Eagerly awaited CD reflects songwriter's Island roots
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Jack Johnson's new CD, "On And On," was recorded in Hawai'i.
Danny Clinch About Jack Age: 28 On CD: "On And On" (Universal/Moonshine Conspiracy), "Brushfire Fairytales" (Universal/Enjoy As Director: "September Sessions," (2000), "Thicker Than Water" (1999) |
Just a couple of hours away from a New Orleans gig last Friday, the O'ahu-raised (and once again O'ahu-based) multi-hyphenate —he's a singer, songwriter, guitarist, surfer and filmmaker, who also tends a lean and mean backyard North Shore garden — was upbeat and in no big hurry to do anything but talk.
The occasion of our chat? The release of Johnson's new CD "On And On," out today on Universal/Moonshine Conspiracy Records. The follow-up to Johnson's platinum-plus 2001 debut "Brushfire Fairytales," "On And On is as gorgeous, intelligently versed, and irresistably catchy a collection of new songs as you'd expect from the singer.
It's also as sweetly acoustic and crisply spare as the beach-blanket soul of "Brushfire," and held together by Johnson's folky whisper of a tenor. As perfect a weekend chill-out companion as they come.
I spoke to Johnson as he lounged on what sounded like a wickedly tricked out tour bus in the Big Easy.
Q. So you're in New Orleans tonight, and they're expecting you to show up in Memphis tomorrow?
A. Yeah. (Laughs.) So we're gonna sleep on the bus as we drive. We were gonna fly, but we got a bus at the last minute, which makes me happy. When you're on the bus it's like a time machine. You get on here and it's like a living room. You can have DVDs, listen to music and stuff, and just hang out and talk with everybody in the band. The next thing you know, you're in the next town. It's nice.
Q. Sounds nice.
A. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bigger than our mini-van we used to tour in, so it's nice.
Q. How often do you get back here to O'ahu these days?
A. You're on O'ahu?
Q. Yeah.
A. Oh, hey! How you doin'? I didn't realize this was that Derek.
Q. It's me.
A. Yeah. How you doin'?
Q. Pretty good.
A. I get back pretty often. I just left there a couple of days ago. ... We went to Australia and then we got back for just two or three days. But it was nice to be home for a few days. If you look on our tour schedule, any time you see more than four days (of break time), we're gonna be in Hawai'i. We're gonna go back there for all of July. I'm not sure of anything past August right now. We don't have anything planned really. But once winter comes, I'll definitely be there for ... at least November, December, January (and) February. That's my new plan — to always take off a whole month so I can surf.
Q. You really look forward to coming back here don't you?
A. Oh yeah! I love it. It's real nice.
Q. What else do you do when you're back home?
A. I like hiking a lot. Right behind the North Shore, there's a lot of fun valleys to go back and hike in. I like to just take a little machete and blaze some trails — just keep going back and keeping them up. It's really fun to go back. I like to find fruit trees back there — strawberry guava trees and stuff — and keep checking on 'em and seeing when they're good.
And then I like gardening a lot, too. I've got a little garden going over there ... so when we went home ... we got to take a bunch of tomatoes and green beans and spinach (and) we all made dinner with all the garden stuff. That was pretty fun.
Q. This was at your parent's house?
A. Actually, we've got a place over there now that we live at when we go home. So that's pretty much it. I just like sittin' around playing guitar with friends. We've got some drums over there ... so we jam outside the house. That kind of stuff. But whenever the waves are good, that takes up most of the day.
Q. It's got to be cool to have your own house here now.
A. Yeah. That's why we'll be back there all the time. But we're (already) living there, basically.
Q. The last time I spoke with you in December 2001, "Brushfire" was just getting its first whiff of mainstream notice after being embraced by the Cali and Hawai'i surf community.
A. Yeah, I remember that.
Q. The CD had just sold about 50,000, and you were still surprised that Time Magazine had done a feature on you. You never saw "Brushfire's" 2002 success coming did you?
A. Not really. When I was talking to you ... we were considering where it was at a success already. And that's sort of always been the really cool thing about this gig. It's been a success since we first put it out and (were getting) positive reports from the surfers that were buying our surf movies. That was kind of our only goal at the beginning — making something that people who liked our surf movies would be proud of. When it went beyond that it was just all icing on the cake. ...
But I think every step of the way, including right now, it's just always sort of (been) assuming this is it. And that's been fun for the band and myself. It's like every gig we've always played has always been about that night, not really thinking of it as a stepping stone, and trying to move forward. ...
I think being present, or learning how to be present, is the greatest gift you can get. You know, just really enjoying it. It happens to so many people where suddenly they're looking forward so much that all of a sudden they look back and they find they've lost a bunch of really fun years. ... So we're always having a really good time.
