The Sit Down with James Johnston
As one of Australia’s fastest-rising country stars, known for turning personal stories into universal anthems, James Johnston’s breakout debut single ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ became a record-breaking phenomenon, spending 28 weeks at #1 on the ARIA Country Chart and surpassing 134 + million streams worldwide. What began as a song written from memory grew into a global celebration of rural life and cemented Johnston as a powerful new voice in country music. His sophomore album ‘WHERE YOU’LL FIND ME’ which was released last year has continued to build on his success that is now taking him all over the planet and this summer at Country Calling in Chelmsford, he will become the latest artist from down under to hope to make the UK a second home. In advance of the festival, James came to experience the joys that the jetlag will bring him and spent some time in London, where we were able to hang out with him.
It's great to have you here and we can’t wait to see you again at festival in the August but this is a bit of a scouting trip to check things out, meet some people and learn how bad the jetlag is but I’ve seen that you have had a bit of tourist time so what have you managed to see? Is there anything you've really liked when you’ve been walking around town?
“Well, I ticked a few of the boxes off when I first got here like Big Ben and Tower Bridge, which when I posted about that and called it London Bridge, I got a lot of trouble for that from a lot of people. So that is not London Bridge and I learned that, so I've done a few of the tick box things while you're in London. We travelled out to a little village about an hour out of London yesterday and that was lovely. We went to a nursery for gardens and that was great, there was a café so we sat there and looked out over the fields, had some fresh produce, so it's been a beautiful trip so far.”
It's great to have you here and we can’t wait to see you again at festival in the August but this is a bit of a scouting trip to check things out, meet some people and learn how bad the jetlag is but I’ve seen that you have had a bit of tourist time so what have you managed to see? Is there anything you've really liked when you’ve been walking around town?
“Well, I ticked a few of the boxes off when I first got here like Big Ben and Tower Bridge, which when I posted about that and called it London Bridge, I got a lot of trouble for that from a lot of people. So that is not London Bridge and I learned that, so I've done a few of the tick box things while you're in London. We travelled out to a little village about an hour out of London yesterday and that was lovely. We went to a nursery for gardens and that was great, there was a café so we sat there and looked out over the fields, had some fresh produce, so it's been a beautiful trip so far.”
Looking ahead to the summer when you’re going to play Country Calling, what can people expect from a James Johnston live show?
“Big energy! You know at my show, I often say it before I start that tonight is not just about me, it's about every single person that's here. I'm not the sit down and watch kind of show, my show is come and be a part of it. You'll be singing with me, you'll be dancing with me so it's very much we're all in this together and I really love the idea that the crowd becomes one unified energy. That is very much what I try and achieve with my show.”
It's obviously a long way from home, so why is the UK been somewhere that's really calling to you as somewhere that's really attracting you to want to come and play?
“The honest truth to it is that every time that I share something online which says where should I go in the world? The UK always pops up on top of that list. We have things like streaming data and I think I've got a hundred thousand monthly listeners here in England listening to my music and I said, well, I've never been here, I've never talked to them and I’ve never done any of that. That's enough people to be like, let's go over and like say hello, let's play those songs for people, so that's where it really comes from.”
When people back at home first came across you, it was through Idol and The Voice but you weren’t doing country songs on either. When did the country sound start to come about? What shaped it between The Voice in 2014 and ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’? Where was the trigger point of this vibe and the sound to be want you wanted to do?
“I started singing country from the age of four, the first song that I ever sung was ‘Friends in Low Places’ by Garth Brooks and I did country up until about the age of sixteen. It was nothing but country music and at sixteen, it wasn't cool and this is the honest truth of this whole thing. My parents love country music, so as a sixteen year old kid, I want to do the opposite of whatever my parents are into of sorts and you know, it wasn't a cool genre. So, I guess I went searching for other things and then Australian Idol happened when I was seventeen, right in the middle of me trying to be a cool John Mayer or something like that, you know? It just kind of captures this moment of time between both Australian Idol and X Factor where I was out doing different things, I was trying different styles of music but behind all of that, I was always writing, at least at the essence of what was country music. It was always storytelling and even it was like guised on the idea of folk, if I listened back to those old songs, they’re just country songs so it wasn't so much that I came into country music it’s probably that I fell out of country music and then found my way home back to country music. It felt really just honest and true, I played in funk bands, I was doing big band stuff and all sorts of things but everyone else used to just call me the country James. Even guys in my band, they were just like, I know you were wearing a suit today, but we know your honest, true self. I just never knew it until it took some time when I started really writing a lot more and I saw this is this is home, so I wasn't somebody that was new to country or anything, it has been my story from a very young age.”
