Info
Website:	http://www.zoejohnston.com/
Latest Release:	Happenstances

Zoë Johnston, the voice of Delerium, Faithless, Above & Beyond, and Bent, is considered one of the most prolific artists within the electronic/dance genre. This UK native mesmerized audiences with her notable hit Crazy English Summer, as heard on the Faithless album Outrospective, now provides an intimate musical portrait via her newly released solo album Happenstances released on Shiva Records. After ten years in the making and dedicated to her father, Zoë’s new solo release pays homage to her early influences ranging traditional folk music, classical music, and rhythm and blues. The new album is an invitation to listeners to hear the beautiful voice of a siren accompanied only by the lush vibrations of an acoustic guitar’s strings while she shares her troubles, elations, contemplations, and affairs of the heart that most would forever keep hidden.

Amidst her busy schedule, Zoë was kind enough to provide Auralgasms an interview. We invite you to gain a deeper appreciation for this artist as she sheds light on her professional career and personal life in addition to what the future may hold for her within this ever-changing industry.

First, thank you Zoe for allowing Auralgasms the opportunity to interview you. I would like to begin by asking how long have you been creating music and who were your early influences?

I think I got into trying to write my own songs at around 15, when I learnt to play the guitar. I grew up in quite a big family in which virtually everybody played at least one instrument, and everyone without exception regularly listened to music, all different kinds of music. It was a very important part of daily life, and synonymous in my mind with the friendly atmosphere in the house. From an early age I knew I wanted to be able to express my thoughts through music, and have always liked writing, so it kind of felt natural to want to apply sounds to the words I had on paper. There was a time when I thought I would never be able to write a coherent song, with chord sequences that felt right, but then a song-writer I really respected told me he knew I was capable of it, and somehow after that the mental block shifted. I wrote my first song, called 'The Kite Song', when I was 17, and from that point onwards the music moved in naturally.

I find it very hard to know who I've been influenced by! There was so much music played at home when I was growing up, and nine other people playing it besides me, so I heard a big mix of sounds. One of my cousins was into a lot of Goth stuff, another played a lot of upbeat sixties music, while my sister liked all the r&b and boyband chart tunes. My mum played a lot of French music and my dad liked seventies folk. My uncle was very pro-active with the old taping of the Chart Show - he was a doctor and used to get given a lot of free tapes with posh men droaning on about the latest medicines, so he'd use them and we'd end up with a few songs in a row, then a couple of sentences about Decongestionacol or Somethingelseacol, then a crack of the record button going down and a few more tunes. We used to play them over and over again in the kitchen, which was where everyone tended to congregate at all times of the day and night.

When I was in my late teens I was introduced to Joni Mitchell's music, and became quite fascinated by the intimacy and bare honesty in it. I loved the fact she'd written and performed on her first albums on her own, too, because that was and still is, I think, a very rare thing for a singer to do. It's also a very brave thing to do. I think my dad's musical likes influenced me more than I thought at the time, and in hindsight I see that his enthusiasm for very bold melodies and confessional or narrational lyrics also got into me somehow. He used to play a lot of Queen, which always brought the mood up. He had a lot of records by James Taylor, Neil Young, Cat Stevens and other folk artists from that era. He also loves Bread, a seventies band who have been slated by some of my friends for being overly sentimental. This may be true, but I also have a fondness for them, partly because they remind me of my family but also because I love their laying down of such gorgeous orchestral stuff over drum and guitar parts which have this great kind of chaotic roughness about them.

But I like a lot of different music. There are bands who spring to mind, and there are single songs, too: Radiohead, Chet Baker, Beck, Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Talk Talk, Michael Jackson, Annie Lennox, some of David Mead's stuff, Jose Gonzalez, Rufus Wainwright's "Vibrate", that Mishka song "Lonely", some classical stuff, E.S.T., Jill Scott, etc etc etc!

Some of your past collaborations have been with prominent musicians such as Bent, Faithless, Delerium, Paul Heaton, and Above & Beyond. How have those collaborations influenced/shaped the direction of your personal style and artistic creativity?

