A lot of people out there probably have heard Freedy Johnston’s music through the movies rather than on the radio or YouTube. A native of Kinsley, Kansas, the veteran singer-songwriter was first noticed while living in New York in 1992, when critics fell in love with his clear penchant for melodies and witty lyrics that were evident on his second solo album, “Can You Fly,” picked by The New York Times as one of that year’s best.
Next came his major label debut for Elektra Records, “This Perfect World,” produced by Butch Vig of Garbage and featuring two major standout tunes, including the title track (which Johnston reportedly sang to his dog Sparky recently before he was put down, a tear-jerker of a story) in addition to his radio hit, “Bad Reputation.” Both songs found a renewed audience a few years later after being featured in the movie comedy, “Kingpin,” starring Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Randy Quaid.
Throughout his career, Johnston may not have sold millions of records, but he’s always been respected by critics and his musical peers for being a songwriter’s songwriter. Last year, after taking a 7-year break from music, Johnston released his ninth album, “Back on the Road to You” (40 Below Records) and once again the praise flowed, with Rolling Stone calling him “an American original,” and Mojo awarding it four stars. The album features guest appearances by friends including Susannah Hoffs (of the Bangles), Susan Cowsill, and on one of my favorite tracks, “Darlin’” he sings along with Aimee Mann, who grew up in Richmond’s Bon Air neighborhood.
Johnston performs at the Tin Pan on Sunday, Feb. 18 with fellow singer-songwriter Steve Forbert (note: the next day is President’s Day, so you may be off). Style Weekly caught up with him recently by phone and learned that he had relocated to Portland, Oregon after living in Joshua Tree, California near friend and singer-songwriter, Victoria Williams.
Style Weekly: How’s it going, Freedy?
Freedy Johnston: Just fine, I’m out in Portland Oregon. We moved up here last summer. My girlfriend and I really like the town and the music scene is great. I play a weekly gig at my buddy’s bar, a small one in St. Johns called Havalina, my friend Ezra [Holbrook] runs it. He was a founding member of The Decemberists, their first drummer. He’s one of the reasons we moved up here. And we have a lovely little apartment near Irving Park. Life’s good.
I like to visit friends in Portland every few years, it’s great place if you’re a music fan – I usually hang out at the Laurelthirst and try to see Michael Hurley do his happy hour show. He used to live here in Richmond.
Oh yeah, sure! The Laurelthirst. Michael’s still playing shows. I was living on Victoria Williams’ ranch the last few years, and she’s good friends with him. He’s still doing it in his 80s; I hope to be doing it to the very end as well … Victoria’s doing well. She’s had some setbacks but she’s a very organic, health-conscious person, very into meditation. That does a world of good.
You probably also know Stephen McCarthy from the Jayhawks and Long Ryders, he lives here in Richmond. I’ve seen him at shows at the Tin Pan, where you’re playing.
Oh yeah, Stephen. I played a couple shows with the Jayhawks on the last tour. He sat in on “Bad Reputation” a couple nights. I love it that those bands are still out there doing it.
And of course, Aimee Mann grew up here. That’s a nice song you have with her on the last record. How did that whole thing come together?
Wow, I didn’t know that … Really, we just called up different people to get different voices on the songs. I don’t really co-write that much. They’re just singing harmonies. I hadn’t made a record in 7 years, so I wanted to have some friends along … It was still the tail-end of COVID too, so they recorded it all at home or their own studios.
Your voices blend well. When I first heard your new song, “Darlin’” it’s kind of got that laid back, happy vibe. Then I saw the video and the drawings Aimee Mann did for it and realized it was about a much darker subject.
Thanks. Oh yeah, well there’s not a lot of info in the song to give you that background. Believe me, I was as affected by her drawings. Sorry, that sound you keep hearing is my neighbor’s Roomba, if you can believe it … Anyway, [that song] it’s a fictional story, but when the concept of a song comes out, it gets stuck sometimes. It’s impossible to think of another idea, it’s like a stain on a carpet sometimes … Unlike most songs that take me too long to finish, that one was a few days, or maybe even a day. It came very quickly.
People always say that you’re a songwriter’s songwriter who has put out some great albums but has largely avoided being discovered by a larger audience. Why do you think that’s been the case?
