Pillars of a Twisted City Rises from the Coast

Johnny Stewart weaves a moody genre mosaic from the unlikely calm of Clayoquot Sound.

By Khagan Aslanov

Published on July 21, 2025

From his base in the remote coastal town of Tofino, BC, multi-instrumentalist Johnny Stewart has been quietly shaping a world of genre-bending soundscapes under the name Pillars of a Twisted City.

Equal parts post-punk melancholy, metal intensity, and cinematic ambience, the music emerges from an unlikely setting: a floating studio tucked away in the still waters of Clayoquot Sound. With Brimstone Prophecies, his latest EP, Stewart continues to defy expectations, weaving together seemingly incompatible styles into a cohesive and compelling vision.

Looking at the new EP’s cover art, you might assume that you have a blackened metal work in your hands. The solemn statue, run through a gauzy red filter, and the patently ornate lettering all harken back to the genre’s classic aesthetics. It’s all the more jarring and exhilarating, then, that the first single on Brimstone Prophecises, “False Prophet,” quickly reveals itself to be a grooving track that has a closer connection to New Order than it does Burzum or Bathory.

RANGE sat down with Stewart to speak about his newest EP, the mythic floating studio he uses to record, and finally being able to assemble a touring band to take his sound on the road.

Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us how Pillars of a Twisted City came to be.

Basically, it’s my solo project. I have been playing in bands for years, but in 2020, like many others, I emerged from the disillusionment in society that accompanied the pandemic, and the overabundance of time I had with this project. I just started recording stuff. It was a moment of creative release during a time when there was no other release aside from survival.

And you have a bunch of material out already! With this new EP, are you now taking this project on the road?

We haven’t toured much actually, save for a few isolated shows. We have a line-up now, friends who have been in established bands, so we’ve been rehearsing all summer. But it’s difficult to logistically mount a tour because if you listen, I do everything from flamenco guitar to black metal to shoegaze. We’ve been streamlining the sound, so there will be some smaller tours that are coming up. But realistically, up until six months ago, this has been a purely recording project.

I was going to say, to project all the genres, modalities and tones you do, you’d need to haul cabinets and cabinets of gear.

Either that or digitally process everything, with some acoustical instruments. There are nylon strings and lap steel, and for the metal parts, Marshalls, and then for the indie shoegaze bits, there are effects pedals. It would be challenging.

Practicalities aside, I do really like the switcheroo you pull here. At a visual glance, you have this patented metal font and imagery. And yet, the lead single off the EP is gothic post-punk.

Thank you! I do believe these things aren’t meant to be so restricted. I came out of ‘80s thrash and hardcore right into Killing Joke and Echo and Bunnymen and the Cure. That stuff is just as important to me as Sepultura or Anthrax.

At the heart of it is definitely just writing a solid song. Everything else is a stylistic flourish more than anything else.

Well-put! We live in a time where everyone is musically diverse. Young people get it. It’s the old jaded purists who don’t.

You walk that diverse line well. Even at first impression, you living on the coast, surfing and recording in a floating studio isn’t the trad image of a doom metal-head. I always think of some dour Norwegian kids stuck in perpetual winter.

I do love that music as well. Look at Darkthrone. They’ve only played a few shows, they go to a remote cabin in the woods and record. That was also quite inspirational to me. But we can all do that DIY approach now. The technology is there, if you’re willing to take the time and chance to do it.

So tell us about this floating studio.

Without giving away too much detail, it does exist. I record in two places. Drums I do in a proper studio, in a controlled setting, to get a good tone. As for the floating studio, it’s an old spill response floating barge called “The Sentinel,” which I named my last full-length after. It’s now dormant and docked in placid waters in Clayoquot Sound. It’s owned by a friend of mine. I go there with amps and instruments, and track everything else there. It has a wood-burner and a kitchenette, and bay doors where everything you see are the mountains and the water. I sequester myself there and write and record. It’s an incredibly uncorrupted environment.

You have some pretty big names attached to this project. Jon Joffin, who’s been nominated for an Emmy and won multiple ASC and CSC awards, Mitchell Baxter, who directed the video for “False Prophet,” and Greg Mindorff from Suite Sound Labs, who’s worked with some very big names and has won Grammies, is helming the mastering. How did these people drift into your orbit?

Some of them have been friends for a while, some of them are just a ‘right place, right time’ kind of thing. I met Mitchell at the onset of the video project which would become “False Prophet.” I’ve worked for Jon Joffin as a technician on motion pictures at various times for the past two decades. They just happened to be between projects at the time when work on the EP was finished. I sent Jon the idea for the video for the song, and he loved it, he’s also been a big fan of Killing Joke and the Cure. I was just lucky that they were there and were stoked on the song. It was very flattering. As for Greg, he’s been a friend and collaborator for a while. He’s brought me in to do session guitar work for some of his hip-hop projects. I just hit him up. I feel honoured to work with him. Compared to him, I’m very small potatoes.

What’s the biggest wave you’ve ever surfed?

Nice one! I’m an avid surfer, it’s part of what’s brought me to the coast. I’d say 12 feet. I’m not a big wave surfer, so that’s big to me. I have travelled the world to surf, and to be able to ride a wave of even 12 feet, you have to be mentally and physically fit to even paddle out to catch a wave like that.

There’s also that moment of sheer tranquility once you’ve paddled out and are sitting on the water and timing waves. That calm pocket is probably great for coming up with music ideas.

It’s amazing, yes. It segues well into my musical projects. You need to be calm and not try to force anything. I hope I don’t sound like Jack Johnson!