John Tomasevich has been chasing the perfect song for over three decades, and he’s still not tired of the hunt. The Burlington, North Carolina, singer-songwriter first cut his teeth in the post-hardcore scene before finding his voice in stripped-down folk punk. What keeps him going isn’t the promise of success, but those lightning-strike moments when a melody hits him in the shower and he has no choice but to get it out.
His latest album, MANIC DESTRUCTIVE, finds Tomasevich at his most vulnerable and hopeful. Recorded with producer Scotty Sandwich and inspired by the stark beauty of Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska, the album strips everything down to the essentials. It’s a collection that draws on old songs he’d written over the years alongside new ones, all confronting sobriety, political unrest, and the weight of past mistakes with unflinching honesty.
Between references to exhausting Bad Religion shows, the political-yet-personal songwriting of Against Me!‘s Laura Jane Grace, and his early days recording in closets while banging on suitcases for percussion, Tomasevich reveals what it means to keep making music when inspiration is the only thing that matters. Even now, as he balances family and a day job, he’s already thinking about the next record, proving that some obsessions are worth holding onto.
What have you been listening to lately?
John: I’ve been listening to The Anniversary a lot today. A buddy of mine from a band I was in sent me a track, so I listened to their record, Designing a Nervous Breakdown. I haven’t looked into that album in probably seven or eight years. I used to be in like post-hardcore bands, so I’ve also been listening to a lot of Chiodos.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen, in part because of the music I’m doing now, but also because they’ve got that new film [Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere] coming out.
I’m looking forward to catching that with my dad in the next few weeks.
John: I had no idea that movie was coming out. Nebraska is the basis for the record we did [MANIC DESTRUCTIVE]. It’s the most haunting, amazing thing I’ve listened to, and now that I listen to it again, it’s like everything I stand for in terms of marking records. It was done on a four-track recorder, but there are always tiny details I pick up on when I put it on.
Who was the first musician that you remember discovering on your own and obsessing over?
John: Michael Jackson is probably the first one. My mother played Bad a lot in the house when I was growing up in Ohio. But when I was in fourth grade, I remember everyone was talking about this Green Day record, Dookie. Kids in my school were drumming along to “Longview” on the cafeteria tables.
That was my introduction to punk. By the time I was in high school, Nimrod was my favorite album of theirs. It’s such a significant departure from their original sound. Warning is another great one, probably because of its acoustic folk-punk vibe.
Bad Religion is another one I’ve loved for years. They were the last band I saw before COVID hit; they were in their fifties but performed like they were still 18. It was almost exhausting to watch, which made me feel so much older, but it was terrific.
When did you start playing in bands and performing live?
John: When I was 16, I moved to North Carolina from Ohio. I wanted to play music, so my mother taught me four chords on a nylon-string guitar. And I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve played in gimmicky post-hardcore bands, which I still enjoy, but I’ve been doing solo stuff since 2015.
That’s 30 plus years of playing. I haven’t seen a dime, which is totally fine. [laughs] I still play music just because it makes me happy.
I lived in Raleigh for a few years before going to Appalachian State for my degree. I came back and was in a band that was going to tour, but it didn’t work out. That was almost the beginning of the kind of music I make now. I just decided to do the solo stuff because I needed to make music for me.
I’m surprised that I’m still doing it, but when I have an idea for a record or for songs, that’s the best part. Like I’ll be struggling with an idea and it’ll come to me in the shower and I have to get it out. That’s why I keep doing it. It’s so much fun to be creative in that way.
How have you seen the local music communities evolve since moving down here?
John: The only thing that has really changed is my age. The band that I feel like was going to be like the most successful was a post-hardcore band. And there was elements of that that wasn’t a gimmick, but it was of the time. So when I started doing solo stuff, I was like, “What can I do to like make stuff that seems timeless?” It might not seem timeless for other people, it may just be for me.
Part of that is exploring artists like John Mellencamp who I listened to growing up and exploring that singer-songwriter thing. It was one of those areas where I knew the chords and had good stuff to write about.
What was the process of putting the songs together for MANIC DESTRUCTIVE?
John: A lot of the songs were old. I wanted to take the best songs that I wrote solo-wise and see “What still holds true? What still has merit? What still has a voice?” So I did that, then wrote four new songs for the record.
One of my favorite bands ever is Against Me!, which was my real introduction to folk punk. Ever since I first saw them, I’ve loved how political yet personal their songs are, which eventually explored Laura Jane Grace’s gender dysphoria. A lot of what I did on MANIC DESTRUCTIVE was relevant to that in terms of getting sober and political unrest.
If you had to pick one song on “Manic Destructive” that represents where you’re at right now more than where you were when you wrote it, which would it be?
John: I would say “Conned The World”, which is basically about me going to AA meetings and trying to get sober. I’m not often proud of the stuff that I write because I judge everything that I write. But there’s a line in that one I really love: “Ask for forgiveness, for myself I cannot.”
I’ve messed up a lot and I have conned a lot of people with no intention of doing so. Now that I’m sober, I have a clear head and that’s how I feel that I’ve done to my family and friends. I think that’s probably the most representative of where I am now. It’s also a very hopeful song, and most of the stuff that I write is pretty depressing.
How much of this record is you bringing ideas versus your producer, Scotty Sandwich, pushing you in directions you wouldn’t have gone alone?
John: I’d say it was a 75/25 split. I just sent him rough copies of me playing acoustic guitar in my bedroom that I recorded on a voice memo. I included the lyrics and the instrumental breakdown. The first thing he said was, “You don’t need this, you can get rid of this.” He wanted to make it as barebones as possible, and that’s when he referenced Nebraska.
The main thing that Scotty did was send some song versions with piano parts he has written. I was floored. One song, “I Made This”, was originally from a loud punk album and he made it into a ballad that’s now one of my favorite songs.
To me, he’s a genius. He did keyboards on “Manic” and guitar solos on “The Management” and “Destructive”. He just made them up on the spot, he’s that good.
What does the rest of the year and 2026 look like from your end?
John: I love playing live right now. It is not entirely conducive just because I have a family or a job. But I’ve always been a live guy, ever since I started playing music.
I’m the kind of person that I finish a record and think about the next one. I don’t want to make the same record twice, I feel like I have, in my opinion. My biggest problem is that I always try to think about how I can pull stuff off live. And if I can’t or try to find a way to do it, then I won’t.
Now that I’m getting older, I actually really like being in the studio. I used to do my parts and then call it a day. But now I really like the aspect of it. Especially when I started doing solo stuff, I recorded my first two records on GarageBand by myself, with just a microphone and whatever I had lying around. I think I banged on some suitcases for effects and whatnot. And I sang in my closet, which drove my wife crazy.
I always want to keep learning about that kind of stuff because it makes it more interesting to me. And now that I’ve done a bunch of solo records, I can’t wait to do what’s next. I also am the kind of person who has to be hit with inspiration. I can’t just sit down and do something. Something needs to happen, and then I’ll write five songs.
Who are some of your favorite local/North Carolina musicians?
John: I love Old Heavy Hands from Greensboro. There’s a great band called Boy Named Sue from Raleigh. They’re very, very old friends of mine. I’ve known them for a while.
I gotta shout out Scotty and his band, Worthington’s Law. They’re great. And the last one I can think of is Wolves&wolves&wolves&wolves (aka wolvesx4), who have been doing it for a while. And they are like a Hot Water Music-ish punk act.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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