Johnny Mazcko

This red-headed southern boy currently calls Austin his home, but was originally born three hours south of Asbury Park, NJ (Bruce Springsteen's hometown) in Ocean City, MD. He's always been a fairly quiet kid and usually prefers to express himself more through his music and live performances. Growing up, Johnny never got along well with sports and school work. (To be honest, the kid wasn't very good at anything.) Then late in his senior year of high school he picked up a guitar and the world stopped. His heart skipped a beat and instant sparks were felt between him and his new partner. Soon they moved in together and had hundreds of kids (aka: songs). A couple of years later, Johnny said goodbye to a handful of his children and recorded his first EP with a great local musician/producer named Dan Barrett. The CD was called "Somewhere Better than Here" and created a small buzz in the Boston community. A year later, the EP was re-released with bonus tracks, under Hollywood-based independent label - Statue Records.

From Ocean City, MD to Boston, MA and then to Austin, TX; Johnny continued to write and record songs. He even played in a fantastic band called Dirt Water Refuge (see myspace.com/dirtwaterrefuge) which won a couple Battle of the Bands competitions. Johnny Mazcko has accomplished a lot in a short span of time. He still loves to write, play, and record music now as much as ever. Although, he may move away from the south at some point in the future, He plans to continue to write new music until the day he dies. In January of 2010, he started releasing a series of monthly EPs which he posts through www.myspace.com/johnnymazcko . He is hoping to gain some added exposure from these EPs in hopes to make a proper studio album some time in the near future.

Oftentimes, people compare him to a young Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, or Steve Earle. Although, he doesn't try to sound like any of these artists, he does find great inspiration from them as well as artists such as: Gram Parsons, The Band, John Hiatt, The Lemonheads, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Neil Young, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Pogues, Johnny Cash, The Libertines, Nirvana, David Bowie, Beck, Tom Waits, The Magnetic Fields, Lucinda Williams, The Old 97s, Tom Petty, The Velvet Underground, Hank Williams, JJ Cale, Paul Westerberg, Wilco and the lists goes on and on.

In concert, Johnny likes to stand up, move around, play harmonica, try out new songs, work up a sweat, take requests, plays guitar, and sing. He also plays music with friends onstage, who will often sit in with him on lead guitar, bass, handclaps, drums, vocals, foot stomps, or anything else they want to do. In the last four years, he has played on boardwalks, rock and roll nightclubs, coffeehouses, subway stations, on park benches, comedy clubs, college parking lots, keg parties, dinner parties, pubs, and more. He has also opened up shows for national acts such as the Pat McGee Band, The Heartless Bastards, and Ryan Montbleau.