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09 October 2010
Will Johnson (www.centro-matic.com) must be one of the most prolific artists around; with his bands Centromatic and South San Gabriel he tours and records all the time, well nearly all the time, because whenever he gets a moment he records and tours solo. Barry Jones spoke to him for Americana UK in 2003 and caught up with him again in his Austin home in December 2004 to talk about his latest solo venture, the outstanding, personal and very moving recent album “Vultures Await” (Munich 2004). Interview date: 2nd December 2004
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Hello Will, it’s twelve months and a day since we last spoke. Yes indeed, so tell me what’s happened to you since then? Last time, you said that, when you came back to Europe in the New Year, without The Drive By Truckers, without supporting them, that you’d get a better idea of what your audience might be, South San Gabriel versus Centromatic versus you. Did you find that? Did you find what your true audience was here? If I went to see one of your concerts I’d probably be disappointed if I didn’t get some South San Gabriel stuff some Centromatic stuff and some of your own stuff during the evening really. Are you suggesting that you’re doing more of that now? Or are you keeping them as separate as you can? Moving on to the Vultures Await album. Listening to the album without reading any background to it, I found it a very, very moving album, and something which charts the breakdown of a relationship. And then when I was researching a bit more about it, I read a review which was suggesting that you’d actually changed the running order, that the Catherine Dupree song, the tale of a mythical character, was right at the start, and that set the tone for the album. Which is it really? Am I reading too much into it? It is dark, but I really felt, and this may be the power of the word convincing me to believe, but on the tracking of the album that I’ve got, the first three songs all mention “silence” and the evocation is very dark. Is that not on something within your life; is that purely a confection, or a creation of your imagination? It’s interesting that you are so candid about it because it really did… I couldn’t have imagined it being written by somebody who hadn’t felt some great sense of loss. I found it very moving, so I certainly hope it did get some closure for you, but I certainly found it a very, very gripping album. Yeah, I can’t remember an album that moved me quite so much. You recorded it in 2003, so you’d already recorded it before we spoke last time? You were using four-track to tape last time, have you taken the technology up a bit yet? Going back to the album, did you change the running order for different versions of the release? I read that review I mentioned, and the opening song on the American version was Catherine Dupree, but on the version that I’ve got, it’s not. I like the opening song anyway. I love the one that’s on the Munich version. But that was your choice? It’s an interesting thing, because I think running order is like a set order, it’s such an important thing to people. When people say, “Just do this or do that”, if you’ve built a set up with particular things in mind, it does take quite a lot of thought, so you can’t just change it just like that. And what’s the plan for Centromatic and South San Gabriel in the near future? On this album it doesn’t appear to have any production credits, but that’s you this time is it?I guess so, informally so, but Matt our drummer and I, we did that record over the course of a working week, a year and a half a go, and it was real fast, so yeah it’s not so much of a production. I dunno, to say it’s produced by would be kind of funny considering its starkness. It just happened? And what have you been listening to? When we spoke last year you’d been buying a lot of hip-hop and soul, so what have you been listening to since then? OK that’s been brilliant thank you very much
Is it that? We’ll make it a tradition, by golly.
Oh good grief. A lot of touring. It’s probably been the most active touring thus far for any combination of Centromatic or South San Gabriel or solo, and we made a new South San Gabriel record back in June, and that’s all ready to go, for the most part, I think we still need to master it and get the artwork together and all that, but it’s done. I put out another solo record back in September, and been on tour basically since about September 15th or so, up until last week, so my bags have been packed. I can say that I put a good amount of wear on the van and/or my pickup truck.
That’s a tough question to answer… I don’t know, really. I think I gave up on the definition of what our audience was going to be. I will say the audiences were great, and we had such a goodtime with that, the successive tour, and then we came and did some festival stuff in July, which was wonderful. And we did it under all three…I guess… beasts that we’ve created, so to speak, Centromatic, South San Gabriel and solo, and every one of those shows went extremely well, so it seems that some of the work that we put in last fall has definitely paid off, and if that’s our true audience, I’m happy to come back and play for them whenever.
Yes.
We still keep it pretty separate…whatever… I guess I have dreams of being able to go out and do all three maybe over the course of a bill, to have three hours to play, it would be a lot of fun to do that. We might try that at some point if we can afford it, but right now we’re keeping it pretty separate. I might do one or two Centromatic songs in the solo set, or if somebody really wants to hear certain songs, I’ll work it out on the fly, but for the most part we’re keeping it pretty separate right now I will say that, just because it seems like each one has certain… each one has a certain personality unto itself that is represented by its members, and so I like to let that kind of speak for itself musically. There’s a lot of great people that play in South San Gabriel that make it what it is. So I kind of work with respect to that.
Yeah.
No I tend to... I have this addiction to creating these fictional characters, and if I could, I would write books, and maybe one day I will, but instead I try to inject some of these characters. I should say, if I had the patience to write books, instead I have to write three or four minute short stories, because my attention span sometimes wanders, and I like to create these characters, y’know, such as Catherine Dupree or there’s a kid called Philo Manitoba on the first solo record, who also sets himself on fire, in a different circumstance. And I kinda enjoy creating these characters, and little movie scripts in my brain, and try to write a song around it that will hopefully translate, and that’s kinda how she came up. I like to think of them as brother and sister in a weird way, so maybe I’ll just create a whole family of people that die by fire, which is kinda dark I guess.