Oh, I think that’s true, but I don’t have much to say about it. I’m just not good at the stuff that makes you famous. I’m not good at promotion and certainly not good at social media. This is my vocation, it’s what I do. I don’t make a million bucks, but I still really love my job, which is something not everybody has the joy of. Not everybody gets to travel around, so I’m fine with whatever level I’m at … You know, man, my 63rd birthday is coming up and I fully intend to make 20 more years of records. I want to make new records and have success in the future.
I always loved that story of Nina Simone who did that song [“My Baby Just Cares For Me”] in 1958 and really didn’t do much in her career until the 1980s when Chanel used it in a commercial and her career blew up. She was like, “I was just getting by until they used that.” So I feel like I’m fighting the good fight, and I hope [my music] just makes its way in the world.
The formula I always heard was “talent plus perseverance equals luck.”
[Laughs] Yeah, there’s many adages like that.
I was thinking about how much critics have loved and spread your work. But lately, music criticism has taken hits [like the cutbacks at Pitchfork] and you’ve got the specter of AI looming out there. Do you pay attention to that stuff?
No, sorry I don’t. I don’t know much about it and it’s been my job to not pay attention to stuff written about my music. It’s something I just won’t do, no offense to your craft. I love doing interviews and the effect of them, but I never read them. I really love doing live radio, that’s my favorite thing. It’s not like I’m criticizing it, I’m just deathly afraid of it. I’m still freaked out that people talk about me …
I will say this: My story was that I had a really good day job in New York City in 1992. I was a word processor at an architect’s office, and I liked my job, you know? And I made this indie record and then sold everything I had inherited, some land in Kansas – which was the stupidest thing that anyone in my town had ever heard of. That led to me getting this record deal. Then it went from 0 to 100 and I was jolted out of my day job into this world where people were giving me all this praise and I was making a lot of money all of a sudden. Long story short, it fucked me up, really a lot.
I realize now in retrospect, life is great. I’m happy just trying to finish this next record … Early on I had a scary amount of success that I didn’t expect at all. I was just playing all these clubs and everyone else in New York had been doing it much longer than me. It was craziness. I’ve been told many times, had I played it right, I could be doing very well from that start. I was given a great deal of help [early on]. But I still work very hard on all my songs. Even if I was still doing the open mic on the corner, I’d still be writing the same songs.
Well, your voice sounds great still – especially after you just took 7 years off – got married and divorced right?
Yeah, well, COVID happened too. I don’t want to spend seven years between albums anymore. Back in the ’70s, if an artist I loved did that, I would think they had retired.
It’s like a muscle you have to keep up, I’ve heard.
Yeah, I think so, it really is.
So you said you have five songs ready for the next album?
Now that I’ve made “Back on The Road To You,” I realized that these days it’s back to vinyl, so I’ve got to consider two five-song sets. I don’t think of CDs anymore. So I really have to think about the sequences, because it’s two starts and two finishes.
But it happens every record, some songs don’t get finished and make it on the next one … I’ve got one song that I can’t believe is still here that hopefully gets on the new one … I have these melodies, some words, and a chord progression – it’s like a song you can see out of focus. You get the emotion of it, the outline, but you don’t really know what it’s about. In the case of this song, it’s been about a love story for the last 10 years, but I haven’t been able to finish it yet. But it’s getting close … that’s what I’m doing on this next record, trying to finish stuff … I think I’ll prob record before the fall, hopefully. It’s a good feeling.
I was actually turned onto your music years ago by one of my best friends out West, whose brother is the artist Fred Tomaselli in New York, you should check out his art if you’re unfamiliar. Anyway, Fred and Andy both say your latest is one of your best records.
Oh dude, that really means so much to me. I’m definitely writing his name down. I have to say, a real shock came in an interview [recently] when a reporter said, “I didn’t know what to think, or if you’d still have it.” So it means a lot that not only can I still get it done, but that it’s appreciated out there.
The first song I heard of yours was “This Perfect World,” which reminded me of Elvis Costello right off the bat, the vocal phrasing in the chorus –
Oh yeah, very influenced by him. And you know, [guitarist] Marc Ribot played on that song, so there are a lot of connections … Tom Waits’ “Rain Dogs” was a huge influence on me, too. I’m not a scholar of music, but I have a few records that changed my life. That’s one, “Ziggy Stardust” [David Bowie], “Surfer Rosa” [by the Pixies], “Physical Graffiti,” [Led Zep] a few others .. but I’m not like a deep musical listener. I listened to ’70s and ’80s rock a lot growing up and found stuff out later in life. Once I started writing songs, I was pretty busy working on music, so I don’t listen to music that much. Music is just in the world everywhere, you can’t not hear it.
