John Brown's Body return to the stage and start an exciting new chapter

Photo courtesy of John Brown’s Body. Photo credit: LiLAC MiLK.

Daily Reggae spoke with Kevin Kinsella and Tommy Benedetti from John Brown’s Body about the band’s exciting reunion, its evolution over the years, and playing new gigs in 2024.

Hey Kevin and Tommy - We are super excited to hear the news of John Brown’s Body coming back together. How does it feel and what led to the reunion? 

Tommy: Greetings. Well it certainly does feel great of course. Playing music with this crew is very natural at this point and a real joy. A lot of us have not stopped playing music together, even while JBB was dormant. We did a big festival in NY in 2022 with Elliot singing, but he needed to step out of live performing , so with all of the other players ready to go, it made perfect sense for Kevin to step back in. Kevin is the architect of JBB, so we did a couple shows at the end of 2023, playing music from the first 5 classic era records. The tunes felt and sounded so good. The response was excellent. So we thought it would be cool to take it back to the stage and give fans a chance to hear these songs and experience the JBB sound live again.

Kevin: I’m feeling extremely grateful and excited for this next chapter in the history of John Brown’s Body . We had played some shows under the billing KK OG JBB and it was feeling so right and nice that we decided to to forward under the original name - with Elliot’s blessing.

It’s rad that the original band is coming together with some new energy like Van Gordon Martin on guitar. How has the band’s sound and mentality evolved over the years?

Tommy: I think the cool thing about this lineup in 2024 moving forward, is that it has players that span the entire 25 plus year history of the band. Kevin, Lee Hamilton (original saxophonist) and myself founded the band back in ‘95. I personally have played every show over the entirety of the bands existence. TJ Schaper (trombone) is from the more recent “Fireflies “ period. Jon “JP” Petronzio has been with us since “Kings and Queens “. Nate Edgar on bass was with us from 2006-2015, and him getting involved is a major part of this coming back to life. Also you mentioned Van, who I play with ALOT in Boston. We’re in a few bands together..Dub Apocalypse, Organically Good Trio, we’ve done a bunch of work with G Love, so he’s been a member of the extended family for a while.

As far as the sound, its always evolving. Kev left in 2006. When Elliot took over, the sound definitely evolved into what we called “future roots”. We are very lucky to have two supremely talented songwriters, each with their own identity. But its all the JBB sound in the end. Our mentality is the same as it’s always been, music first. We’re gonna be strategic, focused, and we’re gonna have fun.

Kevin: Well the sound evolved significantly between when I was writing a bulk of the material ( the first 4 records ) to when Elliot led the band and was the primary writer. The mentality was always the same - to create meaningful , quality music to endure and to elevate.

What can fans expect this year when it comes to new John Brown’s Body music, and how long has the been been writing new music since coming back together? Any new approaches to laying down tracks?

Tommy: This is all a pretty recent development. So we’ve assembled our team, including Alex Beram, who is managing the band, and we’re back with Cassie Siegel at Mint Talent Group, so we had some things to get back up and running.  We have put together the music for the shows, which will be tunes off the first 5 records. We will certainly be switching songs in and out and hitting some deep cuts. We haven’t started writing anything new as JBB yet, but its certainly something that we hope to do.

Kevin: Hoping to write, record and release a new record in 2025.

Fans are going to be so pumped to see the band back on stages nationwide. Can we expect any national tours on the horizon?

Tommy: Right now, we’re just concentrating on playing maybe a dozen or so shows in 2024. Just to get out there, and reintroduce the band back to the live scene. Beyond that, we’re not gonna make any grand proclamations, but I think we’ll be open to follow the music where it takes us beyond 2024.

Kevin: Looking to do select shows in markets where the demand is high and take it from there.