For Grammy-nominated artist Jack Johnson, songwriting is just another way to process information.
“If you ask my kids, I’m constantly singing things around the house – putting things in the rhyme that don’t need to be or shouldn’t even be. But it’s how I remember things,” Johnson told Variety during the most recent episode of “Live From My Den.” “Like, if I have to pick up the kids from wherever, I put everything in a song. And every once in a while, I’ll find myself singing something that’ll sound like a lyric, you know? And then I’ll ask myself, ‘What does that mean to me? And why is it stuck in my head?’ And then I write the verses around that.”
That was the simple method that resulted in “Meet the Moonlight,” Johnson’s eighth studio album, which released in June to some of the best reviews of his career. Johnson was joined on “Live From My Den” by Alabama Shakes and Fiona Apple collaborator Blake Mills, who produced the record. Together, Johnson and Mills performed five songs from “Meet the Moonlight,” and gave fans a tour of the iconic Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, Calif., where they recorded some of the album. Two guitar nerds, Johnson and Mills also shared their major influences when it comes to playing the instrument.
“Your style of playing is so personal, and I’m a sucker for anybody who doesn’t use a pick. I really, in particular, enjoy playing with you when you’re fingerpicking… When you were learning guitar, were there any players or songwriters that you took note of how they played and tried to figure out what they were doing?” Mills asked Johnson.
“I don’t think people hear it in my music, but I would say Ian McKaye from Fugazi,” Johnson replied. “I remember pulling over on the way to high school one day… and hearing [‘Waiting Room’] come on the radio and pulling over because I didn’t want the reception to go out… and listening to it and deciding, ‘I’m gonna make a band.’”
Johnson added, “And Hendrix too, but I don’t mean in a guitar god way, but more of the little hammer-ons and ways he would connect chords on songs like ‘Bold as Love’ or ‘Castles Made of Sand’ or ‘Angel.’”
Mills agreed, saying that Johnson caused him to think differently about Hendrix’s chord progressions, which in turn impacted the album.
“It was the first time I noticed how outside his songwriting could be in terms of how free the changes were and weird and unexpected,” Mills said. “And sometimes I’d bring the song back in like, ‘Listen to the chord progression! We can be as weird as we want, man!’ You grew up listening to this stuff, like it’s in your DNA.”
Watch the full episode above.
This season of “Live From My Den” is made possible by Hard Rock and in partnership with Fujifilm X Series U.S.
