The 2 Johnnies Interview - Best of Ireland

From spuds and silage talk, to a catfish tale that captivated the nation, The 2 Johnnies are the Tipperary multi-media sensation that not even their most steadfast supporters back home could’ve seen coming.

Although far from the first funny Irish duo – The Rubberbandits, D’Unbelievables, and more than a few pairs of puppets have all put in the hard graft before them – the scale of ‘Johnny B’ O’Brien and ‘Johnny Smacks’ McMahon’s vision and ambition, both with and without mainstream support, has always marked them as an anomaly.
Initially rising to prominence through their online sketches, the pair’s 2 Johnnies Podcast has become one of the most popular in the country – leading to live shows around the world, including major upcoming dates in Galway and Limerick. From there, they turned their attention to TV, with series like The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In and The 2 Johnnies Do America. Over the past two years, they’ve also added radio to their CVs, with a drivetime show on RTÉ 2FM – which came to an end in May, in the midst of a rush of other high-profile presenter departures.

Now, they’re expanding their Cahir-based creative empire again, with the launch of their debut album, Small Town Heroes. As Johnny B tells me during the duo’s recent visit to Hot Press, putting out such a project was one of their first goals as The 2 Johnnies, way back in 2016 – but it was put on the backburner when their podcast started taking off.

“I’ve been in bands since I was 13,” he says. “Many’s the year I bought the Hot Press Yearbook, and sent CDs to all the record company addresses at the back of it, looking to get a record deal! I was in a cover band, a wedding band, and two heavy metal bands. Then I had two separate acoustic bands, and a rock band. All sorts! But it stands to me now, having done thousands of gigs growing up. “Although, if the taxman is asking, I’ve only done about 17…”
And Johnny Smacks’ musical roots?
“I just thought I’d win The X-Factor!” he laughs. “Without having to audition or anything. I thought they’d come to the bacon factory some day, and be like, ‘You’re exactly what we’re looking for!’ I used to dream about it.”
Going back to childhood, Smacks was always, as his mother would say, a bit of “a notice box.”
“As in, constantly looking for notice, or attention,” he elaborates. “I was quieter then, in later years. I would’ve done talent shows in school and stuff, but I’d have to be forced to do it, because I’d be nervous of what people thought. But when I got to 16, I was just like, ‘You know what? I don’t give a fuck anymore.’”

Smacks – who, in addition to the bacon factory, previously worked as a butcher in SuperValu – originally hails from Roscrea. He relocated an hour’s drive south to Cahir 14 years ago, and met Johnny B at the local GAA club.

“Johnny was looking for a lodger, and I just happened to be that lodger,” Smacks recalls. “Butterfly effect!”
At the time, Johnny B was in the hurley-making business – as his father and grandfather were before him. Although he’s more than happy with his current reality, it was “emotional” to leave the family trade behind, he tells me.

“But also, that business is changing, with the ash dieback disease,” he reflects. “And, like being a small farmer, you come to a stage when you’re going to expand or not. I was a one-man operation, doing it old-school. Artisan, I like to say!”

Even while he was living and breathing GAA, music and entertainment were never far from his mind – with Johnny B continuing to play with bands, and release his own solo EP. Then, as the local panto approached, he managed to convince his lodger Smacks to get involved, and perform a skit with him.

“I was on the dole, so I was like, ‘Grand, I’m doing nothing else!’” Smacks smiles. “That was it then. A year later, The 2 Johnnies were born.”

MUSIC FROM THE COUNTRY
Several years’ hard slog and a few viral moments later, the duo are currently gearing up for their 2024 World Tour, hitting North America in June and Australia in August. In the run-up to that, they kicked off the festival season in Dublin’s St Anne’s Park, with their own mini-festival, Pints In A Field 2. Having steadily built up a reputation for both their on- and off-stage hijinks – including Smacks breaking a few bones in his hand during a guitar smash at the 3Arena – the pair approach every show with the central goal of making it bigger than the last.

“It’s always like, ‘What can we pull off this time?’” Smacks notes. “We always want it to be different.”
“MCD says no one has more questions than us,” Johnny B laughs. “We asked them if we could have a petting zoo for St Anne’s Park! We’re always trying to do more, because it’s a big fan experience – a five-hour non-stop show. There’s a load of shit happening all around the place, like Chicken Shit Bingo out in the crowd, and people dressed up like mascots going around.

