Faces in the Crowd 

• John & Paul

You may be familiar with the SLC Pepper mural on 250 S. 400 West, which is a remake of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. It was created by Jann Haworth, the same artist who co-created the original, and who lives in Utah. The mural includes popular historical figures like Björk, David Bowie, Martin Luther King Jr., and Pablo Picasso. There are also a few blank spaces where the Beatles would be on the original cover. If you look closely, the spots where John Lennon and Paul McCartney's faces are located, you will see none other than local bandmates of John & Paul, Jason Dickerson (John) and Tucker White (Paul).

How did this happen?

It all started seven years ago, when Dickerson and White were having coffee at The Rose Establishment. "We were sharing a cookie, and we looked across at Salt Lake City Pepper, and we were like, 'There's no Salt Lake City people on it,'" White recalls. Maybe it was a couple of mural restorationists who gained favor with the property owners of the building, and stenciled on images of Dickerson and White over John Lennon and Paul McCartney's blank faces. We may never know.

To commemorate the event of seeing their rock and roll images on the mural, Dickerson and White decided to take a leap of faith and start a band despite neither of them having much musical training. "Through the John and Paul mural, as we found out, we had a lot of fertile ground for creative chemistry and collaboration. So we recorded an album of Beatle covers, and then we had a show," Dickerson explains. While their first performance was a house party, they quickly formed a fan base who encouraged the pair to continue their music project.

When COVID-19 lockdowns were in full force, Dickerson and White—like many musicians in 2020—used the time to make music. "We had all of the time in the world. And so to be getting together and just being able to work on songs and music and art like that was a nice outlet for those trying times," Dickerson explains.

In a little less than two years, the duo wrote and recorded more than a hundred songs of original material. Taking further inspiration from The Beatles, they decided to release the plethora of music in a series of anthologies on streaming platforms. "Once we started opening that box, it was so much fun, and there were so many ideas happening and so many songs and sketches," White adds.

Over the past few years, they've built a loyal local fan base through organic word-of-mouth and energetic live performances. How do John & Paul have the stamina and creative flow to produce so much musical content? Dickerson explains, "In John & Paul, we always say, 'Let duende guide you'." What is duende? It is a Spanish term first theorized and enhanced by Andalusian poet Federico García Lorca, and is used to express a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity.

"It's our guiding force. It's our guiding light. Duende comes from beneath you. It starts in the soles of your feet and goes up through your legs, grabs you by the heart and just bursts out of your head. And it's just this creative force that is beyond any thought," White expounds.

This process of embodying duende allows John & Paul to lose themselves in the moment. "So long as you're lost in the moment, there shall you always remain," Dickerson says. And it's really about the spontaneity and fun that comes with the creative process, as well as performing. "We're just here to have a good time, make people happy," Dickerson puts it simply.

In November John & Paul released their first studio album, The Tale of the Big Ol' Toad. Their sister band, Proto-Titties, had just recorded an album with Marmalade Music, run by one of John & Paul's previous studio musicians, Chris Bjornn. All the instruments at the studio were lying around, so John & Paul spontaneously decided to record just one song for as long as possible, and the end result is an hour-long psychedelic fever dream. The album cover conceptualizes its tone, reminiscent of a surrealist fairy tale.

What are John & Paul up to next? "We are slowly chipping away at recording another album, but mostly getting the anthologies done," White announces. They've made five albums' worth of anthologies, the last of which is a live anthology; three more anthologies are in the works with songs spanning from 2020-2023.

To experience one of John & Paul's provocative, energetic performances, check them out on July 8 at International Artist Lounge (342 S. State St). They now have more than 150 released original songs, so perhaps set aside a few days to listen to all their work. You can find them on Instagram: @johnkilledpaul and streaming platforms such as Spotify and Bandcamp.