Scuba jive The Greg Johnson Set

Rip It Up, Issue 147, 1 October 1989, Page 6

Scuba jive The Greg Johnson Set

The Greg Johnson Set havetheirnew albumout thismonthandinthis morning’s paperthereisa BIG photo of Greg Johnson looking down, allmoody and artsy, like. “Yeah, I'm worried about thatone,” Gregsays. “I'm goingto be reaching down intothe freezer at Woolworths and someone’s goingto go, hey! You're that guy,aren’tyou?”

Fameis a double-edged blade, for sure. The Greg Johnson Setare going through the mangles of the . local publicity machine and the media has, well, a strange, strange view. Johnson is notthe band, he's justthe name and the face, he insists — even though he writes all the songs. The Greg Johnson Set albumis a hitin the sense that it's animated, quirky, layered, bright, danceable, moody, aftractive, educated, whimsical and contemplative music. It fallsinto the category rightly regarded as one of the best: the tunes that swing and shuffle with late night musings and meloncholy, the love songs that are never so gauche asto actually come outand say ‘I love you, yes | do-00-00", songs that cansit on the radio and notlose any precious “cred”. Yes, The Watertable is pop, and pop is a great thing. Pop inthe sense of Black, : ‘Nothinginsomethningparticular’, Yello, ‘Automobile Noise’, Red - Guitar’, The World Begins To Look Her Age, Mr.Ferry,'What Prescence’, Oldland & Montano, Nick Plytas, Andy Connell,’And Then She Smiles’ and the 12-inch of

‘Limbo’. You won'tfind that shopping listin the Woolworths freezer becauseit's already cool.

- Oops, getting alittle eclectic there, wasn't! viewers? Back fo the enfertaining, fun and brightly | coloured part of the interview! Let’s seeif Greg can answer all the questions correctly and win all those fabulous prizes! Here's your starter for 10: how do you like your own album, Greg? “I'm quite pleased with it, ; considering. It's a good pressing. There's quite alot happening there actually, too much in some places, in retrospect. Some of the songs are busierthan ‘Strange’, even.” Wasit difficultto decide what to leave on and offin the mix2 “No.Weputeverythingon.” Were you faced with juggling the personalinterests oftheband membersin the mix— was everyone wanting their bit up front? “Not really. If something didn't work, we'd turn it down. The mixes were agreements, there were no real disparities. Some of the songs, - particularly ‘Mysterious Gap’, were justdemos almost. People seem to like it though.” ' ‘Shirt And Tie Man’ off the This Boy Rob EP had a very whimsical underpinning... “I've drifted away from that a bit. The way | see The Watertable s that it's gottwo sides, and they're quite different. But we're marrying those aspects together now that we've got the band together.” Nigel Russell (keyboards) and Trevor Reekie (guitar) tended to layer things in with their music for Car Crash Set, sometimestoomuch. . “I've gotatendencyto dothat as

well. Also, | wasn't overly confident in the songs while we were recording, whereas now 've built up more confidence. | can sitdown withan acoustic guitar and just play it.” - Butsurely The Watertable wins precisely because of its complex instrumentation. The single ‘Strange’ isindeed a murky mix, but it still ' works, it sounds great on radio. The - last thing he needs is the Tracy Chapman treatment.

So, Greg has lost precious points for answering that last question incorrectly viewers, Still, maybe . Greg can catch up points in the rest of the interview and win thatbig trip overseas, folks. Yes, moneyanda new car, a cocaine habitandhis photo on the cover of “Q”magazine. Answer the following questions— no conferring:

The experienced Trevor Reekie would seem to be a moderating prescence on the album —true or false? : “Sometimes, although his classical guitar playing is very powerful in places on the album.” He did a wild solo.at your Venue. album release concert, true or false?

- “He'snotbad when he gets going, yeah. He uses effects a lot buthe's quite good at it.” How much songwriting were you doingin the studio? Was it a natural process? “Pretty much. They did growin the studio, the band created the sound forthem. They were sketches when | boughtthem in— arrangedsketches, mind you. We coloured themin in the studio.” Phew, viewers! Greg’s made itinto the nextstage of the game. Let's recap and look at that winning bout in the studio one more time.

Johnson's jazz awareness has allowed him to tap into the respect and worth jazz musicians afford to the arranger, and that's a good talent.

For 15 points, Greg, how did you use those talents? .

