I am ashamed to admit that I was rather late to the Jonny Fritz train and had only come across him via friends from Austin’s Instagram stories of him dancing on stage at White Horse during SXSW. Which is surprising, as there is nothing I love more than the music of off-kilter, glittery cowboy boot wearing, dad dancing, bearded men. Very much my kind of country. So, when I found out that he would be playing in Austin during my trip in May, I knew I had to be there to witness the performer and two-step my heart out to his charming ditties. I was also fortunate to talk with him after his set and was delighted that he was as equally enthusiastic to carve out some time and chat with us all things about his current project, Debbie Downers.
“I think a better question is, why not?” a fair rebuttal from everyone’s favourite weird dad of country on creating four versions of his album, Debbie Downers. “I think the main reason to why to want to do it is because there’s just so many ways you can hear how a song could be.” Last year saw Debbie Downers in its natural dad country state, with touches of twang, bluegrass, seventies Paul Simon grooves and biting whimsy. In April we were treated to the second instalment, Woodwinds, which is heavy on the clarinet and flute and makes you wish you were wearing a powdered white wig. “I was like, I just want it to sound like teatime on the Titanic,” a perfect description. “So that was the main inspiration, like let’s make this as fancy as possible.”
“Every time I make a record, there’s a little melancholy that comes with it because it’s like, is this it? Is this the only way this record can be heard? What about the mariachi version? What about the Tejano version? What about the gospel version? Aren’t there other ways we could perform this?” This creative logic had me in full agreement, and a thirst for other artists to follow suit, because, yes, what about the mariachi version?
There’s also a more “business” thinking behind this decision of releasing four versions of Debbie Downers, not just creative fulfilment. “The problem is you put out a record and unless you have a huge label and ad-campaign behind you, nobody is gonna hear it or they’re gonna hear it for about two weeks and then they’re gonna forget about it,” he explains. “So, my idea was to just have a bunch of versions of it and just keep putting it out and then say, you know, you can’t hide from it, it’s just everywhere, and so the used car salesman in me was just like, ‘here it is again! Step right up! You can’t hide from this record!”
If those are the why’s, what is the why not? “The reason why not to do it is because it is so expensive and it’s just really difficult to make any money off of it,” he laughs. “I can understand why not, it’s too expensive, but the appeal of it for me, it’s just a no brainer.” You can imagine pitching this to a record label would have been welcomed by blank stares and rolling tumbleweed, but Jonny very much took matters into his own hands. “Well, I just paid for everything myself. I’m kinda tired of having record labels tell me what would make sense and what wouldn’t make sense, and so I just thought, ‘you know, I know what I want, I’m just going to do it and fucking let’s go.’”
Fritz was also very fortunate to actually have the support from his label, the genre trailblazing Gar Hole Records. “There’s nobody cooler than Gar Hole Records, they are the fucking best. They were the only people that were really down to take it on, because it’s a huge project, I mean putting out that many records is just a tremendous amount of work, it really is, and they were down to do it,” he praises. “God bless ‘em, you know.”
The musical styling of Jonny Fritz is difficult to describe, even for the man himself. So, it’s rather helpful that he’s come up with his own that self-explanatory subgenre: dad country. “I made this record called ‘Down on the Bikini Line’ in 2011, and I got all this attention for it, it was really great, but all the publications and stuff were like, ‘oh this is outlaw country.’ I was like, “oh, I am not an outlaw, I’m more like somebody’s weird dad than an outlaw.”
It could be argued that in the truest definition of outlaw country, Jonny fits the bill: independent artist, anti-establishment, not Nashville, outspoken. However, I can’t really picture the likes of Waylon and Johnny Cash dad dancing on stage and singing songs about tea or reminding themselves to slow down. Therefore, it is understandable why Fritz is keen to set his sound and personality apart from any preconceptions of an outlaw country artist. “It’s more like dad country, it’s not outlaw country, because I’m a marathon runner, I like to drink tea and go to bed early, I don’t drink and I’m just not an outlaw, that’s just not my thing.”
Seeing Fritz perform at Sagebrush in Austin, Texas, was a mesmerising experience. From two-stepping to the music, his own wonderful dance moves, and the beauty of his pitch perfect voice (or at least someone that night told me this), the atmosphere was joyfully electric, and we all sparkled under the gold of his glittering cowboy boots. Though not traditional two-step music, Austin’s scene loves to get creative and so an evening with Fritz was perfect for the dancers and led to some of my most memorable dances in ‘Bikers’ and ‘Teaman.’
