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Daniel Johnston

 
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Daniel Johnston

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Songwriter, singer, guitarist

For more than 20 years Daniel Johnston has been defying the odds by bringing his homegrown but emotionally earnest music to a legion of fans. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Johnston has never been able to maintain what most would consider a mature, normal lifestyle. He has been prone to bouts of dangerous and self-destructive behavior, and at age 46 was still living with his parents in a Houston suburb. Yet he has been hailed as a genius by performers such as David Bowie, the late Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits, Beck, and Mike Watt, and was the subject of the popular 2005 film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which chronicled his life and art. His recordings have demonstrated a palpable artistic progression, and illustrate what all the fuss is about.

Johnston was born on January 22, 1961, in Sacramento, California, the youngest of five siblings. He was raised in Cumberland, Virginia, by devout fundamentalist parents who discouraged his artistic leanings as unrealistic and self indulgent. At an early age he showed a penchant for the visual arts, keeping books of his cartoon sketches and making Super-8 movies in which he played multiple characters. He briefly attended Kent State University in Ohio, where he met a young woman who inspired him to write songs. "What really happened," he told a writer for the Texas Monthly, "is I met a girl who was engaged to an undertaker. But she was very beautiful, and I made up some songs just to please her. And she liked them. And I just flipped out. I was at the piano banging away every day, writing songs. And I turned into a maniac and I never gave up, and that's what really happened to me." In his twenties, after landing in Austin, Texas, he began making cassette recordings of his own songs, which he handed out to anyone who would take them. Because Austin was a thriving center for amateur musicians from all walks of life, a bit of good luck put some of his tunes into the right hands. MTV ran a feature on Johnston and word of his eccentric music spread.

His poorly recorded repertoire of love songs, homages to comic book superheroes, and reflections on the challenges of his everyday life were duplicated and stocked with great enthusiasm by record stores from coast to coast. Before he knew it, an independent record label issued a vinyl recording of some of his early songs, and his music began receiving public attention. Unfortunately Johnston's personality was not ideally suited for the rigors of sudden fame. Changes in lifestyle and recreational LSD use took their toll. He was hospitalized twice for severe breakdowns, yet had the presence of mind to ask his manager to obtain a deal with Mountain Dew, in which he would perform a song claiming he was institutionalized for being "crazy about Mountain Dew."

Demand for his music persisted, and in 1994 Atlantic Records signed him and released the sparsely produced album Fun, which included 18 of his best tunes. In numbers like "Foxy Girl" and "Catie," Johnston cooed in a high-pitched warble like Tiny Tim. "Silly Love" was strangely reminiscent of Neil Young's "Needle and The Damage Done." His voice exhibited an immature quality that could be taken as emotional sincerity.

On the 2000 release Hyperjinx Tricycle, Johnston was backed by Brady Brock on guitar and vocals, Brett Ladin on guitar and bass, Jack Medicine on guitar, Mike Menner on drums, and someone named "Kramer" on various instruments. More slickly produced, with double-tracked vocals and complimentary instrumental and vocal arrangements, the often-lighthearted tone of this set acquitted Johnston nicely. His cover of the Terry Jacks' schlock/pop classic "Seasons in the Sun" was decidedly more trippy than the original version and didn't suffer for having been shelved for 30 years.

Rejected Unknown, released in 2001, was more stark than its predecessor and hit more emotional chords, and his tonal deviations were evocative of Lou Reed. More than Fun and Hyperjinx Tricycle, the collection showed signs of musical maturity. Johnston contributed piano, guitar, and percussion to many tracks and asserted better vocal control. The album marked Johnston's long contractual battle with the Atlantic Record label, which had prevented him from releasing much new material during the 1990s. The tone of the songs prompted All Music Guide critic Jason Nickey to comment, "While the music on Rejected Unknown can at first sound overly self-deprecating and even angry at times, Johnston is actually painting a much larger pic- ture—a picture of endless longing for acceptance, hopeless romanticism, and unrequited love."