Then ‘RAISED’ happens and that didn’t just do wonderful things but wonderful things independently. Could you have imagined when you wrote that how it connected with people not just back home and in rural Australia, but also here and in North American too.
“It exceeded my expectations massively. With that being said, in the year before I wrote ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ I wrote two hundred and fifty songs that year and I was searching for something. I was searching for a feeling and I just knew it. I still remember to this day, it was mix seven and I was driving down from my place in Brisbane to Byron Bay and I can remember exactly where I was, exactly what I was doing at the time and it was mix seven. I had it sent over, I got in the car and I put it on, then I just pulled over and I was screaming in the car because for whatever reason, I knew that it was what I was searching for. Not even just in the year that I wrote two hundred and fifty songs but in my whole life of being a songwriter, that was what I was searching for. So, was I blown away by the way it happened? Absolutely. Did I have full faith that that song made me feel something and did I had faith that that was going to make other people feel something too? Yeah, I did because I fought so hard for that feeling.”
“Big energy! You know at my show, I often say it before I start that tonight is not just about me, it's about every single person that's here. I'm not the sit down and watch kind of show, my show is come and be a part of it. You'll be singing with me, you'll be dancing with me so it's very much we're all in this together and I really love the idea that the crowd becomes one unified energy. That is very much what I try and achieve with my show.”
It's obviously a long way from home, so why is the UK been somewhere that's really calling to you as somewhere that's really attracting you to want to come and play?
“The honest truth to it is that every time that I share something online which says where should I go in the world? The UK always pops up on top of that list. We have things like streaming data and I think I've got a hundred thousand monthly listeners here in England listening to my music and I said, well, I've never been here, I've never talked to them and I’ve never done any of that. That's enough people to be like, let's go over and like say hello, let's play those songs for people, so that's where it really comes from.”
When people back at home first came across you, it was through Idol and The Voice but you weren’t doing country songs on either. When did the country sound start to come about? What shaped it between The Voice in 2014 and ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’? Where was the trigger point of this vibe and the sound to be want you wanted to do?
“I started singing country from the age of four, the first song that I ever sung was ‘Friends in Low Places’ by Garth Brooks and I did country up until about the age of sixteen. It was nothing but country music and at sixteen, it wasn't cool and this is the honest truth of this whole thing. My parents love country music, so as a sixteen year old kid, I want to do the opposite of whatever my parents are into of sorts and you know, it wasn't a cool genre. So, I guess I went searching for other things and then Australian Idol happened when I was seventeen, right in the middle of me trying to be a cool John Mayer or something like that, you know? It just kind of captures this moment of time between both Australian Idol and X Factor where I was out doing different things, I was trying different styles of music but behind all of that, I was always writing, at least at the essence of what was country music. It was always storytelling and even it was like guised on the idea of folk, if I listened back to those old songs, they’re just country songs so it wasn't so much that I came into country music it’s probably that I fell out of country music and then found my way home back to country music. It felt really just honest and true, I played in funk bands, I was doing big band stuff and all sorts of things but everyone else used to just call me the country James. Even guys in my band, they were just like, I know you were wearing a suit today, but we know your honest, true self. I just never knew it until it took some time when I started really writing a lot more and I saw this is this is home, so I wasn't somebody that was new to country or anything, it has been my story from a very young age.”
Then ‘RAISED’ happens and that didn’t just do wonderful things but wonderful things independently. Could you have imagined when you wrote that how it connected with people not just back home and in rural Australia, but also here and in North American too.
