In 1991 John recorded his first solo album, using a Fostex eight track reel to reel recorder and an Atari 1040ST computer running C-Lab Notator software. The result was Pay No Attention, an album of 14 songs spanning a wide variety of styles.

The album features the award winning political rocker Man Behind The Curtain, and several songs that were picked up by top music publishers through the Northern California Songwriters Association.

BAM magazine said "this is a good one", comparing the songwriting to Randy Newman. Man Behind The Curtain won first place in the 1992 Santa Cruz Songwriting Festival.

These are the original demo recordings of many of the songs later recorded and released by The Dead Beetles.

It was the early '90s, ok, the mullet and van dyke were ahead of their time, get over it.