Our whole crew (are like) good friends, and out on the road it's like a road trip with all these great experiences. We all like to go snowboarding or surfing whenever we're in a snowboard or surf town. We bring skateboards on the road, and so we'll go find these big hills. It's just a fun traveling crew.
Q. When did you first realize that things were getting a little bigger with "Brushfire" than you originally expected?
A. The funny thing is that I just try to ignore it. And not in a negative way. But you don't really have to pay much attention (to) how big it's getting, and you don't really have to read everything that gets written about you or try to keep up with what the whole world thinks about you. Really, all you have to do is think about the show you're playing that day.
I guess what I'm saying is, it never got to the point where unless you were looking to see how popular you are you'd notice. When I walk around, nobody recognizes me. If I walk around in certain towns where our music's more popular I might get stopped once or twice just by a cool kid who says, "Hey, I like your music a lot." I say, "Thanks," and that's the end of it, you know what I mean?
I've never reached — and don't think I ever will just because of the type of music I play — any kind of place where it's completely overwhelming to walk outside. I think I'll always be able to just cruise around and not get recognized. (To be able to do that) and play shows and draw crowds would be the perfect combo.
Q. For me there was something strange yet kind of right about hearing "Flake" and "Bubble Toes" playing heavily on the radio while I was sitting on a beach at Cape Cod last summer.
A. (Laughs.) That is crazy.
Q. Where's the oddest place you've heard one of your songs?
A. Let's see. I've heard (a song) a few times when I'm walking through a random airport and just hear it on the intercom or coming out of some restaurant. But I get a lot of reports from people who say (they've heard the songs) down in Mexico or Costa Rica or Indonesia. And that's really cool, because it seems to make it to a lot of surf communities or surf destinations. ...
I had a couple of guys at the last show we did that were from Israel ... that said that them and all their friends listen to ("Brushfire") in Israel. When you hear about it in these far off places, it's mind-blowing. I can't really think of too bizarre of a place that I've heard it besides randomly at airports.
Q. I think that could be pretty bizarre.
A. Yeah, it is. The weird thing is, you hear it first and then you kind of almost start singing along or humming with it because you think it's a normal tune. And then, all of a sudden, you realize it's yourself and it freaks you out.
Q. Have you gotten used to playing live in front of thousands, rather than dozens or hundreds, of people? It's got to be kind of freakish for someone that never expected his music to go beyond the realm of his surf buddies.
A. Yeah, it is really weird. Right at first, it was sort of tough just to get used to. And as time went on, I started realizing that even though there was a large crowd ... that everybody really wanted to be there and had a really positive energy that comes back at you. A lot of times they're singing the lyrics with you. ...
Playing in front of a big crowd of people who came to sing along and came to bring good energy (is) when it gets real easy.
Q. How about music critics — whether their comments are good or bad — picking your music apart?
A. I've heard people say negative things, and that never bothers me. I don't assume that everybody is going to like my music.
I tell my publicist not to show me everything. But when you get (a review) in Rolling Stone or a big magazine like Blender or Spin, you're bound to hear about it or see it at the airport or something. The only weird part is just thinking that these people have enough power to give their opinion, and it affects what a lot of other people are going to think about (the music). That's because a lot of people will read that and just take that for fact. And it's just one opinion.
In Blender, ("On And On") got a four-star review and it was a really good write-up and then you think, "Oh, that's great!" And then we got that negative review in Rolling Stone. It doesn't offend me that that guy thinks that so much as it is that it's too bad a lot of people are gonna see that and make their judgement of the record because of that, you know?
Q. Entertainment Weekly gave "On And On" a B+. Did you know that?
A. No. That's cool. ...
It's hard not to be curious of what people are thinking and it's hard not to read reviews. But the best advice is to not read your own press. It's almost a cliche (because) once you start to get into the business everybody says that. It's good advice, though. Because if you read good stuff about yourself you're just gonna get a big head. And then if you read bad stuff it's gonna bum you out and make you think negatively of yourself. So it is, I think, healthy not to read too much of it. That way you just kind of keep on doing what you're doing without getting affected by other peoples' opinion.
Q. You recorded "Brushfire" in L.A. in one very rushed week and under a very tight budget.
A. Yeah.
Q. Was it important for you to record "On And On" here on O'ahu?
A. Yeah! I mean, more than (for) the outcome of the record it was just important for me because I didn't really have another L.A. recording session in me, I don't think. L.A. is just really overwhelming. It's kind of fun for a day or two. But it's just so big and so fast paced.
