Today we’d like to introduce you to John Dismukes.
Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started a little folk-rock band with my friend Daniel Schreiner from Germany back in 2016 called Straight Out Of New Braunfels and we started putting on benefit gigs with other artists for Austin’s Casa Marianella. Casa Marianella is a nonprofit that assists asylees across the nation with housing, legal affairs, and pretty much everything under the sun. On our third year we did the benefit concert, we had a young gentleman from Uganda who wanted to play along for the benefit, and that’s how I met Jon Muq. Jon is who got me in the music industry. Through a series of fortunate and some unfortunate events Jon and I eventually landed in Los Angeles and recorded and album with Larry Klein, who produced Tracy Chapman and Herbie Hancock amongst many other artists. Soon after we returned to Austin, I had the privilege to be represented by and work with Mike Tolleson, and I started my current production company Arching Dog Productions.
From there, I watched and helped Jon Muq grow and develop as an artist and then challenged him to produce himself, which he did two songs quite wonderfully and then eventually to produce another artist. Jon had a good friend, McKenna Michels, who I had met previously working at Mozarts Coffee House, and Jon suggested McKenna as the artist that he would produced. I offered to fund an EP and based on that EP would determine whether or not I would work with and manage McKenna. Jon continued to impress me as he recorded four wonderful songs with McKenna. We had not yet begun the mastering of the EP when it was obvious to me to be McKenna’s manager. We soon struck up an agreement and had my marketing team in NY begin working on it. We released McKenna’s EP “Renaissance” in September 2021 and by mid-October we hit #28 on Billboards Adult Contemporary charts.
At the same time, Jon Muq and I agreed to begin work on an LP for McKenna as we had new material for her and Jon had developed many great connections in the industry to help session on the new album. In a matter of a few months, we had 11 new songs recorded. This past December, we had the pleasure to work with Jason Agel who agreed to mix McKenna’s new album “Enlightenment” and give us an extra dance mix of her song “Broken Like This”. As of date radio stations in Miami and Chicago have picked up this new single and we are excited and hopeful she catches on. Broken Like This now has debuted in its first week of release on BillBoard Adult Contemporary Charts at #28 and we broke Mediabase Charts as I write this at #19.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As mentioned, we had fortunate and unfortunate experiences. We have dealt with a negative experience with an attorney we had to disengage with. We have dealt with other third parties who in the end allowed greed to blur their vision and our relationships with them. But the important part is that we were resilient and didn’t allow these things to stop our progress. Covid was probably the biggest pain the posterior we experienced. At the same time, it had its own silver lining. Jon Muq had attracted four different labels to come see him perform at The Continental Club during 2020 SXSW and when that got canceled, it had Jon set back. The silver lining was it gave us time to develop both Jon as a producer and musician and McKenna as her own artist.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I launched Arching Dog Productions in July 2019. I was working with Jon Muq at the time. In October of 2019 Arching Dog signed or first artist O.H. Moon and began work developing her. We have one EP recorded with her and working on another EP with producer Thom Russo in Los Angeles. Covid caused a delay and impacted our timing with her debut. We are expecting her official debut this summer after all this time. You can see what we have done in a few videos we have created and showing her vocal and songwriting talents at www.ohmoonmusic.com. As mentioned, we signed McKenna Michels in summer of 2021 and on our first outing hit Billboard Adult Contemporary charts this past October with her song “Tired”. Jon Muq is not an artist under Arching Dog but is my good friend and my 3rd son. Jon is back in the spotlight and recently played with Bob Schneider at the Moody Theater Feb. 12th. Jon made quite an impression at that show. I have a couple of other artists in development and look to expand my company this next year.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
One of the most exciting things we are doing is with McKenna Michels new LP “Enlightenment” and the single “Survivor”. As I am writing this I am on set of our new video for Survivor which is being shot by videographer Nick Peterson who has done videos for Five Finger Death Punch, Evanescence, and Tommy Lee amongst others. Along with this video we are in process of creating a comic book with Big Deal Productions, where McKenna is the heroine. The comic and the video tell a story of a young lady Michelle, based on a real-life friend of mine, who deals with her demons and her epilepsy by drawing anime characters. Michelle creates the McKenna character who deals with similar demons in Michelles fantasy world and helps Michelle cope. The twist comes when both Michelle and McKenna look into a mirror in their respective places and see each other so now the worlds of reality and fantasy collide. We are working with my friend and neighbor Vo Nguyen, who illustrates for both Marvel and DC comics and runs both the Austin Comicon and The Hill Country Comicon, and his business partner Donna Joseph, as well with local talent John Lukas in creating this comic book. Our goal is not only to open up McKenna’s art to a new community but to also spread messages and lessons of resilience and using compassion to conquer demons. We are also hoping to shed light and dispel any myths about living with epilepsy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.archingdogmusic.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/archingdogmusic
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/archingdogproductions