I think my own personal journey in terms of my music and the things I write about is pretty much my own private thing, and will probably always be that way. Musicians are people, and their core essence is basically warm, icy or somewhere inbetween, just like everybody else on the planet - the level of fame or 'success' a person has had with their music and status is irrelvant to me in terms of what I give to or take from an experience. The things I want to write about are events and thoughts that impact on my life, and each of those are intrinsically linked to the befores and afters of my life, not just the present time. There is more food for personal growth in a love affair, or the loss of a family member, than there is in a few hours in a recording studio with someone.

That said, each of the people I have sung with so far have been wonderfully down-to-earth and very genuine. The Faithless crowd in particular are just gorgeous; so funny, interesting and extremely supportive of each other. When we toured around we would frequently have a little giggle at some of the Look At Me-ness of a few other artists on the festival circuit - it was refreshing to be part of a group of really gifted musicians who were genuinely more interested in seeing the local sights of the many different countries and cities we passed through or catching up with long-standing friends from home, rather than running around after the 'right people' at aftershow parties and the like. Being part of that little travelling family was very good for me in many different ways. I admire Faithless for sticking to what they believe in, and never compromising on the lyrical messages in their music. Maxi's words are beautiful, so deeply and startlingly poetic, and always dotted here and there is the message that if we all worked a bit harder at repairing our self-esteem and loving ourselves a little more, this internal work would eventually manifest outwardly, prompting huge and positive change in societies as a whole. So it's very giving music, as well as being about having a good time and encouraging everyone to get up and dance about together. I think they have a great vibe going on.

I've had some good chats with other people I've worked with, which have stayed in my head as much as the experience of recording with them. Obviously the Bent boys are old friends, especially Simon who I went to school with, so being with them was like meeting up at the Xmas disco and having a few drinks while you talk about your ideas. It felt easy recording with them - they're very definite about what they do and don't like in music, and the general direction a song should be heading in, and I like that. They always left me to my own devices in terms of what I wrote about, or how I sang something, and I was also very glad about that. If ever people attempt to change words here and there, or alter the emphasis of what I'm trying to say, I find it hard to believe my own message because it is no longer personal.

Other collaborational experiences are probably not as people imagine. For example, I've never actually met or spoken to the guys in Delerium, although it would be great to say hi one day. They live in Canada, I live in England, they have someone at their label organising stuff for them, so their requests and thoughts arrive via a middle person. It's not a rude thing, it's just the way it works sometimes. They allowed me a lot of freedom, which is how I work best, and sent through some music for me to write over at home. I wrote and recorded the vocal parts in my attic studio, sent them over the ocean, and they mixed the songs over there. It worked similarly with the Above & Beyond tunes - they too were great about letting me be with the music. I work alone, and until recently mainly at night-time, which is the best way for me to put down something which feels to me true and heartfelt.

In 2002, you performed in front of a crowd of 70,000 at the Glastonbury Festival. What was the Glastonbury experience like for you personally; and professionally do you prefer touring in front of large crowds or do intimate venues suit you best?

Glastonbury was great, and surreal in part, but it was the gig we did in Belgium the next day which really sticks in my head. It was incredible. We played to 90,000 people at the Werchter festival, the sun was just going down, and thousands of little glowing arms were in the air swaying like teeny blades of pale grass while I was singing 'Crazy English Summer' - it was the only time I came off stage and started to cry. Everybody seemed so fragile. Everything went into slow motion for me. I could very easily pretend that nobody was listening when singing in front of a crowd that large. I know that might sound odd, but it frequently happened and I used to get genuinely shocked when people clapped at the end! At that point I'd wonder what I'd been doing and whether I'd hit the notes OK, because sometimes I'd get quite lost in what I was singing about and be thinking about very abstract things at the same time as facing thousands of people. Maybe it was a protection mechanism... who knows. I found it much easier to sing to 50,000 or 70,000, which we frequently did at festivals, than to stand on stage in front of a couple of hundred people, when you can read everyone's expressions and be encased in their collective body heat. I don't think I'm much of a performer, I'm more a doodler at home, and the idea of people arriving to watch you with the expectation that you're going to put on some kind of 'show' doesn't really sit right in me. These days I'm happy to sit on a chair and let the songs that come out of me do the communicating. It's the stories in music that are the most important thing to me. I quite fancy doing a gig one day in my pyjamas, for people who don't mind me sitting in one place throughout the whole thing, maybe moving for a little sip of rum inbetween songs.