Pints in a Field2 at St. Anne's Park

“Last year, we had jiving classes from five to half-five,” he adds. “And then later in the show, we were playing some Saw Doctors-type stuff – and thousands of people were there jiving for the craic.”

The St Anne’s Park show saw The 2 Johnnies – and their band, The Junior B All Stars – joined by an undeniably bizarre variety of acts, ranging from Craig David to Seamus ‘The JCB Man’ Moore.

“If you took out your Spotify, there’s probably a load of outrageous shit that you don’t want to admit to listening to,” Smacks reasons. “But we put it on stage.”

Although there’s certainly a sprinkling of Seamus Moore and Richie Kavanagh in The 2 Johnnies’ output, Johnny B stresses that “it’s not country music – but it’s definitely music from the country…”

“People might laugh at Richie Kavanagh, but there’s also people who are still listening to that,” he resumes. “It’s maybe more accurate to what Ireland is really like – that messing and fuck-acting, and the tall tales.”

Musically, though, he reckons The Saw Doctors – and ‘90s/’00s rock bands like Weezer and Green Day – had more of an influence on the duo’s sound.

“We’re huge fans of that new country sound in America as well,” Smacks interjects. “Like Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen. But they’re singing about Chevrolets and beers in a barn on a Friday night – and we’re singing about going down the local, and driving a fucked up Opel Corsa.

“You can only sing about what you know,” he continues. “Music like The Saw Doctors and The Pogues  – that’s real to us. We can relate to that. I find it hard to relate to…”
“...A lot of music on the radio!” Johnny B grins.

The 2 Johnnies. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

CULCHIE REVIVAL
At the time of our interview, news has yet to break about The 2 Johnnies departing RTÉ 2FM – a decision, they’ve said, that came down to their back-breakingly heavy workload. Even so, they’re not afraid to speak their minds about the artists that score radioplay in this country, and those that don’t.

“We don’t get played on the radio,” Johnny B states outright.
“Bar when we play ourselves,” Smacks points out. “And we have done!”
They feel that, when it comes to messers making music, it can be hard to be treated as a genuine artist by the mainstream – even despite the success of acts like The Mary Wallopers.

“It’s easier to write a serious song,” Johnny B argues. “Sit down at the piano there, play a few chords, and it would be nice. But if someone told you to write a funny song, it would be harder. On some of the songs, we do take the piss – like on ‘Mad For Mickey’ or ‘St Patrick Drove A Honda Civic’. But they’re the tales you’d be telling lads down the pub. Like Johnny said, we can only be ourselves.

“But we wouldn’t see all our songs as novelty songs,” he continues. “The opening song on the album is called ‘The GAA, The Ska, The Ra’ – about a lad from the South meeting a girl from the North in college. He goes up to where she’s from in South Armagh, and thinks her father’s in the IRA. That’s all a bit of craic, but is also reflecting where Ireland is at now – people are trying to get past politics. That song will probably annoy a few people, but what do you want to do, not talk about it?”

“A lot of the lyrics in our songs are about break-ups, and being down, and growing up,” Smacks nods. “Some are happy songs, some are hungover songs. I’d love to see Dermot Kennedy write a song about being hungover!”
“Why has Adele got four albums about break-ups?” Johnny B exclaims. “Come on, not one mention of chicken fillet rolls?”

Both Johnnies agree that there appears to be a resurgence in national pride among young Irish people at the moment, particularly those from rural Ireland.

“In the Celtic Tiger, Ireland was a teenager as a nation,” Johnny B reflects. “I think Ireland is maturing a bit now. With more new people moving to Ireland, it’s holding a mirror up, asking, ‘Who are we, and what do we stand for?’

“I was in Gaoth Dobhair recently, and all the young people were speaking Irish,” he continues. “The pubs weren’t playing pop music – they were playing Irish music. In Cahir, the Comhaltas group has never been as busy either. If you go into the pub, there’s twenty 16-year-olds in there, and none of them are drinking – they’re just belting out trad tunes. If people feel their culture has been eroded in any way, they hold onto it more.”

The 2 Johnnies. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Even two years ago, when they first started at 2FM, The 2 Johnnies recall being told that they were part of the “culchie revival” that was underway.

“For a while, culchies were a bit scoffed at,” Smacks reckons. “A lot of people moved to Dublin ten or fifteen years ago, and changed their accent. They tried to blend in. They were like, ‘I’m from Dublin now.’ Whereas now, we’d walk in like, ‘Well, I’m from fucking Tipp!’”

