On Garage Glamour, The Claudettes bring together many of the influences that have shaped the band over the years, from soul and classic R&B to garage rock, cabaret, and vivid storytelling. The album also marks the album debut of vocalist Rachel Williams, whose powerful and theatrical presence adds a new dimension to the group’s sound while feeling completely at home within it.
Recorded across multiple sessions in different studios over nearly two years, Garage Glamour captures a band confident in its sound and comfortable following wherever a song leads. The album balances heartfelt soul songs, darkly humorous character studies, danceable grooves, and cinematic moments, all connected by songwriter and pianist Johnny Iguana’s distinctive musical voice.
In addition to leading The Claudettes, Iguana has reached a wider audience in recent years as co-composer of the score for the acclaimed television series The Bear. In a Zoom interview, Iguana discusses the new album, the band’s evolution, and his creative approach to songwriting and collaboration.
The music of The Claudettes, especially on this album, brings many different styles together. Did you have an overall vision going into making it?
Johnny Iguana: I had classical piano lessons. And then, like all 12-year-old boys where I was living, I was into pop and classic rock, and then I got into punk and New Wave and post-punk. And then my uncle sent me all this blues and R&B and jazz. I think everything I just said is sort of part of The Claudettes. I should “pick a lane.” But I set out to make The Claudettes a piano-and-drums instrumental bluesy duo originally, years ago, and the walls came crashing down. I love Meat Puppets also, so what am I going to do?
And we became a vocal group over time. Most recently, we’ve been with Rachel Williams for three years, and I just kind of tried to write for what I could hear in my head she would be great at. That’s kind of how you do it. You look around at who’s in your band and write the best you can for them. So I discovered what I thought she was really good at. She’s very theatrical. She comes from a theater background, but she’s primarily a singer and vocal teacher.
What came out was a little more theatrical than we’ve done in the past—”That Could Be Arranged” and “Mr. Pecker’s Apoplexy” and some of these songs. But there are really, really, really sincere, heartfelt, soulful songs in there too.
We recorded the songs over several sessions across a couple of years in different studios. When we get three songs really hot, we’ll just go and record them before we go out and play them 200 times and they’re old hat. We record them while we’re still discovering them.
I think that’s kind of an age-old argument in one’s own head. Do you fine-tune it by playing it on the road for six months and making discoveries along the way, and then record it when it’s perfect? Or do you hit record while you’re very excited about a young idea?
Given that process, are there any particular ways that you feel the music on this album evolved during the making of it?
Johnny Iguana: Well, we recorded probably two albums’ worth of stuff, and then I simply picked the songs that made a playlist that pleased me, one that I felt had an emotional effect on me. There might be a song I love, but I just can’t find a place for it. I try it first, I try it in the middle, I try it at the end, and I still can’t find a place for it.
So I guess the group naturally evolved across those two years because we became more of a fully fledged unit over time. But yeah, I don’t know if I evolve. I just keep having ideas, writing them down in a journal, and sitting down at the piano a lot.
I guess it’s a snapshot of whatever it was—a 19-month period in the band’s life of writing, practicing, arguing, recording, touring, and then recording in the studio.
For this particular album, we recorded at three different studios over the course of almost two years.
As there was more material than you ended up using, are you the type of artist who scraps things that don’t make the album, or do you revisit them for future projects?
Johnny Iguana: I think I start out thinking, “Oh, this song is so good. It’s not going to be on this album, so it’ll surely be on the next one.” And I end up proving myself wrong because, fast forward 11 months, and I’ve got 12 new songs I’m very excited about. And the other one’s like, “That old thing.” It’s like looking through the closet and deciding, “I’m not wearing that.”
Possibly we might put them out as post-album tracks, almost like bonus tracks, non-album tracks, whatever you might call them. But who knows? It’s possible that the next time we look at 16 songs and want to whittle them down to 11, one of them will make the cut.
As it is, I was just sending an email to the band last night about what I’d like to work on next, and there’s already eight songs I want to work on first, plus three waiting in the wings. And that doesn’t include anything that we’ve already recorded.
I mean, to me, that’s the thing I think I’m best at and the thing I’m most excited about: new songs. I don’t know how people get by without a new song idea to keep them humming and whistling as they walk down the street.
Out of everything I do—touring, recording, playing with other people—the thing I like most is having a fresh new song idea in my head, hearing the way it could go, and then hearing it come alive in the studio. That whole process is my very favorite thing.
What’s your approach to writing for the band? How much input do the other members have?
Johnny Iguana: I send Rachel a demo that usually has fake drums I’ve tapped out on a keyboard in real time, some kind of bass line and chords, and then something that should never reach other human ears: me singing in falsetto so it’s in her range. And I do not have a Marvin Gaye falsetto. I have more of a Jim Henson Muppet falsetto at best. But it’s a pretty accurate demo of the song idea.
