South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Johnson treats every album as his last
Many of Jack Johnson’s songs are soft and lilting, but he credits being periodically fatalistic as a key to his career of 21 years.
“I have to trick myself into thinking every album is my last one,” said the singer-songwriter, 47. “I find I write better when I’m not thinking about performing — or when I’m thinking that people may not ever hear the songs I’m writing.”
Achieving such a state of mind may be a challenge for this Hawaii native. Since the release of his 2001 debut, “Brushfire Fairytales,” Johnson’s worldwide album sales have topped the 25 million mark. He has headlined such major festivals as Coachella and Bonnaroo and performed in outdoor venues with capacities of 15,000 to 20,000. “Sometimes, if I’m not careful, I can take it for granted,” said the married father of three who recently finished a U.S. tour.
The soothing, islandflavored folk and soft-rock songs that propelled Johnson into the spotlight are a far cry from the punk rock he played in his teens as a member of the Oahu band
Limber Chicken. At the time, he was a fan of such incendiary post-hardcore acts as Fugazi and Minor Threat.
But he also grew up hearing records by his parents’ favorite artists, from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Neil Young and Cat Stevens. And such Johnson songs as “I Tend to Digress” and “3 A.M. Reunion” — both from his latest album, “Meet the Moonlight” — suggest he is quite conversant with the music of Paul Simon. Released earlier this year, “Meet the Moonlight” is Johnson’s eighth studio album and first with producer Blake Mills.
Johnson credits Mills with pushing him out of his comfort zone and encouraging spontaneity while recording together. Although Johnson’s band members perform on the album, most of the instrumentation is provided by Johnson and Mills, who also supplies many of the background vocals.
The 10-song “Meet the Moonlight” is not a dramatic departure from Johnson’s previous albums but a subtle one, with some of his lyrics expressing a new sense of moral ambiguity that reflect the increasingly uncertain times in which we live.
In “Costume Party,” Johnson performs, in a manner, on beer bottles. He does so by taking a sip and then blowing into the bottles to create a descending bass line that was modeled after the 1969 Led Zeppelin classic “Dazed and Confused.”
“I told Blake about the beer bottles idea,” Johnson said. “And he said: ‘Let’s try it’ (on the record). Because ‘Costume Party’ is meant to be a song about the after-party and a metaphor about how, at this point in your life, you feel comfortable enough to take off a little of your costume.
“We were talking about (post-concert) afterparties backstage, where a friend is blowing in a beer bottle — and thinking they are killing it — and they don’t realize how discordant it is.”
Oct. 16 birthdays: Actor Barry Corbin is 82. Bassist C.F. Turner is 79. Actor Suzanne Somers is 76. Guitarist Bob Weir is 75. Actor Tim Robbins is 64. Singer Bob Mould is 62. Bassist Flea is 60. Actor Terri J. Vaughn is 53. Singer Wendy Wilson is 53. Actor Kellie Martin is 47. Singer John Mayer is 45. Actor Kyler Pettis is 30.