We wanted to spend a little bit more time on this one. Three weeks or so is what we spent, so doing it in Hawai'i was everything just because all of this stuff slowly becomes your life. That's a month out of your life. So it was nice to be able to have the mornings to go hang out with my niece and nephew, or my brothers, or go for a surf, or kayak if the waves were flat and just be outside and live like I want to live. And then (I'd) go in (the studio) in the afternoon.
Being in the studio is tricky. It's a lot of fun. But some bands will lock themselves in a studio for months to come out with a record.) But that's like sacrificing months out of your life to be inside, and I'm more of an outdoor person.
For the other guys in the band, it was the same way. So that was really nice and kept if fresh.
I guess we want our sound to be, sort of, something that people can put on at barbeques. So I think it's hard to create that sound without having the barbeque and being in that frame of mind that you would be at a barbeques. And so we were having lots of barbeques and family get togethers. The guy who produced ("On And On") Mario Caldato (Jr.) had his family there in Hawai'i with us.
And so we kind of just had this open theory about anbody who wanted to come to the studio at any time, as far as our family and friends go, (being) welcome. So it was really fun.
I'd look into the control room and I'd see my niece and nephew making faces at me, or I'd look and see Mario's daughter in there playing with toys on the ground. I feel like that stuff gets in the music — the mood you're in when you're doing it. You don't feel like you're doing something fake. You're living your life.
Q. You recorded "On And On" in a garage.
A. Yeah. We basically sound-proofed a garage and put up the microphones. And that was fun. We didn't feel like we were in some fancy studio.
Q. A lot of artists with successful debut CDs use their sophomore discs to throw in everything from more money to more instruments to going after complete changes in style and sound. But I liked that "On And On" returns to the trio of you, Adam and Merlo and little else.
A. Thanks. A lot of people worry about reinventing themselves and all that stuff. ... I've (gotten) some negative press, and then I've read a couple of things where people were so happy we didn't change our sound and thought it was so cool how we didn't feel like we had to. But I guess the bigger you get, you're gonna get people on both sides and more negative critiques. And that's fine. But I think it was important to us to try to keep ourselves the same. And it's hard. ...
You're in hotel rooms all the time in different parts of the world and traveling a lot during the year. We wanted to get back to Hawai'i and spend a little time there.
We built the studio, actually. It was fun. Me and the guys in the band helped a little bit, but it was mostly my brother and some other friends. We changed the garage around, did all the work ourselves.
Putting all that time into that really just got me back to just feeling like I was living in Hawai'i.
(Merlo) is from New York originally. But he really appreciates the fact that we can take any of these songs and play 'em on the front porch and my niece and nephew could sing along. He always reminds me of that when I'm writing songs. To keep it the context of, "Can I still play this song on the front porch?" ...
I want the songs to always work when you're sitting in Hawai'i on a sunny day, because that's me.
Q.What was working with Mario like?
A. It was great. It was very nice. Really, we became good friends first. We just met randomly and started hanging out. He had come to Hawai'i a few times ... just hanging out with my brother a lot. So it was one of those real natural things.
Some producers will go, "Oh, I've got great ideas about what we could do to your stuff." But his whole thing was ... I gave him this compilation of all these live songs that we had recorded from our shows. And he just loved the way it sounded and just basically wanted to make that sound more crisp on a studio record but not take away from the feeling of it being live. ...
He didn't want to change anything. He just wanted to help us get what we wanted on tape.
Q. Mario already comes to the table with a diverse musical background having produced Beck, Ozomatli, John Lee Hooker and the Beastie Boys. But did you have to turn him onto anything you listen to?
A. A couple of little things. It was cool. I mean, our tastes are really similar. He likes a lot of the same stuff: Otis Redding, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, the Beatles, Donovan. I think Nick Drake was one thing I turned him on to that I like a lot. And he really liked the way those vocals were. That's ... part of the way we approached the whispery vocals and stuff. ...
I listen to a record and say, "I like this record." He listens to a record and goes, "This is how they did this and that." He comes from the technical side. So he was always trying to get me to get real close to the mike because that was how the Nick Drake records, I guess, were recorded and he really liked the way those sounded. Things like that. But really, we were on the same page from the begining.
(Adam and Merlo) had all these references I didn't even know about. ... They're all, kind of, audiophiles who collect records. So we would listen to a lot of old (Bob) Marley records and listen to the sound of the drums and the way they sounded. They would put tape on their drums and t-shirts and stuff like that to really try and deaden the drums sometimes.
So we did a lot of that kind of stuff. That was fun.
Q. Was much of "On And On" written here?
A. Sometimes. I wrote verses here and there. I'll write a verse, and then I'll write another verse a year later sometimes. I kind of always forget where I wrote each one. Sometimes I'll remember because I'll be sitting somewhere finishing it and I'll remember where I was. A lot of the tunes were finished in Hawai'i.