Then she’ll come over and maybe suggest a few changes to a phrase or melody that would feel better to sing. Sometimes she’ll have an idea for a particular word or line. On “Winter Came While You Were Gone,” for example, I wasn’t really happy with the song at first. I felt the vocal melodies were too riffy. They sounded more like something you’d play on a keyboard than something that would naturally pour out of someone’s heart through their voice.
A lot of times I’ll come up with chord changes and then find melodies on the keyboard. Sometimes those translate well into vocal melodies, and sometimes they feel a little clunky. They fit, but they don’t necessarily feel like something a person would want to sing.
Once Rachel and I have a demo we’re happy with, I’ll replace my vocal with hers and send it to the rest of the band. Sometimes I won’t include any bass or guitar ideas at all. I’ll leave it as a blank slate. But if I have a strong idea, I’ll ask, “What do you think about this for your part?” The same goes for drums. I’ll usually send a no-drums version so I don’t influence anyone too much, but if there’s a specific groove I’m hearing, I’ll include that as well.
Then we get into the rehearsal space, and by the time the song is finished it may have changed by 50 percent. But it’s a good starting point.
More recently, Rachel has been sending me voice memos with lyric ideas or chorus lines. We already have two new songs we’re planning to work on together as co-writes, which I’m really excited about. I’m not territorial. I just happen to be nonstop with song ideas.
I do think of The Claudettes primarily as an outlet for my songwriting. I play piano with a lot of other people, but this is my songwriting band. That’s how I think of it. But that doesn’t mean “keep out.” I welcome collaboration. Rachel and I have started working together more directly, and I think that’s going to be great for the next record.
You’ve been involved with many different projects over the years. Are there things from those experiences that you bring into The Claudettes? What does this band allow you to do creatively that your other work doesn’t?
Johnny Iguana: Well, our first album was just piano-and-drums instrumentals. Then our second album was half instrumentals and half songs with some vocalizing from Yana Atim, who we were working with at the time.
Over time, we’ve become less and less bluesy. Even on the albums with Berit Ulseth, who sang with us for six or seven years, there were blues elements in the songs and blues scales in the music, but we were already moving away from that. And now this new album is probably the furthest we’ve gone.
I used to pitch us to blues festivals. But blues festivals, more and more, have to go outside of blues to draw enough attendees. When we played the Ottawa Bluesfest this year, we played opposite Hozier. The last time I played the Ottawa Bluesfest, the headliner was Journey.
And House of Blues venues started out as blues venues, but now there’s 0.0 blues in those rooms, except maybe in the restaurant sometimes.
So we started off with a bluesy idea, and at our shows we still play some instrumentals where I solo a lot and improvise a lot. We’re moving away from that somewhat, though, based on the particular people in the band and where I think our strengths and interests are. Over the course of a long show, we might still stretch out. And within a lot of the songs there are places where there’s improvising, solos, or sections that are a little more freeform.
More and more, though, I call us “Garage Cabaret.” I had to come up with a genre designation, and I thought that captured it. On one side you’ve got blues, R&B, and soul, something you might hear in a nightclub that’s a little more uptown. Then there’s the garage element, the punky garage-rock side of things. Put them together and it’s glitz and grit.
So I did initially have a fair amount of blues in mind. Even last year we played a Big Mama Thornton song, a Jackie Wilson song, and some really bluesy instrumentals. The Wanda Jackson cover on the album that we play live has some bluesy elements too. But if I’m looking at the inspirations behind the songs on this album, there’s nary a blues artist in there, really.
It’s just becoming what it is. I still think we sound like The Claudettes. It’s got me playing piano and writing, these particular musicians, a new drummer, and Rachel singing.
Even across all the styles on the album, I think we sound like one band. We don’t switch things up that much. I’ve been in other bands where I played synthesizers and all different kinds of sounds. But when we started The Claudettes, one thing I determined was that I was going to find all the variety in the wide world of harmony and keep the sounds consistent.
The Ramones and AC/DC didn’t constantly change their instruments and sounds. For us, it was going to be piano, drums, Zach on bass and Bass VI, which is kind of like a baritone guitar. There are little bits of Mellotron and organ on the album here and there as accents, a little window dressing.
But across all the different styles, I think we’ve developed a sound that’s identifiable. We’ve arrived at a sound that’s ours.
Were there any other collaborators who played an important role in making the album?
Johnny Iguana: I co-composed the music for the show The Bear, which became a big hit after we started writing for it. My partner on that is JQ (Jeffrey Qaiyum). We used to have a band together, and whenever we can find the time, we still work on new music. We’re both busy, but when we can get together, we do.
I asked him to produce a couple of songs because they felt very dancey in their heartbeat, even though they’re played by real instruments and real people in a room. I thought he could come to the sessions, comment on drum parts and bass drum patterns, and maybe layer in some things because he’s really good with beats, hip-hop, electronic music, and production. I actually asked him to produce three songs, although one of those ended up not making the album.
So he produced a couple of songs.
