Biography

Johnny Society was formed in 1996 by multi-instrumentalist Kenny Siegal and Brian Geltner. They had released their first album on Geffen under the name Hunk early 1996 after the Hunk debut they disbanded & reformed as Johnny Society. They released a self-titled album in 1996, but disbanded less than a year after their album came out.

Meanwhile, they had already begun experimenting and writing songs on the side with Indian-trained musician Chris Rael

Chris Rael

Chris Rael is an eclectic American musician, singer, composer, and songwriter.Rael is the founder and leader of Indo-pop band Church of Betty, based in New York City. He has composed, recorded, and produced more than 25 CDs, collaborating with artists from around the world...

 in a project they called The Hand, which released an album (Mule Me) before re-forming Johnny Society. Their debut album, It Don't Matter, was recorded and released in 1997, after which Rael left the band to give his full time to the reconvened Church of Betty. Wood arrived the following year with additional contributions from Rael, The Hand live keyboardist Jan Kotik

Jan Kotík

Jan Jakub Kotík was a Czech artist and rock drummer.- Life :Jan Jakub was the son of composer Petr Kotík and curator of contemporary art Charlotta Kotík, who emigrated to the USA in 1970. Jan was a musician and visual artist...

, Bryce Goggin

Bryce Goggin

Bryce Goggin is a record producer and sound engineer. He began his career in the early 1990s working at Baby Monster Studios. He first received acclaim for mixing the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement...

, and labelmate Chris Whitley

Chris Whitley

Christopher Becker Whitley was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Whitley changed his sound frequently, and achieved modest mainstream success while maintaining a small but devoted following...

. The album was named to the "Top Ten List of Independent Records of 1998" by The New York Times at year's end. Johnny Society became a trio in 1999 when Gwen Snyder (who also records under the moniker Blueberry) joined in time to record the band's third album, Clairvoyance, released at the beginning of 2000. Clairvoyance was named "Album of the Year" at the 2002 Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

 by a panel of judges that included Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs

Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...

, Me'Shell NdegéOcello

Me'shell Ndegeocello

Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy...

, Mitchell Froom

Mitchell Froom

-Career:Froom began his career as a keyboard player in Sonoma County, California. The band Crossfire featured two keyboards players; Mitchell on one side of the stage and brother David on the other with Gary Pihl on guitar...

, Don Byron

Don Byron

Don Byron is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet, but has also used bass clarinet and saxophones....

, Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...

, Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. She is noted for her descriptive songwriting talent, which she has used to immerse the listener of her songs into a...

, and George Duke

George Duke

George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

. Life Behind the 21st Century Wall (2003) and Coming to Get You (2005) followed.

Discography

• Hunk (1996, Geffen)
• It Don't Matter (1997, Messenger)
• Wood (1998, Messenger)
• Clairvoyance (2000, Messenger)
• Life Behind the 21st Century Wall (2003, Messenger)
• Coming to Get You (2005, Messenger)

External links

• http://www.myspace.com/hunk at MySpace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
  
  
• Johnny Society at MySpace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
  
  
• Johnny Society at Messenger Records
  Messenger Records
  Messenger Records is an independent record label. Based out of New York City, USA, the label was started by Brandon Kessler during his time in college in 1996...
  
  
• [ Johnny Society] at Allmusic
• Johnny Society at Brightcove
  Brightcove
  Brightcove is a Cambridge, MA based company that produces an Online Video Platform .- History :Brightcove was founded in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire, who now serves as CEO. In March 2006, Brightcove acquired Seattle-based Metastories, makers of StoryMaker, a publishing tool for video, audio, images, and...