“It exceeded my expectations massively. With that being said, in the year before I wrote ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ I wrote two hundred and fifty songs that year and I was searching for something. I was searching for a feeling and I just knew it. I still remember to this day, it was mix seven and I was driving down from my place in Brisbane to Byron Bay and I can remember exactly where I was, exactly what I was doing at the time and it was mix seven. I had it sent over, I got in the car and I put it on, then I just pulled over and I was screaming in the car because for whatever reason, I knew that it was what I was searching for. Not even just in the year that I wrote two hundred and fifty songs but in my whole life of being a songwriter, that was what I was searching for. So, was I blown away by the way it happened? Absolutely. Did I have full faith that that song made me feel something and did I had faith that that was going to make other people feel something too? Yeah, I did because I fought so hard for that feeling.”
That ended up being the title track off your first album, which at twenty songs is a big record which given that you said you had written a tonne of songs makes sense .You staggered ten tracks out in the two years prior to dropping the project but at what point was that 1st record finished, were you just working on music and eventually got to a point of now is the time to badge them together or was there a bit of a strategy with releasing the songs in advance?
“Yeah, it was less of a strategy thing if I'm being honest. I was chasing my tail a lot after ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ became such a big song, we didn't really expect it to be so big so it’s like, what's next? Those first two years, I was chasing my tail massively with my songwriting and everything and at the same time, there was a bunch of songs that I wrote which I loved but I didn't think were singles. I got to this point where I knew I loved all these songs but I don't think I want to spend a three month campaign on each one of these so it just felt right, there was just a moment where it was like, this is the right time, let's pull this together and put it out in the world. I'm incredibly proud of that record and I think in this day and age, there's such different ways of releasing music, I think you can be an artist that just puts out an album as your first release and do that or you can only do singers, like I feel like the rules are out the window a little bit to what they are. For me, I just was chasing my tail in that first two years, we were just trying to keep up with everything that was happening.”
For the second record, you had Warner on the side with it and also Jared Adlem was producing the full project. Did you find the process massively different between album one and album two?
“So, I would say independent versus label, not hugely different. One of the nice things about being with a label and the deal that we signed to is that I kind of have full control so I more or less get to deliver the record that I want to deliver and they have to just trust me on that, which is nice. However, it was a totally different experience as the first album had like five or six different producers on that record and I was just chasing songs where I'd work with a producer and they would do that song great. Then I actually worked with Jared very closely and pretty much build a body of work so it was totally different. However, the writing process was also challenging too, because of ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ being the hit that it was made it the anchor for the first album, it was kind of the centre point for the whole thing to be that this album embodies where I came from, where I was raised and all the songs kind of linked to that. When I got to the second album, I was like, what the hell do I say now? I can't say the same thing, so there was a bit of internal turmoil for months as I was trying to write that and figure it out, then I just kept writing more and more songs until I finally felt like, okay, this is a step forward into my present state.”
A bit of a random one and you may be able to see from my notes that I write in caps, so I think it’s really cool that all your songs are stylised completely in capitals but for you is there any reasoning behind it?
“I would like to say there's a beautiful poetic story to it but as I was in putting it into the system, there was a thought of that'd be kind of cool, that would make it standout, wouldn't it? I was like, let's do that, so I put it in and it's stuck where I’m like, I guess we're doing that forever. Sometimes, you know, there's a real freedom in being an artist with no expectations, right? Just to kind of change on the question a little bit, it's a place that I love to be, I love to be the underdog and when you have no expectations, like I did with ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ and nobody cared about my music, nobody was waiting for my music to come out and there was nothing. In the early days, you just went with Instinct, you know, it was like, does that sound good? Okay, I think that's the song. I wasn't thinking about the bigger picture, I was just being fully present and thinking is that a cool idea. There were no checks or balances between the label and everything, it was just, all right, if we're gonna do it, let’s do it. I really enjoy coming here when we talk about going to new markets and that sort of stuff, I have that same spark coming back to the UK as I did when I went to South Africa recently and having that spark of where I feel like nobody's expecting anything from you of sorts. When you come here, you've got everything to prove, there's nothing to lose so you're just like, all right, let's see what we can build and I love that.”