Speaking of intimacy, it seems that your new album Happenstances is a glimpse into the private heart and mind of Zoe Johnston. What was the motivation behind naming your album HAPPENSTANCES?

It was a word I read in a horoscope forecast for my sign a couple of years ago, and I loved it. It means 'chance circumstances', like how you might meet a random stranger you end up marrying. I read a really interesting book a couple of years ago which encouraged you to think of 'coincidences' more as acts of 'synchronicity', like events are 'timed' because somehow they're meant to be. The woman who wrote it was really saying that it can be empowering and comforting to embrace a belief that your life knows what it is doing, that it arranges messages to be delivered to you in all kinds of strange ways - messages that help you to grow, and change, and accept or understand things. I found it really interesting. She talks a lot in that book about how much richer and more purposeful your life becomes if you can somehow view yourself as a tiny but crucial part of the universe as a whole, able through whatever you do and say to play a part in creating lovely, potentially life-changing happenstances for other people as well as experiencing them yourself. I just think it's a great word, really quite old-fashioned and well-meaning. I suppose my album ended up out there because of a number of happenstances: by chance I ended up at a party I wasn't really meant to be at and met Simon who, years later, financed and supported the release. There you go! Happenstances are great!

Would you care to expound on the creative process of making this album and the radical shift from electronica to more indie folk?

The shift happened the other way, in that I've always been writing my own music, just privately and without any particular plan for it until more recently. The electronica collaborative stuff has woven itself in and out of what I've been up to on my own over the years. The album has been a very, very long time in the making, not by way of faffing over finishing touches, but just in terms of making the decision to put the songs out, and abandoning versions I'd worked on with some other people which just weren't working. It was very late on when I knew it would be best just to put them all out in their most basic draft-like form, instead of spending ages dressing them up in weird clothes which were never going to feel right. I write all my music at home, in my little attic studio, and have recorded stuff along the way wherever I've lived over the last eight or nine years, inbetween touring or working on other stuff. For Happenstances I chose a mixture of different songs I'd worked on - some of them are years old and some more recent. I'm fond of them, and they definitely represented me well at the time they were written. Now I'm writing new stuff and really enjoying focusing on themes which are linked to the present moment. I find it all very cleansing. It's where I empty my head and make some sense of the contents.

Most of the artists you have worked with are prominent within the electronica genre. Do you prefer collaborating with other artists within the electronica genre or do you prefer the liberty of being the sole writer and creator of songs as displayed on Happenstances?

I love the freedom I have with my own music, to phrase or express things exactly as I wish, and to be able to give voice to my thoughts without having to consider a third party in any way. There is something wonderful about that - being able to immerse yourself totally in something that is known only to you; something that will never be altered by anyone but you. It becomes a very powerful kind of therapy, and you can never have that exact intimate experience with anyone else present. So for me, writing alone is a very precious thing. I've also really enjoyed collaborating, though. It's a great way of meeting new and inspiring people, and also very exciting hearing the final version of something you've worked on together. I've made some fantastic friends through music, and I wouldn't change that for the world! I hope to make many, many more before my life is over.

Whether on your solo album or via collaborative efforts, what are your favorite projects or songs that you have created up to this point in your career?

I love the new songs I'm writing most at the moment. There's one that for now is called 'Broken' which is very dear to me, and another called 'Everything' which is oddly hip-hop and makes me feel really happy. There are beats and strings on some of the new stuff, so the music is much weightier this time around. I'm loving hearing some fresh sounds echoing down my stairwell. I don't really have any particular favourites in terms of projects or songs, I don't think... just favourite memories and experiences connected with them, of which there are many. I like the smell of certain studios I've been in, and I really respect some of the people I've worked with for the freedom they gave me to create. Rollo was one of those people - he showed very early on that he trusted me and that made me want to do only my very best - and the Above & Beyond boys were great like that, too. So were Bent, come to think of it. Oh no... I think I might be missing vital people off this list and offending them left, right and centre now - better call it a day. I've got favourites all over the place!

