Profile:
Johnnyswim

Johnnyswim — husband-and-wife singer-songwriter duo Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez — has been gracing the headlines of some of the most trafficked music news outlets in the country. VH1, NPR, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (among others) have highlighted the pair’s burgeoning talent following the release of their EP, Heart Beats, in June of 2013.

With their highly anticipated first full-length album on the verge of release in April, Johnnyswim is taking to the road. Included in the journey is a stop at Madison’s very own Frequency for the monthly Communion club night this Wednesday, February 19. I spoke with Sudano and Ramirez about their new album, their creative process, and the maintenance of marital harmony on the road.

Johnnyswim’s music is an unaffected celebration of life and the relationships that substantiate it, blurring the lines between folk, soul, and pop. And in an industry wrought up on profits, the couple admires other artists that also transcend superficiality.

“What we really admire in the music business are people who are absolutely true to themselves… It’s people who pursue their calling, mining out the gold that’s within them,” said Ramirez. “I admire people who see music not just as a release or a way of making money or even something that’s just enjoyable, but as something that is really bigger than one’s own life. Something that’s going to outlive them.” 

With their new album, Diamonds, the couple hopes to join those artists they admire with a variation on their tried-and-true creative process of writing in the comfort of their home. “We went to Nashville and captured everything in a studio with the great engineer Gary Paczosa,” said Sudano. “We tried to capture organic sounds there, and then we took it back home to our same little room in the back and made it more us.”

The couple’s extensive experience as musicians both together and apart (Sudano acted as a back-up singer to her mother Donna Summer, and Ramirez trained as a musician at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, FL) has given them a unique stance on their recent fame: “We feel super honored by the love and support that we’ve gotten,” Sudano said. “We definitely don’t take it lightly. But at the same time, we know that we could be happy eating ramen noodles, living in a tiny apartment playing songs and hanging out together.”

Sudano’s humility is refreshing for the child of a megastar. The duo’s grounded perspective may be rooted, again, in their celebration of the relationships that shape their lives. And despite the pressures of the limelight, Sudano and Ramirez say that their marriage is thriving. “The beautiful thing about working with my spouse,” Sudano said, “is the further away I get from my actual physical home, the closer I can be with my husband, who is kind of my emotional home.”

“It makes our relationship that much stronger that we can have all these experiences together,” she added. “So many people are out on the road without their spouse — there’s this person that they’re supposed to have this connection with who doesn’t know what their day-to-day life is, and even if they can follow along they maybe don’t understand what it all feels like and how tiring it can be.”

The duo is deep into their tour, once again putting themselves to the test. But based on their reception (they’ve been selling out venues across the country from the get-go) they’re passing with flying colors. Johnnyswim will be joined Wednesday by Brave Baby and Oh No Fiasco as well as local support from Vic & Gab and Hello Death — perfect companions to their high energy, soul-filled live performances. Tickets are available online and at the door.