I want to ask about ‘SAME SONGS’ which you did with Kaylee, how did that song come about and getting her on it? Is she someone you have known for a long time and it was just a case of, hey I've got this, what do you think or was there a little bit more to it?
“Okay, so I've known Kaylee for over 10 years, she was the first person to ever write with me in Nashville so her and my stories have been intertwined for a very long time and we're very good friends. The day that that song came to life, she flew in to Brisbane from New Zealand and when she hopped in the car, I said, it's good to see you Kaylee but we can't talk because I've been humming this song, this idea in my head and we’ve got to write this. Then she was like, hey James, nice to see you too. Often, you hop in a songwriting room and they always say that the first hour is the therapy, the chatting is the talking. In that moment, I was like, I know that this is what we should be doing, I should be saying, hey, how was the flight and all the rest of that, but we’ve got no time for that, this is the song. Then we went into the room with Jared Porter, Nolan Wynne and Gavin Carfoot, who are all buddies of mine that I've been writing with for a long time, before anybody wanted to write with me, those guys wrote with me. It's been incredible and to have that shared song together has been really special, now we both have it in our sets, it’s arguably one of the loudest songs of our sets every time and we love it.”
“Yeah, it was less of a strategy thing if I'm being honest. I was chasing my tail a lot after ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ became such a big song, we didn't really expect it to be so big so it’s like, what's next? Those first two years, I was chasing my tail massively with my songwriting and everything and at the same time, there was a bunch of songs that I wrote which I loved but I didn't think were singles. I got to this point where I knew I loved all these songs but I don't think I want to spend a three month campaign on each one of these so it just felt right, there was just a moment where it was like, this is the right time, let's pull this together and put it out in the world. I'm incredibly proud of that record and I think in this day and age, there's such different ways of releasing music, I think you can be an artist that just puts out an album as your first release and do that or you can only do singers, like I feel like the rules are out the window a little bit to what they are. For me, I just was chasing my tail in that first two years, we were just trying to keep up with everything that was happening.”
For the second record, you had Warner on the side with it and also Jared Adlem was producing the full project. Did you find the process massively different between album one and album two?
“So, I would say independent versus label, not hugely different. One of the nice things about being with a label and the deal that we signed to is that I kind of have full control so I more or less get to deliver the record that I want to deliver and they have to just trust me on that, which is nice. However, it was a totally different experience as the first album had like five or six different producers on that record and I was just chasing songs where I'd work with a producer and they would do that song great. Then I actually worked with Jared very closely and pretty much build a body of work so it was totally different. However, the writing process was also challenging too, because of ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ being the hit that it was made it the anchor for the first album, it was kind of the centre point for the whole thing to be that this album embodies where I came from, where I was raised and all the songs kind of linked to that. When I got to the second album, I was like, what the hell do I say now? I can't say the same thing, so there was a bit of internal turmoil for months as I was trying to write that and figure it out, then I just kept writing more and more songs until I finally felt like, okay, this is a step forward into my present state.”
A bit of a random one and you may be able to see from my notes that I write in caps, so I think it’s really cool that all your songs are stylised completely in capitals but for you is there any reasoning behind it?
“I would like to say there's a beautiful poetic story to it but as I was in putting it into the system, there was a thought of that'd be kind of cool, that would make it standout, wouldn't it? I was like, let's do that, so I put it in and it's stuck where I’m like, I guess we're doing that forever. Sometimes, you know, there's a real freedom in being an artist with no expectations, right? Just to kind of change on the question a little bit, it's a place that I love to be, I love to be the underdog and when you have no expectations, like I did with ‘RAISED LIKE THAT’ and nobody cared about my music, nobody was waiting for my music to come out and there was nothing. In the early days, you just went with Instinct, you know, it was like, does that sound good? Okay, I think that's the song. I wasn't thinking about the bigger picture, I was just being fully present and thinking is that a cool idea. There were no checks or balances between the label and everything, it was just, all right, if we're gonna do it, let’s do it. I really enjoy coming here when we talk about going to new markets and that sort of stuff, I have that same spark coming back to the UK as I did when I went to South Africa recently and having that spark of where I feel like nobody's expecting anything from you of sorts. When you come here, you've got everything to prove, there's nothing to lose so you're just like, all right, let's see what we can build and I love that.”
