Jack Johnson joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new album ‘Meet The Moonlight’, due out next week. He tells Apple Music about working with producer Blake Mills on the project (and calls him “one of the greatest guitar players alive right now”), the origins of his love songs, being grateful for a career in music, songwriting and creative process, the experience of hearing his music in public, ‘Better Together’ soundtracking people’s weddings and births, and more.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About Working With Blake Mills and Calls Him “One of The Greatest Guitar Players Alive Right Now”…
I really, really can’t say enough about the guy, Blake. We were texting this morning, just joking around stuff. It’s just nice to have a new friend. I feel like we’ve developed a friendship over the course that was really great. Same with Joseph Lorge, the guy who’s the engineer on the record, just beautiful humans. You first get into a room with somebody you don’t know that well, we talked a bunch on the phone, we decided to give it a try, so I came over. What I liked about him is we started talking about what it would all mean, and I didn’t know him too well yet, so I didn’t know, “Are we agreeing we’re doing a record or what are we doing here?” He was really cool, because he said, “You know what? Let’s not even let all that other stuff that happens between the managers and whatnot, let’s just get together and make music for a week, and let’s just decide if we like hanging out and everything.” So, I was like, “Oh, okay, good. He’s like that, that’s great,” and so we got together.
It’s weird, all of a sudden, you’re in a studio where somebody you don’t know that well, and it takes a few days, but when you spend 12 hours a day together, you get to know each other really quick. Man, anybody who knows or has seen him play, he’s one of the greatest guitar players alive right now, he’s so good. He just doesn’t always show it off, but when you see how easily his pinky goes all the way to the other side of the neck while he’s playing. It’s just the most subtle thing that he’s doing, but it’s so hard when you watch his hand, I can’t believe the chords he can do and stuff. He always supports the part. That was one thing I thought was so nice, there was never a time where I had to be like, “Oh, don’t you think you should tone it back?” Every part he would play was just supporting whatever the song was. He’s just really talented at what he does.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About The Origins of His Love Songs…
The love songs, they’re really just jokes, they’re all just trying to make my wife laugh. Most of the time it’s because I’ve forgotten an anniversary or I’ve forgotten it’s a birthday or whatever it is, I wake up and I’m, “Oh, I’ve got to really quickly get something together here.” So, I’ll just start doing something I know is going to make her happy. And then some of those are so personal, I don’t ever share them and they’re just for her.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About Songwriting and His Creative Process…
The little ideas will come out of nowhere, and then the songwriting process for me is that whatever that original spark was, I’ll just try to start asking myself a question like, “Why is that line looping in my brain right now? What does it mean?” Sometimes I ignore it, sometimes I go for a while where I got other things going on and I’m not really thinking about writing songs at all. And then there’s a time where I think, “I’m going to try to get all these scraps of paper together that I’ve written down one or two lines,” and then just see what’s going on and see if I can put them together, and it’s fun. I feel like sometimes I get to play the role of a songwriter, and other times I just don’t even think of myself as that at all, it’s just like, “I’m Dad, I’m working on this farm over here.” Real experiences, obviously, always help songs. If I just sit there thinking in a room that’s quiet trying to write songs and you don’t take things in … you’ve got nothing to put out. So, it’s more important as a songwriter, I think, to have real experiences and then you can share them.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About Hearing His Songs in Public…
It’s funny when you hear a line or every once in a while like in the grocery store and one of my songs will come on. And at first, when you first hear it, especially in a muffled situation, you hear more the base and the changes. And you’ll be like, oh, I know this song. And half the time you’ll be like, I know this song and I like this song. What is this? And then the other half is like, I know this song kind of annoys me. Oh shoot. That’s one of mine. Every once in a while, I’ll appreciate some of my own. Sometimes I get embarrassed when I hear them.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music ‘Better Together’ Is The Song That Has Connected Most With People…
I remember writing that one. I remember writing that song and it’s funny, to talk about that song for a second. I know from people sharing personal experiences, that’s the one that’s connected with the most people better together. And people have used it during their wedding day. Or people have told me they had my playlist on when their baby came into the world and things like that, which is really important. That’s a beautiful moment.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About Working With Good People…
I think life’s too important to spend time with people that you don’t consider friends. All the guys at my guitar tech, he lives down the street for me in Hawaii, and the piano tech is just a good friend. Everybody’s friends at this point, we’ve had the same crew for 20 years, we’ve been really lucky.
Jack Johnson Says Some of His Most Memorable Shows Have Been in Brazil…
Brazil is pretty amazing when you play in Brazil, the amount of energy that comes back at you. And there’s been some moments where it’s just like you could stop playing your instruments and half the crowd will sing the music part and half the crowd will sing the lyrics and stuff, you know what I mean? It gets crazy there. So they’re some of the most memorable ones, I think, were the live shows in Brazil.
Jack Johnson Tells Apple Music About Gratitude For His Career in Music…
In my world, I feel so lucky I get to do this. I can’t believe I get to wake up and go in the studio and make music and get to go on tour. And just two days ago we walked in and we got to rehearse for the first time in five years and walking around, just seeing JJ, my initials spray painted on the side of all these cases, and I was like, “Holy cow, this is all based on my music, this is so weird.” Music is a trip.
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