His 2003 album Fear Yourself was produced by Mark Linkous of the band Sparklehorse. The session's more elaborate and melodic orchestrations were sympathetic to Johnston's vocal style, and comparable in ability to many indie artists who have made bigger commercial splashes.

Another 2003 release, The End is Near Again, by Danny and the Nightmares, was a collaboration with husband and wife team Jason and Bridget Nightmare. The guitar work on this set gave it a raw, distorted feel, placing it somewhere in the late 1960s. The following year a bevy of Johnston's adherents assembled Discovered, Covered: The Late Great. Artists Beck, Tom Waits, Sparklehorse, Clem Snide, and others paid tribute to Johnston in a two-CD set, the second of which featured Johnston's renditions of the tunes covered by his admirers. His 2006 release, Welcome to My World, was a well conceived collection of his early cassette recordings. The accompaniment was strictly his own and suited his vocal performances. He followed it with Lost and Found, released only in England, which included a tribute to the Beatles. A Houston theater group wrote and performed a rock opera, Speeding Motorcycle, based on his music. Johnston continued to suffer health problems that limited his participation in the project.

Selected discography
Songs of Pain, Stress, 1980.
Don't Be Scared, Stress, 1982.
The What of Whom, Stress, 1982.
Hi, How Are You, Homestead, 1983.
Yip/Jump Music: Summer 1983, Homestead, 1983.
Retired Boxer, Stress, 1984.
Continued Story, Homestead, 1985.
Respect, Stress, 1985.
1990, Shimmy Disc, 1990.
Live at SXSW, Stress, 1990.
Artistic Vice, Positive, 1993.
Fun, Atlantic, 1994.
Rejected, Tim/Kerr, 1999.
Why Me? Live Volkesbuhne Am Rosa Luxemburg Platz 6/6/99, Trikont, 2000.
Rejected Unknown, Gammon, 2001.
Fear Yourself, Gammon, 2003.
Discovered, Covered: Late Great, P-Vine, 2004.
The Electric Ghosts, Important, 2006.
Welcome to My World, Eternal Yip Eye Music, 2006.
Lost and Found, Sketchbook, 2006.
Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair, 50 Skidillion Watts, 2006.
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, 2006.

Sources
Periodicals
Texas Monthly, February 2005.

Online
All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 18, 2007).
Daniel Johnston Official Website, http://www.hihowareyou.com (February 11, 2007).
Sketchbook Records Official Website, http://www.rejectedunknown.com (February 11, 2007).
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:

Daniel Johnston

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  • Genres: Rock

Biography

As with other talented but troubled artists such as Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Roky Erickson, Daniel Johnston fights a daily battle with the chronic mental illness that has plagued him nearly his entire life. However, despite recurrent bouts of delusional behavior wherein he has physically endangered himself and others, Johnston has carved out a respectable, influential career as a singer/songwriter of extraordinary talent who has grown since his first crudely recorded cassette was released in 1980. He became the singer/songwriter of choice of the alternative/underground rock scene, and at various times has had his work championed by members of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Butthole Surfers, Half Japanese, Nirvana (Kurt Cobain was often photographed wearing a Daniel Johnston T-shirt), and numerous others.

Until the '90s, Johnston's recordings were basically homemade affairs, his plain voice accompanied by crude piano and guitar playing. His narrative concerns focused mainly on lost love, the pain of miscommunication, his love for the Beatles, and comic-book superhero Captain America. Johnston's music is unflinchingly direct, almost embarrassingly and painfully honest. Because of this and his increasingly erratic behavior, he was considered a local hero in his home of Austin, TX (where he moved from rural West Virginia), but too extreme to engender the interest of a record label. That situation changed in 1985, when MTV filmed a program on the Austin music scene. Johnston's performance brought him almost overnight acclaim, and he went from local legend to national cult figure. Soon, many of his self-released cassette recordings (on his appropriately named Stress label) began showing up in hip record stores from Boston to L.A., and the buzz was that Daniel Johnston was the coolest. There was, however, a grim side to this "success," as if his mental illness was the primary component of his hipness; therefore, there was a feeling that those not close to him were marketing his illness as much as his talent. Sadly, Johnston's behavior wasn't helping, and he was institutionalized twice in the late '80s after his refusal to take medication led to two dangerous episodes.

