VH1's "You Oughta Know" franchise has been highlighting artists on the rise and serving as a "who's hot" barometer since 2005. This year, for the first time ever, they brought artists from the current roster and artists from past years together for a festival-style concert at New York's legendary Roseland Ballroom. VH1's resident music expert Jim Shearer hosted the event with other celebrity music lovers introducing their favorite artists. The concert featured performances by each artist as well as breathtaking collaborations and cover songs. The show, which will give an inside look into the personal lives of the artist as well as showcase their performance, premieres Thursday November 21 at 9 p.m. ET.
Music Times chatted with a few of the "You Oughta Know" artists on the red carpet before the show. Check out what they had to say, and make sure to watch them on November 21.
YOK ARTIST: JOHNNYSWIM
MEMBERS: Amanda Sudano-Ramirez and Abner Ramierez
BIO: An L.A.-by-way-of-Nashville duo, Amanda (Donna Summer's daughter) and Abner first met after a Sunday church service in Nashville. They began writing songs together a few years later. Their sound blends folk, soul, blues and country with spot on harmonies and honest lyrics. In 2008, the duo released their first debut EP 1-4, and they got married a year later, relocating to Los Angeles. Their move brought about a second EP in 2010 called 5-8 as well as their hot single "Bonsoir"/"Good News."
After touring across the U.S., they began working on their third EP, Heart Beats, which came out this year. Up next for the duo is a full-length album slated for 2014, which will (likely) feature the single "Diamonds."
MT: How has all of the VH1 excitement been for you guys so far?
Amanda: We're trying to get the adrenaline under control because we want to get on stage and have some left. If we get too excited, I'm going to walk on stage and fall asleep.
MT: So how long are you in New York?
Amanda: We got in yesterday and we leave first thing tomorrow - so in and out. We go to Boston then San Francisco the next day then L.A. then Connecticut then Nashville.
MT: Well you seem pretty busy then. Has it been hard to balance touring and marriage?
Abner: It has definitely made us closer.
Amanda: We're really lucky that we get to spend most of our time with our significant other. Where so many of our friends go to separate jobs and don't see each other for chunks of the day, and they have date night maybe once a week. And for us, our life is like one big date. Where things come into question is when he doesn't stop. Like he could not take naps and go, go, go. He doesn't care. He does not need a day off. And I love myself some HGTV on a Sunday in sweatpants and not do anything else. So I let him get an Xbox.
Abner: And that's exactly what it is. She let me.
Amanda: We compromised. When we got married he played a good bit of Xbox. It was the only thing we ever fought about, so he sold it. One day I woke up and it was gone. He said it wasn't worth arguing, about and he didn't need it.
Abner: What she's saying is that I'm amazing.
Amanda: (Laughs) So I said, why don't you go get an Xbox because I need you to focus on something where you can sit down for hours and that way I can just sit down a read magazines without him saying we should really get this done or that done. It's like "Go play with your Xbox, I'm going to watch some HGTV."
MT: So is it ever awkward when you write songs about past loves that aren't each other?
Abner: Nope. Well, she hasn't written a song called "Luke" yet. Now that could be awkward. Like we don't name ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends. That could be weird. But there is inspiration in our songs from our entire lives. So there's clearly inspiration from past relationships -mostly the breakup parts.
Amanda: You experience loss in different ways and you kind of tap into that fairly easily. Sometimes you're not writing about a breakup but just letting somebody go for another reason, but it kind of comes across the same way. There are just varying degrees of loss.
MT: So are you writing these songs together? Or do you each write a song and bring it to the table?
Abner: There's a cool simpatico. I'll never know her experiences the way she does but I can still see them through my own eyes. Especially when we write sad songs, it's really easy to write together even if we are drawing from other people.
There is a guy we write with all the time named Britten Newbill, who has had a legendarily terrible relationship with a girl. And he's just been so whipped. He stayed with her, and she treated him terribly. We wrote like our whole last EP about his relationship with her. The breakup songs, all of that, was drawn from his experience. But we have experienced loss, and so you can draw from other areas even if it's not boyfriend or girlfriend. It could be about losing a parent or something. You can draw from that and use it in a song about loss in some way.
MT: I'm sure you probably know all about each other's past relationships
Amanda: Of course. Early on I was like I want to know every single girl because I don't want anyone walking into the room and being like "I have a secret." Because now I know you're secret (laughs) - but really. We have this song called "Diamonds"...
Abner: It's the first single of the new album that comes out next year.
Amanda: ...He had a bad experience with somebody from his hometown. The person was like "Oh I see all these good things are happening to you. Who is hooking you up? What, did you like call somebody and they gave you a favor?" And he was like, "No we're working really hard."
Abner: I was like, "I've been working for 12 years. What the hell are you talking about? I've been doing this since I was 18."
Amanda: So his point of view for the song was like a "suck it" to the haters. Whereas mine was more the things I say to myself all the time like, "I'm not good enough," just self-doubt. So for me it was that and for him it was toward specific people, and we wrote this song and both came at it from our own point of view but were able to write on cohesive song.
Then a couple weeks go by, and we go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and we played it for the first time all the way through, just he and I on with a guitar. We realized this song had more meaning than we even meant for it to. There were parents crying; we were crying. How crazy is that? The spark was "suck it to the haters" and it moved to this point over here that was more "you can do it."
MT: So this being, "You Oughta Know" What bands or artists you do you think we ought to know about who aren't here tonight?
Abner: My favorite band right now, actually one of my favorite bands period, is a band called St. Paul and the Broken Bones. There are kind of bluesy, they're an Alabama band. The lead singer is from Muscle Shoals. This guy was an accountant and he quit his job to play. And its like you fight for them. You just want them to win so badly. St. Paul and the Broken Bones, check them out; they're amazing.
MT: How about you, Amanda?
Amanda: I'm really loving a band called Lucius, a Brooklyn band. We played a couple shows with them in the past.
MT: Do you have any New York shows coming up?
Amanda: Yes, early next year. I don't remember the date.
Abner: But we will be tweeting about it!
Check out their video for the single "Heart Beats" off their most recent EP of the same name. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
