SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — It’s been more than a decade since Jon Lindsay and Benji Hughes shared a stage, but recently the two have picked up where they left off, as if no time has passed at all.
They’re embarking on a bevy of intimate shows, with one stop at Bourgie Nights this Saturday in downtown Wilmington.
Lindsay, a prolific keyboardist and pianist who also has written for TV and film, went to high school with Hughes. The two paired up to write jingles and scores but, eventually, Lindsay also became one of Hughes’ touring musicians as Hughes signed a record deal that brought about “Love Extreme.” The 24-track magnum opus blended rock and pop oddities, filled with humor, poetic musings and lovetorn stories.
Hughes — a vocalist and songwriter, known for hits heard on “Eastbound and Down,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” — asked Lindsay to join the band and the two toured a few years before Lindsay embarked on his solo career in 2010.
They met up again recently after Lindsay, who lives in Savannah with his wife and child, hosted a house show for Hughes. The keyboardist has also been creating his fourth LP to drop sometime in 2025.
PCD interviewed Lindsay about what to expect with his show with Hughes this weekend and what listeners can anticipate from his “Big Stage” release next year.
Tickets to the Bourgie Nights’ show are $20 to $25 here.
Port City Daily (PCD): Why hit the road again and bring the band back together? Will all old members be at Saturday’s show; I know not everyone was at Tiki Bar during the August show.
Jon Linsday: What we’re bringing to town this weekend is a different thing altogether. A bit of history; Benji and I are both from Charlotte, NC, and I used to have residency at a joint in Plaza Midwood called Petra’s. Petra’s (still there but different ownership now, different vibe) was a cabaret style martini bar that felt like a little slice of NYC in NC — dark and dreamy inside, red velvet curtains, grand piano, kooky and amazing clientele. We loved it right away when it was opened by Jerry Brown — my former middle school vice principal, who passed away some years ago now — and I started playing there solo once a week for about a year straight. It was a welcoming place to take big chances and try out just about anything for an audience that wanted something stripped down, new, vulnerable, and unusual.
Eventually, it got to a point where I added a second weekly show as a duo with Benji, centered on him and his catalog and universe. He’d sing and be hilarious, I’d play piano and call the tunes, and we’d do all kinds of stuff from the Great American Songbook, interspersed with offbeat comedic banter and general tomfoolery. Burt Bacharach, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, Prince, Roger Miller, Madonna, and of course, all of the weirdest, wildest tunes by Benji that I loved, and that we weren’t playing much live at the time in the full band with the guys. At that time, we were mainly focusing on ”A Love Extreme” in the band.
Earlier this year, my wife and I brought Benji down to Savannah for a private show at our home in a new music/gallery space we built; we were stoked to also display Benji’s paintings for our friends that night. I opened with songs from my forthcoming album, “Big Stage,” and then Benji and I played an extended duo set like back in the day. It was such a great and special time that we decided to take it on the road in select markets we know and love, such as Wilmington.
So, yeah, all the dudes will not be there, and it’s this entirely different journey. We play the hits for sure, but some really tender, intense, different stuff happens, and many chances are for sure taken.
PCD: What has it been like this time around? How long ago was it that you all played together?
JL: Until earlier this year, it had been like a decade since Benji and I had last played together, which is wild. Prior to moving to Savannah, where I live now full time, I had been living in Raleigh and then in NYC for years, and we didn’t see each other much. And it’s been such a treat to hang more and play more again. We go a long way back, and Benji is one of my favorite people of all time, of course. In many ways, it’s like we never missed a beat.
PCD: Can we expect another album from the crew?
JL: You can definitely rest assured that you haven’t heard the last of Benji Hughes!
PCD: Tell readers about your solo release: how many songs, the inspiration behind writing them, how long did it take to record, with whom, where —insight about the process.
JL: It’s an 11-song LP made largely in Hollywood at a place called Barefoot Studios, which was owned and operated for a long time by Eric Valentine, who has done a lot of great music over the years. The record began at Sioux Sioux Studios in Charlotte where my longtime collaborator Chris Walldorf laid down the drum tracks. Jonathan Erickson also played some drums. Then I took the drum tracks to LA and overdubbed everything else out there, and I think you can hear it on the tracks.
It’s the first record that I ever had a real budget for and ever really got to make properly. I love the other records for sure, but it’s great to finally completely control the process with no publishers or labels, which is what happened here. That’s the “Stevie Wonder Piano” you hear, which Stevie made a bunch of records on and then recently bought back from the studio after it closed down, which just happened, as Eric and his wife Grace Potter moved out of California.
Paul McCartney and all kinds of people have cut records in this place, especially a lot of Laurel Canyon stuff in the Asylum family, Jackson Browne and folks like that. You can really hear the big live room through the mics on the B3 organ, and just a lot of crystalline open space that makes it on the record.
It’s by far my most straight-ahead, vintage-pop record. It’s just all served super straight up in production and delivery. I thought that approach was important for LP4, as my first three records were all pretty highly experimental pop rock records in their own different ways. This time out, I wanted to keep things super classic and kinda show what I’m capable of when I work in a format like that, and I’m proud to say I feel like I really got there.
I’m so, so pumped on how this album turned out. Major shout out to my dear friend, the lovely and talented Mike Pepe who worked on it with me for a few years and also mixed the shit out of it. I truly love all the tunes, but maybe a personal favorite is “Chillington” — it’s actually the first song I ever wrote!
Or the title track in the way it just leaves me nowhere to hide…
PCD: When will LP be released? Where? How many songs will you perform from it before you play with Benji on Saturday?
JL: It comes out early next year! More details will be rolling out soon. We’re working hard and lining tons of stuff up. I’ll definitely be playing a nice chunk of it Saturday night.
PCD: What makes Benji’s tracks have staying power in your opinion and as a keyboardist what excites you about playing them?
JL: Well, I think just as a human, a music lover, and somebody with feelings, I think you have to love how emotionally evocative, effortless, and potent his records are. And no matter which one you’re talking about, you can always anticipate some level of fun and humor and self-deprecation, even when he’s dealing with super heavy subjects. But not in a distracting way.
He’s always sincere, even when he’s totally f***ing around, if that makes sense. He’s just a guy who knows how to get out of his own way and give you what you want, while also showing you something super singular — his universe, replete with many zany characters, mysteries, and pleasantries. The tunes and the albums hit like a bullet, know when to quit, and leave you wanting more.
Musically, his compositions certainly keep things interesting, but never in a way that feels forced or like an academic flex. He’s not trying to impress you, ever. He’s just keeping it real and getting himself off.
I’ve always been so proud to be one of his many collaborators, and he’s certainly a modern master who’s been a big influence on me professionally, as much as he’s like my older brother who busts my chops and stuff — haha. Earlier in my career I did a lot of commercials and work for radio/TV campaigns, and I learned a lot from him; we worked together on some things, but mainly just in terms of how he navigated that business as a lone wolf, did his own thing, and defined the terms of what a career looked like for him, and didn’t set his watch to anything happening in the scene we lived in or worry about what everyone else was doing. That really resonated with me.
PCD: You mention hearing “rarities” Saturday at Bourgie Nights — can you elaborate?
JL: If you love “I Hate When Pretty Ladies Die,” “Chemo Kids,” “Kenny,” “Country Love,” “I’ve Got Someone,” “Christian Music” and songs like that, you won’t want to miss this show. You’ll get plenty of hits, but it’s the twists and turns that make this show pretty deep.
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