Regardless of the project you are working on, the consistency found within all of your work is your profound connection with “nature”. The language and metaphors of your songs use images of the natural world to provide emotional visual aids to your listeners. Is this intentional or is it simply a comfortable natural mode of artistic expression?

It's probably more the latter. What lies around me is definitely is a very natural thing for me to write about, because I tend to do a lot of thinking about my place on the planet, and how many other living things I share that space with. I lived in a very special place when I was a child, where at the back door there were acres of trees and rough fields and farmland, and a brief walk from the front door was the main road into town, with garages, shops, constant traffic, other houses etc. I felt I had a comfortable foot in both worlds but was always mightily relieved to return to the quiet green at the back. We had a lot of animals around us when we were growing up, too - ducks, geese, hens, donkeys, horses, rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, birds... my uncle even kept bees. We had a lot of different beings living with and around us, and I see now that my family promoted kindness and a fascination with 'otherness' in me through the act of caring for these creatures. I spent a lot of my childhood outdoors, and dealt with ups and downs by retreating to 'secret' places in our old garden. I still miss that place, and perhaps that's why I think and write about nature in the way I do. I also have a scary memory when it comes to the weather - it's nearly always the first thing I think of when I'm recalling anything. The weather and how the world looked in it at that time.

What are your current plans in regards to promoting your latest solo release in terms of tour dates and performances?

The album release is an unusual affair in that it's all been a bit add hoc up until now, for various different reasons which I won't bore you with. At the moment, there are no concrete plans for touring but that's not to say there won't be some forming in the coming months. I've got a baby son who I need to be here for right now, and Shiva is only a small label without much financial freedom at the present time. I keep having these great ideas about players and alternative arrangements for the songs, and I'm looking forward to being able to put them into motion before too much time passes. Maybe if people nag me enough it'll accelerate the process! Thanks for your great patience, whoever is waiting for a live ZJ gig at the moment - keep holding on and I'll get there eventually....

Are there any projects or collaborations you are currently working fans of yours can anticipate?

I'm currently working on something for Sudha's forthcoming debut album which I'm really into. Sudha is the percussionist with Faithless (fantastic to watch as well as listen to), and one of my closest friends. I'm currently finishing off vocals for one great track she's asked me to work on, so that will be out this year. Aside from that I'm finding that all my energy and enthusiasm for music keeps heading in the direction of my new album, which is growing and evolving at a great rate all the time. I'm having a lot of fun with it. We'll have to wait and see what happens with that, but I know it'll feel good to complete another little body of work. I think I'd like to work with some more acoustically based artists next, given the choice and chance - hopefully some more interesting and challenging collaborational stuff will come up this year. I'm also getting back into painting right now, so I'm working on a commission for someone, and I want to finish a book I've almost completed before too much time passes. I'm ready for even more change though, so bring on the beautiful 2007, that's what I say...

Lastly, what does the future hold for Zoe Johnston in terms of the direction you would like to see your career follow?

I'd like to think it's possible to keep putting time and energy into all the things I love doing, which are mainly singing, writing and painting. In terms of my music, I'd like to have the chance to put out the next album without too much fuss, and enjoy its vibe. That would be nice. It's lovely receiving mails from people all around the world describing the impact some of the songs have had on them: - if what I do continues to affect people in a comforting and positive way then that will be my best reward. I don't have any particular direction mapped out, mentally or in actuality, because I'm open to swerving off-course whenever the time becomes right. I just want to keep making decisions that feel right, and music that I can be proud of.

Thank you for allowing us here at Auralgasms the wonderful pleasure of interviewing you. We sincerely look forward to your future projects. Is there any parting thought or comments you would like to provide your fans?

You're all gorgeous, and you make me smile. It was great chatting to you, too, Auralgasms - see you again some time....