There’s something about great music hitting your ears for the first time. Like a drop of rain hitting your forehead. Emotions instantly stir and a memory creeps in that has been unleashed due to that tune.

When I listened to Justin Johnson and Jim Peters’ new two piece band, The Fog Lights, harmonize on the new single, “Lead the Way”, I instantly got swept up with the song. A bad day became a distant memory and I was happy. It didn’t hurt that the three of us went to the same high school(Brentwood High School in St. Louis county) or that the album title, Manhassett, references an apartment complex where this album came together and all three of us lived in at one time or another. I didn’t care what genre it belonged to because the feeling was enough.

Justin and Jim are real authentic musicians and when I say that I mean the second you hear their music, the connection is established and you understand they do this because they need to. They do this for a living or in Justin’s case, it’s a calling you mix with a regular job because a world without music is a scary place. It’s a part of who they are and that isn’t always the case in today’s commercially driven digital music world.

This Saturday at St. Louis’ famous Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, The Fog Lights will have their album release show along with two other bands and they promise a night of great music. This past weekend, I had the chance to ask them each a few questions. Justin was on the road in Texas and Jim was in Kansas City with one of his other bands, Javier Mendoza. The Q&A quickly became a journey of some sorts. (more…)