I’d love to hear you sing with Laura Cantrell some day – you know her stuff?
Oh yeah, I know Laura from way back in the Brooklyn days. She has a very nice country voice.
Last time I was in Portland, I think it was 2020, I noticed how the pedal steel was taking off again in all these psych-country space bands.
Oh, for sure. I had Doug Pettibone [Lucinda Williams] play steel on my last record. He’s a great player, great guy. The band – the guys I knew from my last record, Dusty Wakeman [Jim Lauderdale] and Dave Raven [Shelby Lynn] and Sasha Smith, were just a real fun group. I think that shows in the music, I hope. I really love the tone of the first track, its more lighthearted.
So you’re doing the upcoming Tin Pan show with another artist, Steve Forbert, I’m not as familiar with him.
Yeah, we’re each doing our own sets. Steve came up in the CBGB days in New York around the time of the Talking Heads and so forth; he was kind of the folky guy, is my impression. I can’t tell his story, I just always loved his hit song, “Romeo’s Tune.” So I’m looking forward to playing with him. It’s a strength in numbers kind of reasoning …
I used to play Richmond a lot at the Flood Zone way back in the day, we would open for the Lemonheads, or Soul Asylum. I was in Richmond a lot it seemed like. The good ‘ole days of living in the van. Sounds like the Tin Pan is smaller, so I hope we can sell it out or have a good night.
Seems like it’s so different how musicians make money these days – getting their music licensed, etc. Did you see a big bump after the movie “Kingpin” came out?
Oh yeah. That’s a very lucky thing I got. Those are hard to get, I don’t have a big, high-powered organization behind me. I did definitely benefit [from that].
You were in that flick with my boy, Jonathan Richman. I used to live in the same Northern California college town where he lives. Saw him play countless times at my local bar in the 90s, and would see him at the farmer’s market every Saturday. He just hangs out around town and plays on benches, or outside the Pageant movie theater. He’s a legit troubadour, and stonemason.
Oh god, he is great. I remember seeing him in Kansas when I was growing up, and it was a real eye-opening thing. Revelatory. I love him so much, man. It’s certainly moving how much he gets into it. He really means it.
Strangely, I didn’t get this until later on, but clearly, that groundbreaking, monumental record, “The Modern Lovers,” was like a Velvet Underground record. I love both those bands. Clearly, that’s what he was doing and I never made the connection.
Do you have anything else in terms of upcoming releases or projects?
I’m just trying to not promise things. I’m trying to do a lyric book in the background, hopefully that will get out there. Really, the only thing I’m doing now is trying to finish these next 10 songs and record them. And I’m painting again. I used to paint when I was in college and then I quit for a long time. Now I’m back doing it.
I’m mainly concerned with getting those 10 songs finished lyrically. That’s truly the main thing for me; if the lyrics are OK, I’ll be fine … Some songs seem like they exist in the ether already. In my experience, most songs, it can be a very hard process of chipping away or trying different ideas. I tell myself, “Why do you do this?” Because when they’re done, they’re great. It will be good to get them out of the house. And the reason I [write songs] is that my brain just naturally does it. At least I get paid for that.
I wondered if you might have a “Blood on the Tracks” divorce album coming?
[Laughs] No, I never did any stuff about that. It’s funny, my ex and I are on great terms. She said, “Hey, I like your new record!” I’m sure she was listening very closely [laughs]. But there was nothing there, you know.
When I was younger, I felt I had something to sing about, maybe. Your brain hasn’t been through certain bumpers on the pinball machine that have made you a certain way. So, I don’t really have any topics I want to get out in song, is what I’m trying to say, I guess. The songs are just purely melodic things that need words.
But now I can reach out into the world and just write about normal things. I have a new song, for example, about a drummer being fired from a band. And I’m happy about that. It’s not me singing about the usual things, “oh woe is me,” you know? “You left me,” or the usual stuff.
I’m just trying to keep doing this until the very end. No such thing as retirement.
Freedy Johnston performs with Steve Forbert at the Tin Pan on Sunday, Feb. 18. Tickets are available here. Tickets are $35 plus fees and you can find them here.