“I love seeing people dancing, I love seeing people strut their stuff, looking good. You know everybody is all dressed up to look good and it’s just nice, it’s nice.” I, myself, was distracted by Jonny’s moves and boots while dancing, and with every turn or sweetheart I tried to slow things down to get a peek at the performance, so it was fun to hear that this distraction was mutual. “I’m up there and trying to focus on my songs and then see everybody, ‘oh they look good’ or ‘they’re sweet’ or ‘I wonder if that guy is there to see her, oh no, she’s here with that guy.’ I’ll sometimes get a little distracted, so I kinda have to not focus on the people on land, but I love it.”
The weird and wonderful world of Jonny Fritz extends onto his merch table, and it is perhaps the greatest merch table I have ever seen. There were the usual suspects in the t-shirts, koozies, vinyl and CD’s, but then there were shiny stickers with Fritz’s bare bottom posing as an unwrapped Ferrero Rocher in a heart-shaped box, a deck of cards with him in his birthday suit (certain bits covered), his own tea blend and whoopee cushions, with a tooled leather price menu he had made himself. I felt like a kid at the pick and mix with a price limit set by my Mum.
“I don’t even care if people buy it honestly, I’m so happy to have it,” laughs Jonny. “It’s just so fun, I love it so much.” There’s a beauty in this love for fun, and even if he says he doesn’t mind if it sells or not, you can tell a lot of thought and care has gone into it, and that’s always something fans will appreciate. I, for one, can’t wait for when I get to present the playing cards at my family’s Christmas card game. It’s a nice little touch.
Jonny Fritz is a man of many hats. Wickedly sharp lyricist, creative music man, merchandise designer, style icon, fantastically funny content creator, and seller of houses. Touring and living on the road for fifteen years, he got to a point where his life needed more balance, and after discovering that he had a knack, and found joy, in helping friends buy their houses, he decided to pursue real estate.
“I’ve been doing that for seven or eight years now straight and then playing music when I really want to and it’s been great, it’s a really nice blend,” he says. “It’s really great to take the pressure off music and not have to raise a family with a musician’s income, so it’s been great. I love what I do.” This release of pressure and main source of income not only means that Jonny has more creative freedom, but it also funded the Debbie Downers quartet. “It cost me a fortune to do this, but I was just like, ‘well this is what I wanna do, I just have to pay for it,’ and it was really expensive and it was really fulfilling and felt really great to do.”
When we met at the merch table at Sagebrush, Jonny was excited to show me his PG Tips tattoo. As impressive as I found this, I couldn’t help but mention when we chatted that there are better teabags on the market… “Spoken like a true Brit, there’s always something better isn’t there? Elitist!” Jonny teases. “I’m sorry Rosie, I am not a snob, I’m the farthest thing from a snob, I’m a people’s tea.” (I would like to clarify, by better I meant stronger, and my preferred tea is a supermarket own brand.)
But the story behind the tattoo and reverence for PG Tips is as sweet as the one sugar I have in my cup of tea. Exhausted and jet lagged from a worldwide tour, Jonny and the band’s spirits were rescued on a train across England in the most Keep Calm and Carry On way. “It was this steaming teacart with the PG Tips cups and the PG Tips everything else, and I was like ‘oh shit, give me that,’ and he was like ‘it’s £1,’ and I was like ‘man, just keep them coming,’” I can hear him reliving the moment. “I bet I had six cups of tea, and it really lifted my spirits. I was like, ‘this is all I need, some PG Tips and I can make it to the show.”
We might differ on our tea brand preferences, but we were in full agreement in our disgust and disappointment in the lack of kettles in American households (“oh sure, I travel with my own”). Not to mention the horror of being offered a cup of tea where the water was heated, hold your disdain, in the microwave. “No that’s the worst, it’s upsetting,” agrees Jonny. “I started writing a song about that actually, about people that heat water in the microwave and how upsetting it is. It’s like, ‘no, no, no, you can’t do that. If you don’t understand that, then I can’t explain it to you.” Please release this song Mr Fritz, for the sake of UK-US relations.
So far, there are no tour dates with Jonny for us just yet, and we’ll have to be patient in sharing the delight of watching him work his magic. But there is still a lot to look forward to, after all we’re only two albums in of the Debbie Downers quartet. He kept pretty schtum about the genres of the next two, which I was glad about, the element of surprise is rather sacred in this day and age. All I know is wherever the direction he’ll take us, it’ll be somewhere unexpected and undeniably fantastic. For now, let’s enjoy the dad country and classical versions, and hope to see his glittery boots on our shores sometime soon.
Jonny Fritz’s Debbie Downers and Debbie Downers (Woodwinds) is available to be enjoyed on streaming platforms, CD, vinyl and cassette.
