHA!!

Are there any future plans for gigs?

Yes, of course. However, I can only play in markets that I'm selling well in as it would be hard to convince a promoter to pay me to perform if he or she isn't sure I can bring people into their venue. So my plans are to get a band together here in America as well as one in Europe. That way I can use my Euro band for shows in Europe and my American band for shows here. That way it cuts down on travel expenses, which happens to be one of the biggest expenses in touring.

Dear Johnny, it was a pleasure having you here. I wish you all the continued success possible.

And thank you for all your support. You can never have too many friends in this business and I'm honored to be able to call you my friend. Cheers!