Also, my uncle has had a parallel music career, although obviously his started long before mine. He’s been an A&R guy for years. He’s a great guitar player and has produced tons of records. He’s worked with Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Aerosmith, and many others. The Cars were one of the first major projects he worked on when he was in his early twenties.
We had never really worked together beyond mastering. We mastered an early Claudettes record together in New York City, but I sent him these recordings and he said, “I thought these were demos,” because he felt things weren’t really popping out. He had many mix suggestions. He had a whole notebook.
We were on a Zoom call, and he opened to page two. Before he started reading it, I said, “Hey, why don’t you come out here and just mix this with me?” He took a couple of seconds and said, “All right, I will.”
So he came out for a full week. We rented my favorite studio here, did new overdubs, added extra vocals and percussion, and really brought the songs back down to the roots and built them up again. The results, I think, are very, very good.
Basically, his philosophy was that when the vocal drops out and there’s an instrumental section, whatever the lead instrument is needs to come all the way up and be just as much in the foreground as the vocal was. In other places, he’d say, “This thing wants to be the star, but it just rides along flat.”
He said there’s a scientific principle that people who create a track think other people can hear something that they can’t. You think something is trumpeted in the mix or in the production, but it isn’t. You need to double-trumpet it to really make it amplify and sing, whatever that part may be.
So he worked with me on all of it, and it was a really fun family project. I think everyone in the band kind of fell in love with him and his personality. He’s very strong-minded, but also really smart and lovable, and he really knows what he’s doing. Everyone was impressed and just enjoyed the experience.
I’m curious about your work on The Bear. Has composing music for a visual medium had any impact on your other work?
Johnny Iguana: I’d say it was the reverse. It’s something I’ve always felt I would be really good at. I’m just sort of in locomotion all the time. I haven’t networked or schmoozed or really tried to get into that world. This kind of fell into my lap because The Bear was made here in Chicago, and JQ knew one of the producers. That producer asked JQ to submit a little music for part of it, and as the request expanded, JQ asked me to get involved.
He’s a little bit more of a beats, production, and sonics guy. He’ll use a MIDI keyboard, but he’s really a beats guy—beats, rapping, and vocalizing. I’m much more of a chords, notes, and harmony guy, so we make a good team. That’s always how we worked in our band, Them vs. Them. We’d get together, come up with a whole song idea, and make a complete demo in one sitting.
Every single time, we never spread it out over two meetings. So we were naturally positioned to be good at this because usually they want something great and they want it yesterday. They want it fast. It’s, “Here’s the scene. We need the music.”
But The Claudettes has always had a cinematic side. We worked with Ted Hutt on High Times in the Dark, our 2020 album. Ted was a member of Flogging Molly, and he’s worked with artists like Dropkick Murphys, The Devil Makes Three, Violent Femmes, and many others. He’s from England, but he’s been living in Los Angeles for years.
When we worked with him, he introduced me even more to something I naturally lean toward, which is using the studio as an instrument and creating really cinematic productions. We’d set up a floor tom in a room with high ceilings, compress the room mics, and just experiment with different sounds.
There are a lot of spaghetti western moments in that record. There’s some really, really cinematic stuff. I love doing that.
So when this opportunity came along, it felt very natural. Even before we produce a song, when I’m writing music and lyrics, I tend to think visually. I think of scenes you can visualize when you hear the music.
JQ and I are now working on music for an iHeartRadio podcast, and I’m sure we’re going to do more of this. We’re really good at it. Together we have such a diverse range of music that we love and have played. On The Bear, they often used us for kitchen scenes.
There’s the dining room, but the real ultra-double-mega stress is what’s happening in the kitchen. So we used a lot of pizzicato strings, a lot of dissonance, and that sort of “Flight of the Bumblebee” movement.
It’s something I think we’re good at, and it’s something that comes out of my cinematic bent for making tracks anyway.
What are your plans for supporting the album? Will you be touring extensively?
Johnny Iguana: The Claudettes are going to be going from South Dakota to Boston and New York and back. Yeah, we’re playing The Bitter End. We’ve never played there before. The last couple of times we were in New York, we played the Iridium.
Our fall is actually going to be the busiest period. The summer is kind of scattered for various reasons. I wanted to make sure the shows followed the record being out. So we have some dates in the summer and more in the fall and winter, but we’ll be going.
It’s really hard right now to book internationally. I’m sure a lot of bands will tell you that, and I’m sure you probably know it too. To string things together in a way that isn’t a big financial loss is really difficult. We got a great invitation to play a venue in southwestern France where I’ve played before, and try as I might, I just couldn’t make it feasible.
Sometimes you get a really nice offer, but you only have a short period of time to see if you can turn it into a tour or mini-tour that’s financially workable. I don’t mind losing some money, but I can’t lose money all the time. As I say, in this business you’ve got to spend money to lose money.
For more info and tour dates, visit theclaudettes.com. Garage Glamour can be purchases at theclaudettes.bandcamp.com.
