Johnnyswim is all about the pursuit

Johnnyswim may be halfway through their second annual Christmas tour, but the husband-and-wife duo of Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano are saving one gift for the new year. Together they’re gearing up for the release of Johnnyswim’s first live album, Live at Rockwood Music Hall, which will be released as a TV special as well as a full-length album in early 2016. It’s a fitting next step for an act whose music has always evolved in a live setting — including the 2014 Christmas EP that inspired the holiday tour. “Listening to Christmas records, we found ourselves singing around the house to certain ones that really stood out to us,” Sudano says. “A couple of songs, like ‘Christmas Waltz,’ we’d play at Christmas time at shows before there was ever a Christmas EP.”

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The duo’s sound naturally fits in with holiday fare, as strong vocal harmonies and a positive lyrical message lend themselves to classic arrangements. Their original material comes from the same organic, familial place. “It usually begins with Amanda cooking in the kitchen and me sitting on the couch with a guitar, singing lines back and forth to each other until we land on something we really like,” Ramirez says. “More often than not, it includes a third person, who comes in as a songwriter and doesn’t know they’re really our marriage counselor.”

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While the duo is currently based in Los Angeles, Ramirez and Sudano met in Nashville through mutual friends, writing together and evolving into a formidable duo both on stage and in the writing room. Over time their relationship evolved, too. “Nashville was the perfect starting ground for us, because it was fertile soil for young kids who were broke and just wanted to be around what they loved,” Sudano says.

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Their commitment to each other and their music is as much a product of how they were raised as it is the way they work together. Both Sudano, whose mother is renowned performer Donna Summer, and Ramirez, who was born into a Cuban immigrant family, say their strong families supported the career path that ultimately brought them together. “Bravery: That was something my parents wanted all of their kids to have, to follow things that they were passionate about,” Sudano says.

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Ramirez, too, says that inheriting a passion for music was just one part of a greater drive to follow long-term goals. “Something that they learned in leaving Cuba was that it was not just for better land or better people, but really for opportunities to pursue your dreams,” Ramirez says. “What they passed on to me was the message that life isn’t about things obtained; it’s about things pursued.”

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In the meantime, Johnnyswim’s latest round of Christmas tour dates is a pursuit of nostalgia and a family feel — more than a simple push toward what the duo has in store for its next release. “The whole point is being together and showing one another you care about each other,” Sudano says. “It’s about having fond memories. When you’re on stage and that’s your goal, you can’t not have a good time.”