'Thank you for your patience': Hardcore singer Jonny Craig, playing Lehigh Valley, looks to make amends

NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — Jonny Craig, the singer who led indie bands Dance Gavin Dance, Emarosa and Slaves — and was fired from all three — says he knows he has amends to make.

And wants everyone to know he's grateful.

Craig, who had very public battles with addictions and other legal issues, now is touring with his own band and stops at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at Northampton's Gin Mill & Grille.

Tickets, at $22 general admission standing, remain available at ticketWeb.com. Opening the show will be rock band Call Me Karizma. The show is for ages 21 and older.

“I just personally want to thank everybody," Craig said in a recent phone call from just outside Seattle, Washington, where he lives.

"I just want to thank everybody for sticking around. I know that it’s been a long road, and I know that it’s been disappointing for a lot of people.

"And I just want them to know that I understand that and I accept the accountability for that," said Craig, who said he now is almost three years sober.

"It’s the longest I’ve ever been sober in my life. This is the most serious I’ve ever taken it. And I just wanted to really convey that message to people that it’s really important to me in the process of new music and also getting clean, was the support.

"I just want them to know that, ‘Hey, this is me and I’m literally doing the best that I can now, and I feel the best that I’ve ever felt. I feel like I look the best that I’ve ever felt.

"And I’m about to make the best music that they’ve ever heard.”

Changes in his music, too

In addition to the changes in his life, Craig said the concert will showcase a change in his music, as well.

After spending most of his career in post hardcore bands, Craig on his last disc, the solo "The Places We’ll Never Be" in 2021, experimented with pop/soul.

The disc failed to chart.

"‘The Places We’ll Never Be,’ that’s just me — it’s all me, everything from the artwork to whatever, it’s all me," Craig said. "My vision for it.

"And it’s more poppy, right? I always wanted to be an R&B singer. That’s always been my dream — being somebody like an R&B singer or a pop singer. Like Justin Bieber.

“I always just wanted to be that top guy, and I wanted to do that genre."

But he noted his new singles, "Thank you for the Patience" and "Pray," put him back in the rock scene.

"We’re transitioning more back into some rock stuff right now, putting the solo stuff on the shelf for a little bit," Craig said.

"There’s just really no denying that my voice, it just belongs in rock music. I can’t get away from it. I tried to maybe step back and be, ‘OK, I’m going to try something different.’

“But the more I look at music these days, I’m just not hearing that thing, you know? And when I make music it’s like, ‘That’s the thing, that’s what’s been missing. You need to stay with this.’

“So I’m starting to understand that a little bit more — that I don’t think I’m getting away from rock music anytime soon," Craig said with laugh.

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'Just me going through life'

Craig certainly does have a place in hard rock.

Craig was the founding vocalist for rock band Dance Gavin Dance, and led the group on its 2007 debut album, "Downtown Battle Mountain," which reached No. 26 on the Indie Albums chart.

He left the band in 2007, but returned 2010-12, when it had its first Rock Albums chart appearance with "Downtown Battle Mountain II," then returned to the band again in 2015-16.

He was not with the group when it had its biggest success, with three Rock Albums chart-topping discs: 2018's "Artificial Selection," 2020's "Afterburner" or 2022's "Jackpot Juicer."

From 2007-11, Craig was vocalist for Emerosa, when he co-wrote all the songs on the band's debut disc "Relativity." That album hit No. 33 on the Indie chart and No. 15 on the Heatseekers chart.

He last performed with the band on its self-titled sophomore disc, which hit No. 9 on the Indie Albums chart.

Craig also was lead vocalist in the short-lived supergroup Isles & Glaciers, whose 2010 debut album "The Hearts of Lonely People" hit No. 1 on the Heatseekers chart.

And 2014-19, he was in the band Slaves, with which he released three albums.

Craig was kicked out of all three bands, with the most frequent explanation being his struggles with drugs.

Asked about all of those bands, Craig said, “Oh, man, I love them. Obviously, I f — ked up a lot. But man, I love them."

"Those are, like, hard periods of my life of growing up," said Craig, who was just 20 when he joined Dance Gavin Dance.

"I mean, I had parents, but I didn’t accept their guidance. So it was just me going through life and figuring out how to be a good person.

“And if you listen to all the songs from those eras and stuff, you can just tell I’m just trying to figure out how to live, you know?”

New projects, new songs

Craig's most recent project is another post-hardcore band Old Flame, with which he released his most recent songs. But he said, "The band is technically just me. There are no other members currently — I am looking."

The band with which he'll play at Gin Mill and Grill, "They’re friends" with whom he hooked up through Rain City Drive, the band that evolved from Slaves.

About those new songs, he said the story of "Thank You for the Patience" is "pretty simple, man."

"You know, time and time again I’ve gotten well and then I’ve fallen off, I get well and I fall off, I get well and I fall off," he said.

"So, you know, it’s just to kind of a kind of thank you to all the people that have stuck around and supported me through my demons.

“I know a lot of people connect the dots because, you know, we all deal with that kind of stuff. And so I just want to thank those people that never, never gave up. They never said, ‘You know what? I can’t do it anymore.’ They never wrote me off because most people in my life have written me off, man.

“And I understand most of it — I get it, right? But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt, still, you know? So I just want to thank the people that were just stuck with me the whole time, and then they held me up.”

He's less forthcoming about the song "Pray."

“‘Pray’ is kind of a difficult one," he said. "I don’t always try to be secretive with my songs, you know? My favorite thing, honestly, is when someone listens to a song and it could mean anything to anyone, right? It depends on what they're going through.

“And that’s one of them. It has a personal meaning to me. It’s just a message between me and, obviously, my higher power. [But] "I think it’s a good way to just get people to connect.

"It could mean someone’s going through a breakup, right? And they listen to the song and go, ‘Oh my God, that part right there, that’s me.’ And then somebody else is like, ‘Man, I just lost my job and somebody helped me.’"

Perspective on his earlier projects

Craig said those two songs are the start to another album.

“The next is ‘Small Town Liar,’ coming out pretty soon," he said. "And we have a couple more.

"As soon as this tour is over, I’m going straight to Florida, and I’m meeting up with the Rain City Drive dudes — some of them, not all of them — and we are going to write some songs together. … And I’m gonna get enough songs to actually finish this album."

Asked whether he'd ever consider rejoining any of his earlier bands, Craig said he actually expects to one day reunite with Dance Gavin Dance, whose songs he doesn't play at his shows.

“I’ve stated that a million times; I’m not going to play that until they ask me," he said. "And I know that they will ask me, just a matter of time."

He's less generous about Emerosa, whose songs he does play in his show, but who he notes is down to only one original member.

"The band is technically still a band, right? But there’s only one original member in the band," he said.

"I’ve asked them many times to do something, and then they’re, ‘Oh so-and-so won’t get along with this person.’ And I’ve asked all the other guys, and they’re, like, ‘Yeah, we’re down.’ 

“So I just think he’s going down with the sinking ship. Like, ‘I’m a captain and I’m going to ride it till the end.’”