“I've gone for fairly simple arrangements— there’s a real dangerinbeing too clever.” Were you worried about ending upasbeingtooupmarket? “Nah. Fuck them. It's not something we contrive fo be like —it's simply - what we've come out sounding like. It is kind of frowned upon, the whole

thingis pretty slick, really. But we did it on the same budget as everybody else!” Aband like Car Crash Set got stick for playing more than drums and wires, butthe use of machines and samplesin dance music has finally warmed people to technology, making them realise that a computer orabeatboxis just like any other instrument in the right hands. . “Yeah. Someone like the Headless Chickens, too, they've always been info it. Plus people are realising that if they package things alittle bit better, record alittle more carefully, that they can reach a wider audience. Andthat's whatit's all about, | think—getting across to a lot of people. There aren't enough peoplein Auckland foryou to enjoy aselective audience.” iy

. Well, Ithink you'll agree that Greg is a deserving winner, viewers. How about the main prize of the evening, that big trip overseas? o The Greg Johnson Sethave a “standling offer” to make itto Sydney. for live dates later in the year and Pagan s still pushing for overseas

release of The Watertable— there's anibble from an Australian label, but

no bite at the time of going o press. Ohhh! A big sigh from the audience. Such an easy question to answer, Greg, yetyou've gone : straightbackinfo the studioand - started on the next album — true? “Yep, we're working on the next one! ltfeels like we're on aroll, and we wantto stay on itif we can, keep doing stuff. We hope to have anothersingle by March, and then another album out the same time - nextyear. “Ithinki's good to keep doing singles. People forget you otherwise — you've gotto have things to remind them. It's like a newsletter! “Sowe'll just keep doing it, and we'll stay on whatever level we reach. We'llkeep at it, that's the point. People say, oh wow, one day you know, you might really be doing it: And we say, but we are now! We're juston a differentlevel,a different scale. People don't realise that all these bands [in NZ] are doing it, they're real bands.” : Whoop! Whoop! Pull up! Pull up! Lights flashing in the studio! Judith’s fainted! You're felling us that the Greg Johnson Set are happy even though they 're notsoaking up the Bali sun in a Hyatt room for five with B>

- free shopping opportunities and all the sand'they can drink? You lose all thatlovely money and the chance to date lovely Leeza! Panicin the studlio. You're shying away from promotion, Greg— true or false? “You'reright. It's hard to deal with the fact that the album’s finished and outwhenit’sbeen ourlives for the last six months. We said goodbye to it three months ago when itwent off o getpressed! So of course we're thinking about the next one, we'd be introuble if we weren't. “We got no awards, no grants, there are no thanks to anyone onthe back of the record, exceptto my old man who lent me some money. He'll getsome of itback, too, but he's not too worried. The rest of it putin myself, with Pagan putting in a lot too.” ;

That contrasts with a relaxed working process that gives the album its good humour and shine. At one point after complefing alarge whack of recording, Johnson and company decidedto ditch the lotand re-do it. “| remember [producer] Mark Tierney saying, | can’t believe how _ relaxed you are about this. | consciously took that attitude in the studio, | was not going to worry about the fucking clock at all, | thought we'll pay for this somehow and inthe meantime justtry and let everyone doitintheir own time. And it paid off. Everyone knew that we were ona small budget, anyway, and relaxation is conducive toworking well.

“So at one stage we spent about ‘l2 hours on asong and then went in one nightto try and re-do the vocal and mix it, and suddenly | realised that the song was aload of shit! ltwas terrible. So we canned the song at 10 o'clock at night, | rang up the band and said getyour arse in here, we're going to do another one! That was ‘Mysterious Gap’, and we'd done it onceat practice the week before. So | rang Trevor and he wasn'tto happy, but he said, Okay. So we stayed up all night, did it and mixed it as well. Andthere’s the result on the album. It

sounds like the song was mixed at five o'clockin the morning, too,” he laughs. : %

“Mark’s also into that sort of thing, he had alot of inputin producing. He'sreally got alot of potential in the studio. He's being pulled to bits on CV and he doesn’tdeserve it.” .o

No problem. Mark could quit CV' and come hostmy new game show “Pick The Picassos Of Rock”, in which a hostnominates a different band every month and calls them the most important bandin the world, ever. I've actually been subtly introducing the formatin this interview.

Whathave you been listening to? “The new Pogues album, two tracks on it which | love, ‘Albert Bridge’ and 'Young Ned Of The Hill. And all that Chet Baker shit. And not much else. Classical and jazz, Miles. I's terrible, there's nothing | can honestly say that| want to rush out and buy. Mind you | haven't been listening to the radio lately.

“Ym the face of the band butthat's justanimage fotry and sell it. Butitis anecessary thing. And | only say

what | really think anyway. It's a small town.”

Okay Greg, | can'ttell you how much I've enjoyed having you asa guesthere on “Pick The Picassos of Rock” tonight. Here's one last

question before we go— what would you have done with allthat prize money had you answered correctly? : “Alll really wantis a large budget so | canspend the time in the studio | need to make something perfectly. Thatsort of money has to come from overseas, because no-one has it here, but as | say, we're just going fo keep doing whatwe're doing anyway. Ifthat happens, great, if it doesn't, well Il still be making albums infive years' time, even ifthey only sell 500 copies. “Yeah, they'lllove this albumin 10years! They'll say, ‘Oh, he was so good when he didn't - haveabudget..” =

CHAD TAYLOR