Going for
the groove
Jack Johnson was in California when his brother phoned in a surf report from Hawaii. The waves were 8 to 10 feet at Laniakea, there was a perfect north swell, and Johnson had a full 48 hours to kill before doing "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
For a pro-caliber surfer, with plenty of frequent flier miles available, it was a no-brainer.
"I flew home for 32 hours, surfed four times and then flew back out to Chicago," Johnson said with a chuckle via a long distance phone call from Toronto "about 10 minutes" after he'd finished performing there on Monday.
He was doing an interview he didn't really need to do to help publicize his Sunday one-nighter at Pipeline Cafe. The concert sold out in just a few hours after tickets went on sale. Celebrities with far fewer accomplishments -- as a surfer, a filmmaker or a recording artist, let alone all three -- might have blown off such press once they knew that the show was sold out.
Johnson isn't that kind of guy.
"I'm just really excited to get back to Hawaii right now. I've been pretty much gone for about three months -- Australia, all across the States -- so I'm just itching to be back in Hawaii," he continued, saying that even though he's away half the time, he still considers Hawaii home.
The islands mean more to Johnson than good surf and pleasant childhood memories.
"I think living there influenced me quite a bit (musically), mainly in how it's laid-back, but both my parents liked slack key music. Gabby Pahinui was always on around the house and stuff like that, so I don't necessarily play traditional Hawaiian music, but in a lot of ways it sunk into my head as I was growing up."
At the same time, Johnson says, he was listening to reggae and checking out the big concerts at the Turtle Bay Resort and Kualoa Ranch.
"I was always checking out reggae concerts, like Ziggy Marley when he'd come over. ... Somebody told me today while I was doing an interview up here in Canada that he's a big fan of mine and I started blushing on camera. That was a big compliment for me."
AND SPEAKING of big concerts, some of Johnson's fans may still be fuming at the jerks who yakked annoyingly through his 2001 homecoming concert at World Cafe. But Johnson and the band don't take it personally.
Jack Johnson
Where: Pipeline Cafe,
805 Pohukaina St.
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: Sold out
Call: 589-1999
"Every night's a little different. The other night, I played a big show in Milwaukee -- there were 20,000 people there in a big amphitheater -- and I was doing some acoustic songs at the end of the night and everybody had lighters up and were quiet, listening to all the words. Other places you play, people are drunk as can be, just talking right throughout the whole thing. I saw the same thing happen when I was on tour with Ben Harper and he had to get through it. It seems like beer equals loud talking."
As for what his songs mean to the people who do listen to them?
"I never really know what people get out of the songs. Sometimes I might have certain intentions with a song and somebody might read into it completely different (meanings). Some songs are just goofy love songs that I play to try to make my wife laugh and then end up sharing with everybody else, and other ones -- a song like 'Cookie Jar' or maybe 'Gone' -- those are ones where I'll try to say something that will influence kids."
As for the laid-back, organic sound of his current album, "On and On," Johnson isn't offended if people describe it as "simple."
"Some times people almost think it's an insult or not a good thing, but I think it can be cool. I love really complex stuff sometimes and I like to listen to really simple blues -- just a guy and his guitar -- and that's what we're shooting for, is just making music that's just based on groove and not so much trying to impress anybody with what we can do.
"The lyrics are real important to me and so I don't want to clutter 'em too much with the instrumentation. I like to just keep 'em pretty stripped down, like a little bed for the lyrics to sit on top of," he continued, suggesting that the arrangements are "kind of folk tunes and what the bass player and the drummer help to do is make 'em funky."
ON ANOTHER topic, where does he stand on the question of celebrities being cast a role models in American society these days?
"There's not really a responsibility to be a role model as soon as you get in spotlight 'cause I think everybody has the right to just be themselves. ... But I know at the end of the day I'm going feel a lot better about myself when I'm in the light being a positive role model for kids"
Johnson's film career is on hold while he's touring, although he's been doing "little things here and there," and helping friends with their projects.
Beyond touring, surfing and the occasional film-related project, Johnson is planning a concert to provide seed money for a foundation that will promote greater active participation in environmental issues in Hawaii.
"We haven't finalized (the arrangements), but we're brainstorming on that right now, trying to pull it together."
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