In the late '80s, indie label Homestead issued some of Johnston's early recordings on vinyl and a full-blown appreciation of Johnston's work was well underway. Soon he was recording solo and with Half Japanese mastermind Jad Fair on the Shimmy Disc indie label, and later with Butthole Surfer Paul Leary, who may well be the best producer/musical accompanist Johnston ever had. Johnston, to the amazement of virtually everyone, recorded for Atlantic, and despite occasional behavioral lapses, seemed more self-assured than ever. As a result, in the late '90s and 2000s, he recorded some of the best music of his career -- smart, ebullient pop with ringing guitars, primitive keyboards, and a wonderfully naïve way of looking at the world. Although he sometimes becomes sad and bitter, cynicism and self-pity aren't his style, and that makes the little tragedies and epiphanies he writes about all the more compelling. Johnston was exposed to an even larger audience in 2005 with the release of The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a feature-length documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, eventually making its way around the world. The Electric Ghosts, an album credited to the duo of Johnston and Don "Jack Medicine" Goede, arrived in March 2006, followed by Is and Always Was in 2009. In 2010, Johnston worked with BEAM, an 11-piece orchestra from the Netherlands, touring with them and eventually recording some tracks with them for his album Beam Me Up!, which featured a mix of new solo work as well as some re-recorded classics. Johnston's world may seem small, but it's much bigger and friendlier than that of your wildest imagination. ~ John Dougan, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Daniel Johnston

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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For the petroleum industry consultant, see Daniel Johnston (consultant).
Daniel Johnston

Johnston in December 2006
Background information
Birth name Daniel Dale Johnston
Born January 22, 1961 (1961-01-22) (age 51)
Sacramento, California, United States
Origin West Virginia, United States
Genres Lo-fi, outsider music
Occupations Musician, singer-songwriter, visual artist
Years active 1978–present
Labels Yip Eye Music
Atlantic Records
Website hihowareyou.com

Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas.

Johnston has been diagnosed with manic depression and schizophrenia which has been a recurring problem throughout his life.[1][2]

Contents

Early life

Johnston was born in Sacramento, California, and grew up in the northern panhandle of West Virginia between Ohio and Pennsylvania near Chester and New Cumberland, West Virginia. He began recording music in the late 1970s on a $59 Sanyo monaural Boombox, singing and playing piano and chord organ. Following graduation from Oak Glen High School, Johnston spent a few weeks at Abilene Christian University in West Texas, but soon dropped out. Later he attended the East Liverpool branch of Kent State University.

Music career

Johnston's musical work gained some notoriety when he moved to Austin, Texas. Johnston began to attract the attention of the local press and gain a following augmented in numbers by his habit of handing out tapes to people he met. Live performances were well-attended and hotly anticipated.[3]

His local standing led to him being featured in a 1985 episode of the MTV program The Cutting Edge featuring performers from Austin's "New Sincerity" music scene.[4] Subsequently he performed at the 1985 Woodshock music festival in Austin, where he was featured in a short documentary of the festival, Woodshock.

In 1988, Johnston visited New York City and recorded 1990 with producer Kramer[5] at his Noise New York studio. It was released in 1990 on Kramer's Shimmy-Disc label. This was Johnston's first experience in a professional recording environment after a decade of releasing home-made cassette recordings. His mental health further deteriorated during the making of 1990.

Interest in Johnston increased when Kurt Cobain was frequently photographed wearing a t-shirt featuring the cover image of Johnston's album Hi, How Are You which music journalist Everett True gave him. In spite of Johnston being resident in a mental hospital at the time, a bidding war to sign him ensued. He refused to sign a multi-album deal with Elektra Records because Metallica was on the label's roster and he was convinced that they were possessed by Satan and would hurt him. He also dropped his manager who brokered the deal, because Johnston believed he too was possessed by Satan.[6] Ultimately he signed with Atlantic Records and released Fun, produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers in 1994.[7]

Johnston contributed two songs to the soundtrack for Larry Clark's controversial 1995 film Kids, produced by Folk Implosion and Sebadoh's frontman, Lou Barlow. Johnston later covered Schoolhouse Rock!'s "Unpack Your Adjectives" for a compilation of the popular education songs called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks in 1996. In 1989 Johnston released the album It's Spooky in collaboration with Half Japanese singer Jad Fair.

