{"id":5449,"date":"2012-10-05T08:53:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T14:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=5449"},"modified":"2012-10-05T08:53:20","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T14:53:20","slug":"johnny-sizzle-still-shaking-the-tree-after-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/10\/05\/johnny-sizzle-still-shaking-the-tree-after-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"JohNNy SiZZle :: Still shaking the tree after 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\nby Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA funny thing has happened on the way to the stage,\u201d says Winnipeg\u2019s JohNNy SiZZle as we chat in the Stylus<\/em> office (\u201cIt\u2019s not as glamorous as I imagined it,\u201d says SiZZle). \u201cThey could still see that I\u2019m very influenced by underground hardcore punk, but I think that underground hardcore punk has seeped so much into the mainstream culture, that it\u2019s not like ten or 20 years ago where I had to make a full explanation of myself, of what I\u2019m doing with an acoustic guitar. They can clearly get it, that \u2018Oh, acoustic guitar playing heavy hardcore punk. I get it.\u2019\u201d
\n
\nThis newfound understanding of SiZZle\u2019s \u201coutsider music,\u201d is certainly welcome, but SiZZle himself is still puzzled by it, as he prepares to release Home Sweet Home<\/em>, his first album in over eight years with the help of the No Label Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SiZZle has been an infamous figure in Winnipeg\u2019s underground music scene for over 20 years. Inspired by punk and hardcore music of the late 1980s, SiZZle, who performs his brand of acoustic punk solo, first attempted to put a band together in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized then and there after about three of them that I don\u2019t have the personality traits to keep a band together,\u201d SiZZle admits. Choosing instead to play aggressive, hardcore music on a nylon string classical guitar, SiZZle got his start performing open stages at the Blue Note Cafe on Main Street in Winnipeg in 1992. \u201cEven though I\u2019m acoustic, I still didn\u2019t want to be a folk singer. I still want to play punk and hardcore…I sometimes feel like a bluesman. I just don’t know how to play guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, SiZZle has spent time in New York and Vancouver, has battled addiction, lived on the streets, been diagnosed with schizophrenic psychosis and Asperger\u2019s syndrome. In the end, he\u2019s always found music to be a positive and therapeutic release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for plus 20 years now,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes I feel like I haven\u2019t gotten anywhere, really. Sometimes I feel like that people easily forget me just as much as I easily forget my own songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, SiZZle has written hundreds of songs over the years, many of which have (luckily) been captured on CD, as JohNNy will readily admit that he has forgotten many of his earlier works.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who follow my music, I guess they slowly realize that if they really like the song that I did some years ago, it\u2019s quite possible that if they ask for it again, four or five years later, that I\u2019ve completely forgotten. I\u2019m not being an asshole for not playing it. I\u2019ve completely forgotten about it, because I\u2019m not thinking about it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c12 years ago I was playing shows where I would play an hour and a half, two hours a night,\u201d explains SiZZle. \u201cI don\u2019t think I remember any of those songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time, SiZZle was living in Vancouver, playing shows at punk bars like the Cobalt and making a name for himself in the city\u2019s underground community. It was at that time that SiZZle began to suspect that he was not entirely well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always got a sense from close friends that something wasn\u2019t quite right,\u201d he admits. \u201cI was showing erratic signs in Vancouver, so I wasn\u2019t really enjoying myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

When his mother became ill, he decided to return to Winnipeg to spend more time with her. At the same time, he was diagnosed with \u201csevere mental illness\u201d and began treatment. However, it was at this point that SiZZle began losing interest in music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to have at least one gig a year,\u201d says SiZZle. \u201cIt\u2019d be very hard for me to get that one show a year. I don\u2019t know really why…\u201d<\/p>\n

After working a series of jobs, including janitor, hotel keeper, SiZZle saved up some money and bought an open ended ticket on the Greyhound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went on what I would like to call a search for America.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that search, he made an inspiring visit to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went late in the day, they were about to close in about 30 minutes,\u201d he explains. \u201cI went down this one hallway in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and at the end of this hallway was a quote from Jimi Hendrix. It said, like, right up on the wall it said something to the effect of \u2018The songs are in your head. They\u2019re only in your head. It\u2019s up to you to put them out. No one else will put them out for you. It\u2019s all on you.\u2019 At that point, it was like right, the museum was just closing at that point when I got out of the museum and I sat on the grass in the little park that they have outside of the Hall of Fame, I thought that I\u2019ve got to get together all the songs that I have written, or that I can remember, and put out a CD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few years, and now SiZZle is performing regularly again, and set to release his first collection of material in over eight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really strange,\u201d muses SiZZle. \u201cPutting this CD out. I think people still, some people still remember me, but at the same time there\u2019s a lot of who have never heard of me before, too. It will be odd. It\u2019ll be kind of like saying, \u2018Hi, how are you again? Hi, I\u2019ve never met you before!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At over 40 years of age and a veteran of the underground, JohNNy SiZZle is still a punk rocker at heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one song called \u2018Dale Hawerchuk Drunk in a Strip Bar,\u2019\u201d says SiZZle. \u201c[And another] song called \u2018Kick Cindy Klassen in the Face\u2019 \u2026 I\u2019m trying to make a classic Canadian punk song. Do I mean harm to Cindy Klassen? No, no I don\u2019t. I think she\u2019s fine just the way she is!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite a bit of a tree shaker still,\u201d he explains with a mischievous smile. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to shake peoples\u2019 apples out of their tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out JohNNy SiZZle\u2019s CD release party at the Rose N Bee Pub on Saturday October 6 to get your hands on a copy of <\/em>Home Sweet Home. SiZZle is also host of the all-night radio variety show, Winnipeg Arena\u2019s On Fire, on CKUW 95.9FM Mondays from Midnight until 6am.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie \u201cA funny thing has happened on the way to the stage,\u201d says Winnipeg\u2019s JohNNy SiZZle as we chat in the Stylus office (\u201cIt\u2019s not as glamorous as I imagined it,\u201d says SiZZle). \u201cThey could still see that I\u2019m very influenced by underground hardcore punk, but I think that underground hardcore punk has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[491,563,671,703],"class_list":["post-5449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-johnny-sizzle","tag-local","tag-no-label","tag-outsider-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}