Statement from the band:
Feels like a huge privilege to release a loud righteous rock record about finding love and joy in the universe at a point where such things are in such universal short supply. This release is 28 months past deadline; our timing has always sucked. But honestly we’ve had little choice; How to be Hopeful is a pure product of chaos magic. It compelled us to be made, to harness returning ripples of stones long since thrown. It felt way too significant, too personal, too full of moments worth savouring and patterns playing out, to rush. Also, we are old and have real jobs now.
It’s actually 2 matched parallel soundtracks, 1 per side, for a 12 month period where the worst, then the weirdest, then the best possible things happened. Same series of events, different ripples, chaos and consequence and everything connected This is our celebration record, our fell-in-love-and-stopped-
Thru one of many strings of strange coincidence (magic) we were able to utilise our absolute -DREAM TEAM- of present day humans; Dominique James recorded at JT Soars, Bob Cooper produced and Machine mastered. Of course, this is an Alcopop! record, cosigned by our Japanese label Shore&Woods. じゃあ、またね !
Release details to follow in time, but for now please meet “the sky and sea were part of me or I was part of them”; an introductory compilation comprising of 2 songs from the album proper, 3 exclusives produced by Evan Bernard, and assorted ancillary materiel / haunted piano.
Those two album songs are “What The Alexei” which is both our first actual love song and a potentially libelous homage to the best sad single indieboy song that raised us, and “Orc Damage”, a grim recounting of corporate greed, collateral damage and the collapsing end of an era.
Bedazzled, not blunted.
Alexei/ Junior / Kelly / Lewes 2024
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Johnny Foreigner are a 4 piece indie rock band from the UK’s second city. Between 2007 – 2016 they released 5 albums and 7 Eps, starting with DrownedinSound’s inaugural Pluto Prize winner, culminating with a final album deep dive on Pitchfork. They toured on 4 continents, received a simultaneous 3/10 and 9/10 for the same record in NME, played every festival except Glastonbury, became just as notorious for their merch line as their DIY ethos…..and proved their many critics wrong by consistently failing to make a career out of it.
They always said they’d reform if they had the songs for it, but they didn’t ever actually expect that to happen. They are also obsessively aware how many reunion records miss the mark, and long lost objectivity on this one. As such they eagerly await yr criticism and comment, cushioned by the knowledge they fully exorcised their own ghosts, on their own terms. Thank you for yr time.
Johnny Foreigner Live Dates:
6/12 Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach
6/18 Shimokitazawa – ERA
6/19 Osaka – CONPASS
6/20 Nagoya – STIFF SLACK
6/21 Mishima – ROHI
6/22 Utsunomiya – HELLO DOLLY
6/23 Shinjuku – NINE SPICES
6/24 Shindaita – FEVER
9/20 London – Bush Hall
9/21 Birmingham – Hare and Hounds