Mostly that record is based on an occurrence in my life. There was a parting, a couple of years ago, and fortunately it hasn’t been an unhealthy parting, but it was a parting nonetheless. When that happens you take a lot from it, and I think the record was a kind of a...it’s been…it’s provided a bit closure on the whole thing for me. It was definitely a therapy session recording it, we did it pretty fast, five days or so. Yeah it would be silly for me to sit here and say it’s not about my divorce. It is, but at the same time I didn’t want it to be all dark, I feel like it’s got an air of hope about it, hopefully, and if somebody doesn’t agree at that that’s fine, but I feel like it does kinda have an air of hope about it, even though it does kind of a dip in the middle, and it does become pretty dark, but hopefully it kinda pulls itself out of that towards the end. That wasn’t exactly my intention with it, but it was a happy accident that it worked out that way.
It’s a night-timer
I appreciate that.
Yeah it was done a year and a half ago. We just had another release or two that needed to be tended to before that record could come out, so… and that’s happened to us a lot, there’ll be a record in the can while the previous one is still coming out… is still being prepared, it’s happened to us a lot over the course of our existence, although I think we’re working a little bit more to record in the now, if that makes sense? I’m looking forward to making the next Centromatic in a totally different fashion, and not having it be backed up or be a backlog of things.
Hell no, I’m not smart enough to. It’s funny you even mention that, because my girlfriend and I have just moved, and I got the four track out last night for the first time in months, in so long and it’s a Tascam 424 to cassette, a couple of cheap microphones and it’s about all I’m good for. I’ve flirted with some new technology here and there and… but for the most part I work with the little machine. I know what I know best, and that’s the little four track to cassette thing. And I love it. I get some really good sounds off of it, at least to my ears. I really enjoy it, it’s quick, I know exactly what it’s capable of, and I have a good working relationship with it, so I keep it going. I rely on Matt Pence our drummer and engineer for all the big brain technology, but he’s the perfect partner in crime for that, because he knows all about the stuff, and I lean on him heavily for that.
That is true. It is a bit of a hard-nosed way to open up a record, but it also... you find who’s gonna be with you and who’s not gonna be with you over the course of the Catherine Dupree song. I liked it as an opener; I felt I preferred it as an opener, at least for the American release. There was a little tug of war that went on with the Europe thing, and I wasn’t going to throw a fit if it wasn’t the opener, because when I did listen to Munich records suggestion, it definitely did not bother me, but there is something I do enjoy about the start…I don’t know, it just felt like a good opener, it seems engaging, and it’s stark and it’s got a lot of space, and I think it sets a kind of a tone for the record. I’d be happy to bring you an American version of it.
I think both of them are fine it’s just in different ways. I think the American order is a little more demanding.
That was my choice, I can be a bit stubborn, and that’s probably evidence of it, but when I listen to the order, the proposed order for the European release, it definitely… I felt like it still worked, it still had flow to it, and a good pattern to it so we stuck with that for the Europe release.
Huge, we sit backstage and break our brains over it sometimes and we shouldn’t. We should just go out and have a good time and shut up about it, but some nights it’s very… it’s like it’s a big deal.
Not at all, I think live, and on recordings, it’s all about setting a mood and creating a moment from that mood with that… it’s important as to the way you go about your allotted hour, two hours or whatever you’ve been given.
We have the next South San Gabriel record done. It’s not mastered yet, still kinda pulling all that together, and it’ll be out sometime next year, but it’s a little ambiguous at to when, but that is… I have a feeling that we’re going to do one more kind of lengthy Centromatic tour in February over here and the after that February/March rather, it’ll become the whole year will be pretty focussed on South San Gabriel I think, and touring over here in the States and over there as well. So it’ll be a South San Gabriel intensive 2005 and I think we’ll record the next Centromatic album sometime next summer, but for the most part it will be the other band for next year.
(Both laughing) Yeah it did, it just kinda happened over the course of a few days and then Scott came in and played a little bit of violin, but Matt was insistent that I play all the instruments, and truly make it a true solo record. He was wonderful, just as far as instrumentation and noises, just a lot of the time. Various static noises, and sonic input, he was very good about that.
I still kinda am. I’m totally addicted to the new Kanye West record, which I just love. Good grief, the new Bjork record, I love it. I’m still listening to rock, but I dunno, sometimes it seems like we get inundated with it, so it’s good to go listen to some other stuff. I found some cool records on independent labels out of the south, one is by this reverend his name is Isaiah Owens and the majority of the record is from a community radio show from Alabama and so you get like the local commercials and all stuff kinda going on and it’s wonderful. It’s a superbly soulful record I love it. Very, very gritty and very informal and lots of stops and starts and things like that, and conversation over the course of the record, but it’s great, it’s a real good record, and I’ve been listening to the new Drive By Truckers record a lot. Their new record is superb. I’m terribly addicted to it, so I don’t know, there’s an idea.
OK take care of yourself.