In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas. On the way back to West Virginia on a small, private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic episode believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost and removed the key from the planes ignition and threw it out of the plane. His father, a former Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.[8]

In 2004, he released The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered, a two-disc compilation. The first disc featured many artists, such as Tom Waits, Beck, TV on the Radio, Jad Fair, Eels, Bright Eyes, Calvin Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips covering songs written by Johnston. The second disc featured Johnston's original recordings of the songs.

In 2005, Texas-based theater company Infernal Bridegroom Productions received a Multi-Arts Production/MAP Fund grant[9] to work with Johnston to create a rock opera based on his music, titled Speeding Motorcycle.

A 2005, Dutch documentary about Johnston for the TV series R.A.M. was followed in 2006 by The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary, four years in the making, collated some of the vast amount of recorded material Johnston (and in some case, others) had produced over the years to portray his life and music. The film won high praise, receiving the Director's Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The film also inspired more interest in Johnston's work, such as the film's theme song, "I Had Lost My Mind", and increased his pull as a touring artist.

In 2006, Johnston's own Eternal Yip Eye Music label released his first greatest hits compilation, Welcome to My World.[10] He also appeared as musical guest on The Henry Rollins Show on which he performed "Mask" and "Care Less" (the latter was exclusive to the internet).

Through the next few years Johnston toured extensively across the world, and continued to attract press attention. In 2008, Dick Johnston, Daniel's brother and manager, revealed that "a movie deal based on the artist's life and music had been finalized with a tentative 2011 release."[11] He also said that a deal had been struck with the Converse company for a "signature series" Daniel Johnston shoe.[11] Later, it was revealed by Dick Johnston that Converse had dropped the plan.[12] In late 2008, Adjustable Productions released Johnston's first concert DVD, The Angel and Daniel Johnston – Live at the Union Chapel, featuring a 2007 appearance in Islington, London.[13]

On January 31, 2009, Daniel Johnston joined the band The Swell Season on a broadcast of Austin City Limits (previously recorded on September 28, 2008) to perform the song "Life in Vain".

His latest album, Is and Always Was, was released on October 6, 2009 on his Eternal Yip Eye Music record label. In 2009, it was announced that Matt Groening had chosen Johnston to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England. Later that year, he was invited by rock band Cage the Elephant to appear at Starry Nights Fest, an upstart music festival in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Johnston performed a brief solo set before being joined on stage by Cage, who backed performances of several songs, including "Speeding Motorcycle" and "True Love Will Find You in the End".

Reviews

One critic from Pitchfork Media writes that Johnston's recordings range from "spotty to brilliant."[14]

Art career

Johnston's "Hi, How Are You" mural in Austin, Texas

His artwork is shown in galleries such as in London's Aquarium Gallery and New York's Clementine Gallery. both in 2006, and the 2008 Liverpool Biennial. Currently his work is being exhibited as "The Museum of Love" at Verge Gallery in Sacramento, California.

In 1993 Johnston was commissioned to paint a mural of the Hi, How Are You? frog (also known as "Jeremiah the Innocent") from his 1983 album cover on the side of the Sound Exchange record store located on the corner of 21st and Guadalupe in Austin, Texas (the "Drag").[15] At the time, the frog image had recently become nationally recognized from media images of Kurt Cobain wearing a "Hi, How Are You?" t-shirt during Nirvana's promotion of their 1991 album Nevermind.[16] The building remained unoccupied until 2004 when a Mexican grill franchise called Baja Fresh took ownership and decided to paint over the mural. Diego Gonzalez Joven, an international student from The University of Texas at Austin convinced the managers and contractors to keep the mural intact, later that year it became a sushi and Thai restaurant called Crave.[17] In Spring 2008, a Jeremiah the Innocent collectible figurine was released in limited runs of four different colors.[18]

