Sailour

The spark for Lauderdale County native Andrew Johnston’s love of music came from being a worship leader. Johnston, who founded popular local band Sailour in 2014, is still a worship leader, but he has embraced many types of music on his journey as an artist.

“I got involved in some hard rock, metal bands in high school,” Johnston said. “Then, I wanted to do my own thing for a little bit. I actually started Sailour as a solo project while I was playing bass for a band — Seven Seasons. It took off from there and became a full band. Now, it’s my full focus.”

Sailour, Rock Euphora, Brook and the Bluff and Patrick Ryan are part of the second annual Dead Day show tonight at 116 E. Mobile in downtown Florence. Tickets are $8 and available at 116mobile.com or at the door, unless the show sells out. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Johnston recently took time to answer a few questions ahead of tonight’s show in Florence.

TimesDaily: Tell me more about Sailour as a full band?

Johnston: It originally was just Sailor without the “u,” but after receiving a cease and desist order from a 1970s British pop band called Sailor, we rebranded and added the “u” for a more unique spelling.

The first official lineup consisted of Zeb Worlund, Mark Bryant, Ty Beahm and myself.

We released the “Scuttle” EP in November 2015. We pushed the EP pretty hard — getting it onto college radio stations, podcasts and releasing it on Noisetrade’s “New and Notable” list as a free download. It’s still available. We played a lot of shows over that next year across the south.

Last year, at the first Dead Day show, we announced it would be Zeb’s last show with us. He was graduating from college and starting a new job. Shortly after that, Ty decided to pursue full-time ministry and stepped down as drummer.

I was expecting it to be the end of Sailour, but Mark talked me into keeping it going. I’m glad he did.

TimesDaily: What’s the current status of the band?

Johnston: We’ve been pretty quiet this year. We’ve only played a handful of shows, but we’re working on building a new lineup and writing new material.

This summer, we added our high school friend Taylor Jones on drums. He’s from Boxer Joy and SCM Electrix. We also added Patrick Ryan as lead guitarist. It may be the most dynamic lineup yet.

TimesDaily: What are the strengths of each member in the new lineup?

Johnston: It’s Mark, Patrick, Taylor and myself. The cool thing about this group is, I feel we all bring something different to the table.

My strong suit is writing and managing the band. I do most of the behind-the-scenes work that makes things happen.

Mark is definitely the mediator and an incredibly social individual. He sort of plays the parent role in the band.

Taylor is a great help in the writing process. He is good at orchestrating my ideas into full-fledged songs.

Patrick really helps make our songs stand out, and he makes them interesting. He has a lot of talent and is very musically inclined so that helps turn our songs from my simple idea into an intriguing, ear-catching song.

TimesDaily: What are your influences?

Johnston: I’m really into alternative and indie music — bands like Young the Giant, John Mark McMillan and Alabama Shakes have a big influence on me. But, I also draw inspiration from other artists like Manchester Orchestra, Sturgill Simpson and Snarky Puppy, too.

I like to think that whatever may be influencing me at the time — no matter how different it is from what I’m doing — when I sit down to write a song, it’s still going to sound like me, like Sailour.

As far as my writing goes, movies and short stories really inspire my lyrics. I really enjoy trying to paint a picture with my words.

TimesDaily: Do the four of you write music together?

Johnston: We like to write together. Typically, what happens is, I bring an idea to the guys and they help me transform the idea into a full song. It’s always really cool to see how different my original idea is from what we turn it into.

TimesDaily: Are there any plans for a new EP or full-length album?

Johnston: Yes. We actually just finished recording a new EP with Grant Walden at HearTell Studios. We can’t give out many details yet, but you can expect to see it early next year.

TimesDaily: The Dead Day show tonight at 116 E. Mobile features a jam-packed lineup. What do y’all have planned?

Johnston: This is one of the coolest bills we’ve put together. We wanted this to be a great rock show, and that’s what we’re going to have.

Rock Euphora is one of our favorites, and they know how to put on a show. I saw Brook and the Bluff for the first time this summer and they blew me away. I figured this would be the perfect lineup this year.

Plus, this will be Patrick’s first show with us, so we’re very excited about that, too.

Our Dead Day show’s purpose is to give students a break or a breath of fresh air from cramming their noses in their books before finals. We all know how stressful finals can be. We just want to give people a place where they can let go of some of that stress and just have a good time. - TimesDaily