Johnny O'Neil has released "My Mona", the third single and video from his album, Brand New Day. We're premiering the new video, which can be viewed below.
Johnny had this to say about the making of the video, “As 'My Mona' is quite a sonic departure from other tracks on Brand New Day, we wanted to make a video that is quite a visual departure from our previous efforts. In particular, we wanted to capture the experience of all that is involved in preparing for a show. This time around, we filmed in multiple locations, including live footage from a performance at “The Fine Line” in Minneapolis, rehearsing at our studio, “Bearded Maggie Studio,” and our antics on the bus at “The Minnesota Music Café” in Saint Paul.”
The song itself, one of three tracks on the album co-written by Johnny and his blazing lead guitarist partner, John Funk, has a distinct R&B, honky-tonk, Rolling Stones vibe, and tells the story of a touring musician sleeping in a roach-infested motel who’s missing his companion back home, even though she “treats him so cruel.” It is also the only track on the album without a guitar solo! Instead, the tune features a blistering sax solo by Jason Peterson DeLaire, who makes a cameo appearance in the video, along with Brianna Tagg-Jorgensen on background vocals. And speaking of the bus, it’s a 1948 Greyhound (built by GMC), restored by its owner, Dave Vonwax (aka, “Kid Rock”), who plays the role of the bus driver.
O’Neil’s third solo effort, Brand New Day, covers broad musical territory, taking elements from the past and adding a decidedly modern twist, combining guitar-driven hard rock and R&B with hooky choruses that get stuck in your head for days. Recruiting the talents of John Funk on lead guitar, Benny Craig on bass, and Joachim Baecker on drums, as well as engineer/co-producer Brian Bart – O’Neil’s former bandmate in Dare Force – O’Neil and his full band spent months writing and rehearsing before hunkering down to record with Bart at Winterland Studios in Minneapolis, as well as the legendary Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minn., where Nirvana famously recorded In Utero.
Stream/purchase Brand New Day here.
Tracklisting:
“Brand New Day”
“Take Me Down”
“My Mona”
“It’s Too Hard To Say Goodbye”
“When Janie Moved Into Town”
“In Search Of”
“Comin’ Down Like A Mountain”
“Hands Up”
“Don’t Believe A Word”
“Tell Me Your Story”
"Take Me Down" video:
"Brand New Day" video:
O’Neil has been in practice as a Ph.D.-level clinical psychologist for over two decades, quite a feat considering he dropped out of high school at 16 to focus on his burgeoning music career. After more than a decade of achieving many of his musical dreams, including the ‘80s with Dare Force, O’Neil decided to go back to school at the age of 28 to get his GED. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, followed by a Master’s degree and eventually a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The Ohio State University.
Now a solopreneur in private practice as a forensic psychologist, O’Neil conducts Independent Psychological Evaluations (IPEs) of claimants involved in workers' comp and personal injury cases, and provides courtroom testimony as an expert witness – a fascinating occupation to be sure. In fact, he found himself interviewing dozens of Minneapolis police officers who filed disability claims due to PTSD in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Not surprisingly, for O’Neil, playing music is an invaluable form of therapy and expressing his emotions. “I don’t have a choice, I have to play music,” he says. “It’s how I’m wired and how I preserve my sanity. It’s therapy for me. I’ll be performing until my last gasp.”
O’Neil fell in love with music at the age of five, begging his parents to buy him a guitar after seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, which they finally did when he turned eight years old. The stars aligned when his future Dare Force bandmate, Brian Bart, moved in across the street when he was nine. “We had a tussle over something silly in the front yard, then my mom invited us in for a piece of cake; we’ve been thick as thieves ever since,” O’Neil says.
O’Neil and Bart immediately bonded over their mutual love of music (including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Winter, Steppenwolf, and Creedence Clearwater Revival), and quickly formed a band together. One of their first gigs was at Sunny Hollow Elementary School in 6th grade, where Bob Dylan’s younger brother, David Zimmerman, was their music teacher and introduced their band to an audience of 500-some fellow classmates.
Infusing his songwriting with his personal values of tolerance, compassion and empathy throughout his career, O’Neil believes that an important part of an artist’s job is to not only reflect what’s going on in the world, but also to comment on it and influence it. To this end, O’Neil’s driving rock tunes go beyond being simply upbeat, feel-good rock ‘n roll, to songs that really have something to say to the world.
Dare Force was a legendary hard rock/heavy metal band based in Minneapolis that was initially founded by Johnny and Brian Bart when they were 18 years old. Dare Force released three albums in the 1980s and performed in concert with numerous national acts such as KISS, Ted Nugent, Triumph, Kansas, UFO, the Joe Perry Project, and Ratt, as well as headlining in venues throughout the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Dare Force also had several songs that received heavy airplay on rock radio stations throughout the midwestern US in the 1980s. Dare Force released its third album, Firepower, with a reformed version of the band in 1989. The original lineup performed occasional reunion gigs after the long run of the original band ended in 1987, but the original version of Dare Force stopped performing live altogether after their last reunion show in 2002. Dare Force reformed yet again with a return to a four-piece lineup in 2017, and released its fourth album, Callin’ Your Name, in 2018.
