{"id":3421,"date":"2011-08-16T02:06:38","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T09:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3421"},"modified":"2011-08-16T02:08:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T09:08:16","slug":"eric-johnson-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/eric-johnson-2\/","title":{"rendered":"ERIC JOHNSON"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

ERIC JOHNSON<\/h1>\n

To shred or not to shred? For this guitar hero, that is the question<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Russell Hall <\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Johnson might be the world\u2019s most reluctant guitar hero. In the 1980s, as his star was first rising, the Austin native earned a reputation as a white-hot shredder. But from the start, Johnson has emphasized that technique is just part of a larger musical landscape. \u201cIf you play a show where you shred for two hours, you\u2019ll see a lot of the crowd zone out and want to go home,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd who can blame them? We\u2019ve had more than 50 years of electric guitar playing. Playing faster, more furiously, or with a more metallic tone isn\u2019t enough to keep people interested. People will be listening to Jimi Hendrix a hundred years from now not because he was flashy, but because he wrote great songs, great melodies and his rhythm playing was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s albums have always reflected that holistic musical philosophy, even as listeners are continually dazzled by his six-string gymnastics. His 1986 major-label debut, Tones,<\/em> earned Johnson his first Grammy nomination. Four additional Grammy nods have since come his way, including Best Rock Instrumental Performance, a win for his signature song, 1990\u2019s \u201cCliffs of Dover.\u201d Johnson has shared the stage with iconic peers Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and performed at Eric Clapton\u2019s Crossroads Guitar Festival. On last year\u2019s multi-act Experience Hendrix tour he played the same white Stratocaster that Hendrix used at Woodstock. Most recently he teamed with fellow guitar giants Andy McKee and Peppino D\u2019Agostino for the all-acoustic Guitar Masters tour.<\/p>\n

His latest album, Up Close<\/em>, finds the 56-year-old Johnson unleashing a dizzying array of styles. Produced by Johnson and Richard Mullen, the disc strikes a deft balance between soulful spontaneity and technical wizardry. Among its 15 tracks are the hard-rocking, fleet-fingered instrumental \u201cFatdaddy\u201d; a slow-burn blues rendition of the Electric Flag\u2019s \u201cTexas\u201d; and a stately ballad, \u201cYour Book.\u201d Johnson spoke with us about creative vision, musical philosophy and his ambivalence about the art of shredding.<\/p>\n

What was your goal for this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To find new ways of doing things. We\u2019re all the sum of our history. After a while, we start to create certain patterns in what we do. I wanted to break some of that repetition. If you keep to the same format, the vibe stays the same, even though the music might change. If you want to grow, you have to break down walls and find ways to work that are different from the past.<\/p>\n

How did you do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up listening to classical music, to players whose performance level was very high. The desire to play at that level was instilled in me. The question then becomes, how do you achieve that\u2014by constantly redoing something? Or do you achieve it by being so proficient that you\u2019re able to pull off something great at any given moment? Classical musicians don\u2019t make music the way rock artists do, where there\u2019s lots of overdubbing. They\u2019re so well rehearsed, their performance level is so high, they just go in and nail it\u2014capturing a real performance. On this album I tried to strike a balance between those two ways of doing things.<\/p>\n

Does that involve practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely. Practice is key. But a lot of the music I love\u2014folk, blues, rock and pop\u2014is wonderful when it\u2019s rough and off-the-cuff. That\u2019s one polarity, and that\u2019s predominantly my type of music. But then there\u2019s the other polarity that involves a higher level of performance. It\u2019s not fair to say there\u2019s no place in pop music for that type of excellence. Stevie Wonder\u2019s vocals are a good example: He gets great performances in single takes. It all comes down to how listenable the music is. That\u2019s what counts, first and foremost.<\/p>\n

How did you learn to play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started playing piano when I was 5. When I got a guitar, I sat at the piano with the guitar in my lap and taught myself the notes using what I\u2019d learned on piano. I took lessons from Wayne Wood\u2014who was the<\/em> guy in\u00a0Austin\u2014for a few months and learned some theory. But as far as learning songs, learning music, that came either from watching friends play or from picking\u00a0out parts on albums.<\/p>\n

What artists did you like then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was really young, it was the Ventures. Then as I started to play in bands, I started listening to the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. This was 1966 and 1967. And then Hendrix came along. His lead playing was phenomenal, but that was just part of a larger picture. I remember reading articles where Hendrix would say, \u201cGuitar players need to learn how to play rhythm guitar.\u201d He was a big proponent of rhythm playing and composition. He exemplified what it meant to be a complete guitar player.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve yet to find a standard way to write. I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s better to be open to different approaches. That doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need to have your sound together and your playing together, and have pretty good clarity about what you want to do before you go into the studio. At least that gives you a strong, clear springboard from which to work. There have been instances in the studio where something has come to me out of\u00a0nowhere, but that\u2019s rare.<\/p>\n

How do you relate to producers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m becoming more open to getting feedback from other people. Even if you\u2019re able to produce yourself well, it behooves you to get other opinions. No matter how good you are at orchestrating, arranging or seeing the big picture, it\u2019s extremely difficult to have a 360-degree view. As I get older, I\u2019m finding I get a bit exhausted trying to take that wide view. If I can get positive criticism in\u00a0the studio, that\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your recording setup?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I use the Nuendo system, which is a digital platform. To me, the top end sounds more open and sweet using Nuendo than Pro Tools. That could change from year to year, as both systems come out with new and better versions. I do use analog gear to process things, and to mix through.<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on shredding?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m probably the wrong guy to ask\u2014I\u2019m sometimes hypocritical. I might do a show, shred a 15-minute solo, and then listen to the tape and think, \u201cWhat am I doing? That was good for about two minutes!\u201d That sort of playing is OK if it\u2019s done within the context of a song, but I fell in love with the guitar because I heard Brian Jones play a cool fuzz-tone lick on \u201cSatisfaction,\u201d and because I heard Hendrix do the same thing on \u201cMay This Be Love.\u201d What turned me on were things like Eric Clapton\u2019s tone on [Cream\u2019s] \u201cSleepy Time Time.\u201d If I had been 10 years old during the \u201980s instead of in the \u201960s, I\u2019m not sure I would ever have picked\u00a0up an electric guitar.<\/p>\n

How was it playing Hendrix\u2019s Strat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Halfway through the performance, I wanted to run out the back door of the venue with it! I definitely felt a certain vibe as I was playing it. Everything has its own frequency. I once read a story about a guitar player who didn\u2019t like the sound of his instrument. Rather than changing pickups or configuration,\u00a0he decided to just will<\/em> it into sounding different as he practiced. And after months and months of playing, that guitar did in fact sound totally different. I believe that story. I think an artist leaves some of himself in what he\u2019s touched\u2014and there are a lot of\u00a0Hendrix\u2019s vibes in that guitar.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working on an acoustic album, and have three songs cut so far. People have been asking me to do this for a long time. It\u2019s pretty much just me playing the songs solo, live in the studio. I want to get it finished this year, though I\u2019ve got to balance that with touring. I also have a bunch of new electric guitar\u2013based songs that I want to record. I would also love to write music for an orchestra. That\u2019s a direction I would like to go as an electric player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ERIC JOHNSON To shred or not to shred? For this guitar hero, that is the question By Russell Hall Eric Johnson might be the world\u2019s most reluctant guitar hero. In the 1980s, as his star was first rising, the Austin native earned a reputation as a white-hot shredder. But from the start, Johnson has emphasized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1383,1059,2314,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421"}],"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=3421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3424,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421\/revisions\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}