James. F. Johnston
I spoke recently about my first impressions with black funky music in my indie fan life recently with English musician and one of the previous guitarists of the Australia based band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, James F Johnston. After growing up with the psychotic, crazy, heavy indie, gothic kind of sounds I have only known about classic big names of blues, jazz, soul, and gospel black music such as Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Nina Simone etc…Something that comes down to classic music education for the all-white – middle class – ex-communist country, person. During my first immigration from the majority-white European country, in the 90s, in my early 20s, I have been introduced with a couple of blacks – 70s- funk – liking D.Js from the UK that brought up the interest to my indie music soul. Maybe it was the mixture of the youth and hormones, yes, but I still have my hair standing up when I think about some funky nights in the night clubs on the beach from that period. And I remember the crowd moving up and forward, waving with hands up, it was the ultimate thrilling, early youth, experience for me. Those were magical nights with the music that I basically hardly knew anything about and the feeling of strange unattained freedom within the release of all following adrenalin rush into my veins. Almost with supernatural grace, a soulful choir dispensed the George Clinton wisdom over that marvelously sounds of a manic guitar. And as a white girl from the ex-communist country, I only knew about Jimmy Hendrix and his celebrated guitar. And yes, I knew about his well-known guitar playing with the tongue, which brought interest in the boys next door if I would be mentioning it, to bring up the young and innocent sexual connotation within the subject. This grand overture set up a strange eclectic spree that follows funky genre in my dreamy bedroom funk, sweet, white, and unaware soul. What an amazing night they were. The young mind gets driven by black humor, on lyrics such as “right on, brother” or “more power to the people” or “more pussy to the power”, “more pussy to the people” and “more power to the pussy”, as George Clinton suggesting: a truly cynical view of past and current protesting culture.
Internet-George Clinton Product
And for those who do not know English musician and painter James F Johnston is known by being one of the previous guitarists of the indie, post-punk, kinda psychedelic band the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This band was a big deal and very important for his career! However, it is apparent that many musicians of our time draw influence from the black funky music. How many of them have been touched by the noise guitar of the celebrated Jimmy Hendrix or eclectic George Clinton? There are many new incarnations from the fused funk with psychedelic rock beginnings, and the wildest guitar noise of Hendrix and the acid-tinged groove that drives altogether into the freakier direction, drawing the roots from the great known Funkadelic and George Clinton. There are many connections valid through the generations of all sort of psychedelic white rock: Clinton’s crazed, and cosmic philosophizing to lumbering heavy-funk jams with echo and effects, that are part of the many white musician legacies, even if it is not that visible to us, listeners. Being at the concerts of the nowadays Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I can say that no one sounds as wild as they are, but really this is the individual impressionistic remark for every one of us. If the band possesses a love for psychedelic noise and sensibility that would filter through on everything later in the career, then this band really likes Funkadelic, George Clinton releases. It is like sort of new concept within the old concept for the man and his guitar, a contemporary prayer for many musicians of the world today and this contemporary draws roots from history and the funk black music, all away from the end of 60s and 70s.
If we listen to the old funky from the 70s, we hear minutes and hours of frantic, apocalyptic music, howling, and psychedelic guitar. All restless and ever-shifting rhythms providing a glimpse of a refine riot of noise and early pre-hip-hop sampling. George Clinton was gluing all this together: sound effects, snippets, screams, laughter, explosions, emotions, and flatulence to evoke the madness of modern life, 40 or 50 years ahead in the future. And to come back to a white indie Johnston from London, this is what he said about the Missouri gig of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds : “I was a huge Funkadelic and Parliament fan, still am, and at one point his band got held up at customs and George Clinton had traveled to a show separately and got there before them. So to avoid being fined for not playing, he came into The Bad Seeds’ dressing room and asked us if we’d be his backing band for the show. Of course, we all said yes. No songs, no rehearsal, literally all he said was “Just play it on the one” and presented us all with a mini Funkadelic bubble blower necklace. We’d actually walked up to side-stage really to start when his band’s tour bus turned up at literally the last moment. What on earth would that have sounded like? So nearly happened. Nick did get up and sing with them at one of their own proper 3-hour gigs in Philadelphia too. No-one had any remote idea who he was when he was ushered on as a guest. I got on the stage with them at the last L.A. gig too, next to Billy bass Nelson, doing some drunken backing vocals and dancing around with Nick and a few other Bad Seeds. At a couple of the festival gigs, when we played Red Right Hand in our set, their stage crew solemnly paraded along the front of the stage wearing red rubber gloves. Such a fantastic and hilarious band. That tour had such a great atmosphere, it went on forever and everyone went a bit mad (https://www.nickcave.com/
Ladies and gentlemen what a marvelous, ingenious story. I can only imagine how crazy and fulfilling, deeply spiritual and amazing experience this might be for musicians of the indie band as it was for the Nick Cave and the and Seeds. In 1994 when James was playing guitar with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the Lollapalooza touring festival, they played at the Riverport Amphitheatre along with amazing bands like George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, The Breeders, Beastie Boys, L7, Japanese band The Boredoms, and A Tribe Called Quest. That line-up played over 40 shows together, all sorts of musicians together on the stage.
James F. Johnston worked with the UK indie queen P.J.Harvey and now he plays in the band with Lydia Lunch and Big Sexy Noise and plays mainly in Europe as being based in London, UK. His previous UK band Gallon Drunk were supporting Morrissey (ex-The Smiths) at the Fox theatre when Johnston played in St. Louis in 1992. „The best memories of being on tour are from being in The States. The enormous drives, deserts, wild scenery, and unusual places,“ he said. „Working with other people/musicians can definitely have a very positive impact on your own work, and also how you work. For example, the work ethic of PJ Harvey has had a big impact recently. Mostly I found that pushing ahead and developing your own voice means that over time you tend to end up working with like-minded people that feel that what you can bring will fit with their own unique voice and somehow create something fresh or supportive to them while being totally sympathetic to their own ideas and vision.“
An Apocalyptic Painter
A guitarist James Johnston lives in London, the UK where he has his studio. At the moment he functions as a painter because of the coronavirus breakthrough. His painting are online (https://www.instagram.com/jamesfjohnston/) We are talking about a musician who is brought up on classical music and listens to classical music while he is painting. “I try to think about absolutely nothing and get lost in the process when I paint. Classical music at a very low level in the background. It’s as much of a thrill as a gig, except it lasts eight hours or struggle and excitement. Leaving the studio at the end of the day can be a bit like the feeling you have when you walk out of a cinema after watching a film. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever done, and it’s all performed locked in a room on your own. It’s a strange, frustrating and thrilling process, about as close to a dream state as I can imagine.”
On October 15th, 2020 James Johnston will have an opening night for a solo exhibition at the Janine Bean Gallery in Berlin, Germany, and in November 2020 at the HOK gallery in The Hague (solo show). Also, the upcoming Autumn solo show at Schaeffer’s Gate 5 in Oslo has been a rescheduled solo show.
