Johnny Sandstone and the Mill City Tailracers
Johnny Sandstone and the Mill City Tailracers were formed in 2009. Our music doesn’t fit perfectly into any specific genre, but is closest to rockabilly, with fast, driving rhythms. Our songs feature loud bass and a focus on the piano, often similar to boogie woogie. I love fast rockabilly with driving rhythms and wanted to write music in this style. My classical background comes in the harmonies and transitions in some songs - I felt compelled to do more than just simple rockabilly songs - but the classical influence doesn’t take away from the rockin’ element. It’s electronic music, but only because I doesn’t have a band. The vocals aren’t great because I’m not a singer, but the musicality, instrumentation, and rhythm is unique.
The name Johnny Sandstone and the Mill City Tailracers is from our biggest hobby, urban exploration, and a bit of local history. Here in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), soft sandstone bedrock is the reason we have many tunnels to explore. Some of those tunnels are called tailraces. Next to the waterfall downtown, the water flowed in tunnels called headraces, powered the mills that Minneapolis is famous for, and flowed out through lower tunnels called tailraces. Tailracers, cause it sounds cool.
More information & music samples: Courtesy of Johnny Sandstone, 2010 |