As of June 2010, a biopic about Johnston's life featuring Gabriel Sunday of My Suicide is in production.[19]

New media

Daniel Johnston worked with Dr. Fun Fun and Smashing Studios to develop an iPhone platform game called "Hi, How Are You". The game is similar to Frogger, but features Johnston's art and music.[20]

Discography

Main article: Daniel Johnston discography

References

  1. ^ Burr, Ty (2006-04-07). "His life is troubling, his fame disturbing". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/04/07/his_life_is_troubling_his_fame_disturbing/?rss_id=Boston%2BGlobe%2B--%2BTy%2BBurr%2B%2Bcolumns. 
  2. ^ Seitz, Matt. "The Devil Goes Down to Texas". New York Press. http://www.nypress.com/19/13/film/MattZollerSeitz.cfm. 
  3. ^ Black, Louis. "Genius and Jive: My roller-coaster relationship with Daniel Johnston Austin Screens". AustinChronicle.com. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:363536. Retrieved 2010-09-18. 
  4. ^ Barry Shank, Dissonant Identities: The Rock'N'Roll Scene in Austin, Texas (Wesleyan University Press, 1994), ISBN 9780819562760, p. 157-58 (excerpt available at Google Books).
  5. ^ "kramershimmy home". Kramershimmy.com. http://www.kramershimmy.com. Retrieved 2010-09-18. 
  6. ^ Senft, Michael (August 11, 2006). "The Devil and Daniel Johnston". The Arizona Republic (United States). http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/0811johnston0811.html. Retrieved March 15, 2011. 
  7. ^ Robinson, John (August 20, 2005). "Personal demons". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/aug/20/edinburghfilmfestival2005.popandrock. Retrieved April 30, 2010. 
  8. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (April 2, 2006). "Sean O'Hagan on Daniel Johnston". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/apr/02/metallica. Retrieved March 15, 2011. 
  9. ^ MAP Fund | Infernal Bridegroom Productions
  10. ^ Filter-Mag.com[dead link]
  11. ^ a b The Austin Chronicle article: "Off the Record: Music News".
  12. ^ "Unreleased Daniel Johnston Converse All-Stars". MonsterFresh.com. http://monsterfresh.com/2009/06/16/daniel-johnston-converse-shoes-photos-unreleased/#more-3588. Retrieved 2010-09-18. 
  13. ^ "The Angel And Daniel Johnston – Live At The Union Chapel". Prlog.org. 2008-10-30. http://www.prlog.org/10134907-the-angel-and-daniel-johnston-live-at-the-union-chapel.html. Retrieved 2010-09-18. 
  14. ^ Kristin Sage Rockermann (2002-01-01). "Interview: Daniel Johnston". Pitchfork Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/31391/Interview_Interview_Daniel_Johnston. Retrieved 2007-02-02. 
  15. ^ http://rejectedunknown.com/art/public/bajafresh.htm
  16. ^ http://www.hihowareyou.com/images/Curt.jpg
  17. ^ http://www.texasobserver.org/dateline/the-peoples-frog
  18. ^ Daniel Johnston Frog Becomes Collectable Figurine
  19. ^ "Daniel Johnston Biopic, My Suicide Soundtrack, & More". TwentyFourBit. 2010-03-18. http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/457060631/daniel-johnston-biopic-my-suicide-soundtrack-more. Retrieved 2010-09-18. 
  20. ^ Work of Daniel Johnston, Texas Artist, Inspires Video Game. Retrieved 2009-10-01.

External links

Official

Other

Daniel Johnston
Home recorded albums
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation
Danny And The Nightmares
  • Danny And The Nightmares
  • The End is Near Again
  • Freak Brain
with Jad Fair
Tribute albums
Films

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Gale Musician Profiles. Contemporary Musicians © 1989-2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists. Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Daniel Johnston.  Read more

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