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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nBy Russell Hall<\/b><\/p>\n
Some of Jack Johnson\u2019s best ideas for songs come when he\u2019s alone\u2014on a surfboard. \u201cI learned to play guitar to sit on the front porch and have sing-alongs,\u201d he says. \u201cUltimately songs are there to share\u2014it\u2019s a social thing. But surfing is an escape for me, a way to have solitude and reflect on things. I do more writing in the ocean than people probably realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2014who has spent nearly his whole life in\u00a0Oahu, Hawaii\u2014appeared destined for a pro career riding the waves until a serious surfing accident sent him in other directions. After graduating from college with a degree in cinematography, he co-produced a well-received surfing documentary that featured several of his original songs. Subsequently a four-track demo caught the attention of Ben Harper producer J.P. Plunier, who manned the boards for Johnson\u2019s 2001 debut\u00a0album, Brushfire Fairytales<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The record established Johnson as a master of sunny, laid-back acoustic folk-pop. It also became a surprise hit, reaching platinum status and enabling the singer-guitarist to build his own studio, Mango Tree. In the past decade, Johnson has sold nearly 20 million albums. \u201cI never imagined that initial wave would take things this far,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been wild\u2014nerve-wracking at times, but exciting and fun. We\u2019re still sort of riding it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s latest project, From Here to Now to You<\/i>, marks a return to his trademark mellow surf-folk sound. \u201cThe term \u2018easy listening\u2019 can have a cheesy connotation,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut we\u2019ve always wanted to make our music easy on the ears. We\u2019re never going for that edgy thing where you\u2019re breaking boundaries. We\u2019ve always felt part of a tradition, like folk barbecue or something.\u201d From his home in Oahu, Johnson spoke about the new album and why surfing remains a seminal component of his music.<\/p>\n
How did you approach the album?<\/b><\/p>\n
The beginning of a record is always a bit blurry for me. Once the previous record is turned in, I start slowly writing songs again. Sometimes I don\u2019t write a song for a month or two. Other times I\u2019ll write three in a week. Eventually I collect them. My wife always helps. We sit around and grab them from various journals, from little recordings made on my phone, or from four tracks. Then we look at the list and decide if there\u2019s enough there for an album. Once I\u2019m at that point, I can start to hear the album take shape.<\/p>\n
Did one song point the way?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI Got You,\u201d the opening track. Once I have a song that feels good every time I sing it, that\u2019s when I feel I have something to base an album around. This material felt pretty intimate, like it didn\u2019t need a lot of production. It felt like we should keep it pretty stripped down. Often the last venues I played in can shape the sonic template for the songs I\u2019m working on. I had been doing a lot of acoustic shows in small theaters in Hawaii the year before, and I probably had those venues in mind as I started working on these songs. We\u2019ve actually decided that\u2019s probably the best way to present them, in theaters.<\/p>\n
Did the songs change in the studio?<\/b><\/p>\n
Most sound similar to the demos I make, just with better execution. I\u2019ll often make a four-track version where I\u2019ll play the drums and the bassline. Once the band gets together, the bass player will sometimes play the same part I played on the demo. Other times he\u2019ll come up with his own thing\u2014something similar, but with a better feel. And of course the drummer plays the drums better than I do.<\/p>\n
Any fun moments?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cShot Reverse Shot.\u201d My kids give me lots of good lyric ideas. One day my son\u20145 or 6 at the time\u2014said, \u201cDad, can I get one of those edible watches?\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d \u201cYou know, the kind that just has numbers, not hands.\u201d \u201cOh, digital watches.\u201d \u201cYeah, an edible digital watch.\u201d I started writing around that phrase\u2014stream of consciousness writing. I had also just read the book\u00a0Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?<\/i>, on which the film Blade Runner<\/i> was based. One of the major themes of the book is empathy, how the androids can\u2019t experience empathy. The song has references to the book and some references to film technique. It was a fun song to write.<\/p>\n
Recall your early songwriting efforts?<\/b><\/p>\n
In high school I was playing rhythm guitar in a punk-rock band. The bass player was writing songs, which I found intriguing. I made some minor attempts, but I wasn\u2019t sharing them with anyone. Then I went to college and the first week met this girl and fell head over heels. She had great taste in music and was well read. I would bounce songs off her. I figured if she was digging on these songs, maybe they were worth sharing. Now she\u2019s my wife. She\u2019s always been a great sounding board, a co-writer in certain ways. She gives me a lot of ideas, and a lot of my songs are about her. Meeting my wife was the beginning of songwriting for me.<\/p>\n
How did you learn guitar?<\/b><\/p>\n
When I was 14, I picked up an acoustic guitar and started learning chords. My dad\u2019s friend showed me how to play Cat Stevens songs, while my friend showed me how to play punk-rock songs by Minor Threat. Sometimes I would plug in and really crank up, and other days I\u2019d sit on the front porch and strum Jimmy Buffett and Cat Stevens songs on an acoustic.<\/p>\n
So you were a hard rock fan?<\/b><\/p>\n
I even liked thrash metal\u2014early Metallica records. I got a chance to meet Kirk Hammett. He\u2019s a musician who has a surfing hobby, whereas I\u2019m a surfer with a music hobby. He was actually a fan of my surf movies. It blew my mind that he knew about these things I had done, because I had spent my teen years studying tablature books, learning how to do hammer-ons and Kirk Hammett guitar solos. I went toward the acoustic stuff as I started songwriting. But as a teenager I practiced scales and sat around trying to get a good lead tone.<\/p>\n
And Hendrix had a profound impact.<\/b><\/p>\n
Especially<\/i> Hendrix. People who cite him as an influence tend to be ripping soloists, but what I loved were all the little hammer-ons and slides he does to connect his chords. They\u2019re beautiful embellishments that give his music a liquid quality. He blends the chords together in ways where you can\u2019t detect the end of one chord and the beginning of another.<\/p>\n
How important is surfing?<\/b><\/p>\n
Surfing gives me the other side of music, the solitary side. I often write when I\u2019m surfing\u2014not with pen and paper, but it gives me a chance to think and process things that are happening in my life. I have three kids, and that\u2019s a nonstop responsibility. If I have an hour available to surf, that\u2019s time for reflection. Often I\u2019ll come in from the ocean with a new idea for a song.<\/p>\n
Ever feel the pull of New York or L.A.?<\/b><\/p>\n
No, but I\u2019ve felt the push. [laughs<\/i>] I always felt like an outsider in those places\u2014not in any extreme way. As the success\u00a0of Brushfire Fairytales<\/i> grew, I had the means to turn a garage in Hawaii into a recording studio. That\u2019s been really nice. There\u2019s no one from a record label reminding me that these songs will eventually be for sale. We get to focus on making\u00a0something we love.<\/p>\n
What will you be doing in five years?<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know. In the past I\u2019ve said I didn\u2019t think I would still be doing this by this point. I always thought touring might get in the way of raising a family, but we\u2019ve found our own way to make the tours into a family road trip. We get to travel the world and teach the kids geography by actually going to these places. By the end of every touring cycle I think I\u2019m done. And then after a year off, I get an itchy feeling to do it all again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JACK JOHNSON\u00a0 The master of laid-back acoustic folk-pop rides the waves of success By Russell Hall Some of Jack Johnson\u2019s best ideas for songs come when he\u2019s alone\u2014on a surfboard. \u201cI learned to play guitar to sit on the front porch and have sing-alongs,\u201d he says. \u201cUltimately songs are there to share\u2014it\u2019s a social thing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[7299,503,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11349,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11347\/revisions\/11349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}