Time & Perspective Quote by Holly Johnson

There is a quiet defiance in calling a band "a full time job" because it punctures the most persistent myth in pop culture: that music is mainly inspiration, luck, and a little eyeliner. Holly Johnson, coming out of the late-70s/80s British scene where style and swagger often got more press than craft, frames musicianship as labor. Not glamorous labor, either - the kind that takes hours, deadlines, logistics, and the unsexy discipline of showing up when you are tired, broke, or creatively empty.

The intent is partly self-definition. Johnson is insisting on seriousness in a world that loves to treat frontpeople as charismatic accidents. It is also a boundary line: if the band is work, then commitment isn't optional and "artistic temperament" doesn't excuse unreliability. That stance reads as both professional pride and a subtle critique of the dilettante fantasy that you can dip in and out of a group when it suits your ego.

Subtextually, "job" is about control. Bands are messy micro-democracies; calling it full-time asserts a hierarchy of responsibility. It suggests that songwriting, rehearsing, touring, promo, and managing personalities are all part of the same grind. In the 80s, as bands became brands and MTV accelerated visibility, that grind only intensified - image became another shift to work.

Johnson's line works because it refuses romantic clutter. It replaces the dreamy story of rock with a practical one: success isn't just talent, it's stamina. In a culture that still undervalues creative labor, it's a surprisingly radical insistence on being treated like a worker, not a whim.