Biography

The Hypo Twins - Down and dirty, lean and hungry, the band, whose nucleus is singer/guitarist Michael Loy and lead guitarist Jimi Johnson, is raw, primal rock and roll.

“We are all about fighting mediocrity,” says Loy, “fighting the bullshit.” Adds Johnson: “We’re trying to bring back the undeniable feeling of rock and roll, because it’s been diluted. This is a band that plays music as if its life depended on it, because for these guys it does.

After months of abusing his aunt’s karaoke machine, Loy picked up guitar his freshman year of high school. “I started singing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ with this group of dudes at school. Their guitar player sucked, so we kicked him out of the band and I took over playing the guitar and singing.”

Meanwhile another future Nirvana fanatic was born. He fell in with a group of kids who played music but couldn’t tune their instruments. “I started going out on tour as a road manager and tech with different bands and began to build a decent career,” says Johnson, who has roadied for Taking Back Sunday, Thrice, and Coheed and Cambria. On every tour, Johnson kept his eye on the guitar player, trying to figure out if playing was something he could do. “Mike was actually the guy who said to me, ‘You can play guitar, it’s not that hard,’” Johnson says. “That broke down the barrier for me.”

The two met five years ago when the punk band Johnson was playing with in Phoenix put an ad in the paper looking for a vocalist. “Mike showed up and gave a stellar performance,” Johnson says. “He was pretty shy and reserved at first, but once he came out of his shell, it was like opening Pandora’s Box.”

“My first impression of Jimi was ‘Wow, this guy has a big mouth.’ He’s like the guy in The Wizard of Oz, just talking and not giving a ****.”

In a classic case of opposites attract, Johnson and Loy quickly discovered they shared a desire to bring authenticity back to rock and roll. When their respective bands broke up, the pair decided to strike out on their own. In 2008 they recruited bassist Matt Brunsvold and the line-up was complete.

And how do they want people to feel when they hear the music? “I want people to feel loose,” Loy says. Let's get back to some basics. We want to make everyone act kind of crazy, but to know why they're doing it.”