Q. I've heard that you originally wrote 25 songs for "On And On."
A. Actually, I had 25 ideas, at least. We didn't have 25 complete songs.
Q. What are you inspired by?
A. Different things. There'll be just a silly love song that I'll kind of start writing around the house or in the living room just to make my wife laugh or something. There are ones where I just try to make people feel good. There are ones that I sing around my niece and nephew.
There are songs that (were written) when I was just at the beach. In Santa Barbara, there are these big oil rigs out on the horizon. "The Horizon Has Been Defeated" is sort of about all those oil rigs out there and thinking about progression — how with progression, sometimes you go too far. And when you look back it's not necessarily progression ,and it can have effects like war.
Q. What made you decide to revist "Rodeo Clowns," a minor-hit you wrote and did with G Love and Special Sauce in 1999?
A. I wasn't trying to do it where (the feeling was), "It worked before so let's try to get it on the radio again." That's why we hid it further back on the record, too — (to not) make it so much a highlight of the record.
I guess what it was is we were playing it live a lot and we just really liked the way we were doing it. It had sort of a different feel to it than the hip-hop way it was on Garrett ("G. Love" Dutton's) record. So I just wanted to have a version.
And I figured the longer I put it off, the less likely it would ever make it on one of my CDs. ... It kind of has more of a Latin feel to it, or an afro-beat feel on the drums.
A lot of people still haven't heard it. So it was exciting for us to put it back out there.
Q. Care to reveal the beach you recorded "Symbol In My Driveway" on?
A. Yeah, it's at Rocky Point. If you listen closely at the beginning, the waves are really loud. After we recorded the track we went down to the shoreline with a little portable mike. As soon as the singing comes in ... we're sitting on a front porch about 30 yards from the water. All the waves you hear after the voice comes in is all real and in the background. But the real loud stuff in the beginning of the song is an overdub we put on from Rocky Point.
Q. When were the vocals recorded?
A. Actually, in the evening shortly after dark. We had a barbeque and then got the mikes and the guitars out after we ate some food and everybody was sitting around.
Q. You've even got some nice Hawaiian slack key guitar goin' on in "Cocoon."
A. It sounds like it, doesn't it? It's a tuned regular guitar. ... I was sitting in this hotel and I started putting out that little riff. It's just a regular chord where I figured out how to stretch my finger a little further. And it really sounded slack key style to me so I was all excited about it. I really like how that (track) sounds.
Q. Are you more satisfied with "On And On" than you were with "Brushfire?"
A. I think I am. And the difference is ... I think when most people listen to a record, they're listening to the group of songs and not so much the production. They'll be a few kids that really love production and will listen to how things are recorded. But I know when I listen to other people's music, it's more about what songs are on (the CD).
I'm so close to all my songs that I like 'em all about the same. And I really like the way this record (turned out) a lot more than the first one. I don't dislike the first one. It's just that that was what it was, and I didn't really know what I wanted yet.
This time around, we've been playing live as a band for two years and we all kind of knew the sound we wanted to get.
Q. A lot of people want to know when you're going to do another show here Jack.
A. (Laughs.) Yeah. We're going to try and do one in July. Hawai'i is always just kind of hard because you have to do one show there. You can't tack it onto a tour; or else, we'd play there every day. But I think we're going to try to do a show in July — just plan to get everybody over there and doing that.
Q. Is the reason you don't do more shows here also because O'ahu is really where you take a break from the road?
A. It ties into that. More than anything, though, it's being home.
Sometimes I like to think of just going off and doing this stuff somewhere else and just keeping home "home." It's hard. Because you want to play with all your friends, and you want to play to your hometown, put on a party and have everybody come out and have fun. But at the same time, I'd like to try some anonymity over there, you know?
It's a hard balance because, like I said, you want to play for your hometown.
Q. You told me last time that your goal was to move back here permanently. How close are you to that?
A. Whenever I'm home, (O'ahu) is where home is. It's just that I'm on the road so much.
But I'm there more than any other place for a consistent amount of time. So that's home now.
Q. G iven two choices — you hit the stage for a live show tonight in New Orleans, or you get to bed early tonight on the North Shore to hit the waves in the morning — what do you choose?
A. (Laughs.) Oh man! I would always ... (Pauses.) That's a hard question because I have to stay in the frame of mind of being excited about this show. But if the waves were gonna be good tomorrow, I'd definitely be hitting the bed early. That would usually be my choice.
But then again, this is all fun and I've got to take advantage of the fact that I'm able to do it — just go around and do it all we can.
In a few years, I'll have plenty of time to be lazy and surf all the time on the North Shore.
