Conversations with John Treanor

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Treanor.

Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a Los Angeles-based musician and songwriter. Former Bands: The Sawdust Caesars, Satellyte, Spiral Arms, The Boxing Lesson, Violet Hex

Current Band: Tombstones In Their Eyes.

After hanging around the music scene for many years (music was always a big pull for me) and succumbing to the drugs/alcohol trap, I finally cleaned up in 1992 (after some super fun and exciting times, followed by the hellish final few years of my using drugs). After cleaning up, I was finally able to start writing my own music and playing in my own bands (in approx. 1993). This continued for many years and many fun bands, rehearsals, shows, recordings until I finally decided to take a break sometime in the late 2000’s. After some years off, a chance meeting with a very old friend from before high school, James Cooper, turned into a new musical project, now called Tombstones In Their Eyes. James lives in NYC, but when we reconnected, we became fast friends again. James and I began collaborating on songs via Dropbox and Garageband, and over time he helped mold me into an actual songwriter. Compared to anything I had written over the past 20 years, I was finally writing what I knew were good songs. I gathered some local friends, Sam Sherwood and Josh Drew, to help record our first record, and Tombstones In Their Eyes was off to the races. It’s now been about 8 or 9 years and we have recently released our best record yet, Looking For A Light (on the Kitten Robot Records / Somewherecold Records labels). The band has changed over the years, of course, but the current lineup is Stephen Striegel (drums/percussion), Paul Boutin (guitar), Phil Cobb (guitar), Nic Nifoussi (bass), Courtney Davies (backing vocals) and myself (vocals, guitar, etc.). Our producer, Paul Roessler (very well known in LA music circles), also plays and sings on the records and is crucial to our recording process. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be living out my dream of being a songwriter, a dream that I thought was dead at one point, and that the band and music is starting to get noticed and heard out in the world at large. Having your art reach (and touch) other people is the best feeling.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest obstacle was myself. I was very attracted to not only the music, from an early age through my punk rock youth, but also to what I saw as the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle. This eventually became simply drug addiction, and that addiction prevented me from doing what I wanted to do most, write and play music. The peak of my struggles were in my late mid to late 20’s, when I was a walking rock and roll casualty, strung out on drugs and living a horror show of life on a daily basis. I was one of those unfortunate (or fortunate) souls that had to give up all substances in order to fully live again. Since then, there have certainly been ups and downs, but nothing that I haven’t been able to handle. I am extremely grateful to have been given a second chance at life and to have been able to make it through my 20’s. I am also grateful to have lived that other life and to experience the things I did, both good and bad. There were some great times and experiences, and others were horrifying, soul-crushing and demoralizing. It’s a bit like having lived two lives that were completely different.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I write songs. I am not a great musician or guitar player by any stretch of the imagination but have developed a knack for writing melodies, my singing has gotten much better and I am prolific. I specialize in a sort of musical collage that has elements of psychedelia, punk rock, shoegaze and just plain rock and roll.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the creativity that exists in our city. As a musician, it’s a great place to live. Plenty of rehearsal spaces, live venues, recording studios, music stores and other resources. What I like least about our city is the traffic, haha. And I also don’t like the “plastic” image that our city has among those who don’t know it, who don’t know the real character of this huge melting pot of humanity.

Contact Info:

• Email: john@tombstonesintheireyes.com
• Website: https://www.tombstonesintheireyes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TombstonesInTheirEyes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tombsinthreyes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzU9R4E3wcXBkfK__2Z6mGw
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tombstonesintheireyes

Image Credits:
Photos by Rachel Roessler, Karin Johansson, John Treanor, Paul Roessler, Deb Frazin, Julie Albright