And they’re in no rush to leave Tipperary.
“We love it – that’s why we built our studio down there,” Smacks tells me. “So we can do the radio and the podcasts from Cahir. I work 200 yards now from where I used to work – I’m just doing a different job now. And the rent in Dublin is fucking insane…”

Staying true to those roots has always been a crucial part of The 2 Johnnies’ approach. Guests on their podcast can swing from local undertakers, psychics and priests, to Liam Gallagher, Picture This and The Wolfe Tones – with the lads’ interviewing style coming from, as Smacks describes it, a “naturally curious” place.

“I’ve sat at home on the couch watching telly for long enough,” he remarks. “So now, if we’re doing stuff for telly, I just ask myself, ‘If I was sitting at home, what would I like to see this person being asked?’ We’ve worked real jobs, and shit jobs – so we can relate to people who work in factories, or in the supermarket, or the other jobs we used to do. We’re making stuff for them.”

LIKE IT’S AN ALL-IRELAND FINAL
Working in the public eye isn’t always straightforward, of course. Although hugely popular, The 2 Johnnies’ humour has proven divisive, and the pair have weathered their fair share of backlash and controversy. Has it been a steep learning curve, navigating that?

“We’ve learned to not give a shit what people think,” Johnny B asserts. “Fuck them! I’ve read so much stuff about myself that I know isn’t true. I do think, in general, humans just aren’t ready for social media yet. I see so many people who aren’t able to use it. They get upset, and then they go on, leaving nasty comments. You may as well go and see Bruce Springsteen in Croke Park, stand down the back and roar at him that he’s shit – you’re only ruining your own day.”

“In regards to hate, we don’t get that much, to be honest,” Smacks figures. “But I don’t be going looking for it, either. It’s like anything – if you’re doing well, they’ll want to come for you.”

“And you have to recognise opinion pieces for what they are,” Johnny B resumes. “We had a comedy show reviewed recently by someone who’d never worked in comedy. You wouldn’t let Mary Berry be a pundit on The Sunday Game!”

As Johnny B points out, for younger people in Ireland, the mainstream media has never been less relevant.
“There’s people in Ireland who are massive on the internet and YouTube,” he says. “And they get no notice from the mainstream.”

The 2 Johnnies. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Undoubtedly, the rise of online ‘clip culture’ and podcasts have democratised comedy. But as the world reckons with issues like political correctness and accountability, many comedians are arguing that it’s a tricky time for the artform.

“It depends,” Johnny B reflects. “If you go to any comedy night in Dublin, there’ll be lads saying outrageous shit. And you might get hassle, but you live through it.

“Nowadays, I think everyone’s going to get cancelled three or four times in their career,” he continues. “It comes around – and it will happen to everyone.”

“You just put your hands up if you do make a mistake, and say sorry,” Smacks adds. “And move on.”

Of course, the internet is also being flooded with extreme content at the moment, with social media algorithms filling young men’s feeds with misogynistic, ‘alpha-male’ influencers. Although, as Smacks says, it wouldn’t be in The 2 Johnnies’ “fucking wheelhouse to be macho”, he agrees that it’s a serious concern.

“If some fucker wants to go on social media, and peddle a load of crazy shit – roaring and balling like Andrew Tate or someone – he can,” he points out. “It’s up to the social media companies to stop that shit. People like that are obviously influential, in terms of young kids watching it. But it stems down the whole way, and parents have got to check what their kids are watching.”

You can expect something considerably more family-friendly when The 2 Johnnies play their all-ages show at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick this September. Until then, they’ve got the small matter of a world tour and a new album to keep them occupied.

“The podcast keeps us busy too,” Johnny B notes. “We rev up for that every week like it’s an All-Ireland final. There’s a whole team of people who work with us just on that.”
That community aspect is particularly important to the pair.

“The most surreal moment for me was one of the first times we did Electric Picnic,” Johnny B recalls. “They’ve a little shuttle bus to bring you over, and the bus was full of people. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is all our gang. People have work today, because of something we’re doing. We started filming sketches on a phone, dressed as farmers, and now we have a band, and a tour manager, and a photographer…’
“That was the moment for me – realising that it was real in other people’s lives too.”

• Small Town Heroes is out now. The 2 Johnnies play Galway Summer Sessions (August 17); and TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick (September 1)