I want to ask about ‘SAME SONGS’ which you did with Kaylee, how did that song come about and getting her on it? Is she someone you have known for a long time and it was just a case of, hey I've got this, what do you think or was there a little bit more to it?
“Okay, so I've known Kaylee for over 10 years, she was the first person to ever write with me in Nashville so her and my stories have been intertwined for a very long time and we're very good friends. The day that that song came to life, she flew in to Brisbane from New Zealand and when she hopped in the car, I said, it's good to see you Kaylee but we can't talk because I've been humming this song, this idea in my head and we’ve got to write this. Then she was like, hey James, nice to see you too. Often, you hop in a songwriting room and they always say that the first hour is the therapy, the chatting is the talking. In that moment, I was like, I know that this is what we should be doing, I should be saying, hey, how was the flight and all the rest of that, but we’ve got no time for that, this is the song. Then we went into the room with Jared Porter, Nolan Wynne and Gavin Carfoot, who are all buddies of mine that I've been writing with for a long time, before anybody wanted to write with me, those guys wrote with me. It's been incredible and to have that shared song together has been really special, now we both have it in our sets, it’s arguably one of the loudest songs of our sets every time and we love it.”
Kaylee headlined Country Calling last year and she’s back in Europe next week to play C2C in Berlin and Rotterdam, then Brad Cox and Fanny Lumsden are both coming back over again for the festival in London plus Max Jackson and Tyla Rodrigues are heading over for the first time. When you come back over, Tori Darke is making the trip too so more and more of you guys down there are making the trip to Europe, how big is it to have people like Keith and Morgan Evans to have shown the way of what can be achieved internationally and what is possible.
“Yeah, artists like Keith and Morgan, Morgan's a good friend and I've known him since I was twelve years old so, to see him have the success he had over there in the States is incredible too. For me, I think as an Australian, it's one thing, but then you see other artists that inspire me. Kip Moore is a big one, he’s a huge inspiration as an artist that has built a career differently, it's not the same straight pathway, he's got an amazing career all around the world. At the same time, I think it's important to write your own path too, you talked about artists that are over here, Brad coming over here, Kaylee and everyone else too but I want to write my own path in my own way. I think they're doing their own thing too but for me, I want to create my own thing over here in a way that I look to someone like Kip who has done that, so that's why we're here.”
The new album “WHERE YOU’LL FIND ME” from James Johnston is out now and available HERE. James is set to announce further UK dates in due course, which you can sign up to be the first to hear all about them on his WEBSITE whilst you can follow along with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
Country Calling will take place at Kings Farm in Chelmsford over the weekend of August 14th to 16th and you can find more details, along with ticket information on their WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all of the latest news on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK or FACEBOOK.
“Yeah, artists like Keith and Morgan, Morgan's a good friend and I've known him since I was twelve years old so, to see him have the success he had over there in the States is incredible too. For me, I think as an Australian, it's one thing, but then you see other artists that inspire me. Kip Moore is a big one, he’s a huge inspiration as an artist that has built a career differently, it's not the same straight pathway, he's got an amazing career all around the world. At the same time, I think it's important to write your own path too, you talked about artists that are over here, Brad coming over here, Kaylee and everyone else too but I want to write my own path in my own way. I think they're doing their own thing too but for me, I want to create my own thing over here in a way that I look to someone like Kip who has done that, so that's why we're here.”
The new album “WHERE YOU’LL FIND ME” from James Johnston is out now and available HERE. James is set to announce further UK dates in due course, which you can sign up to be the first to hear all about them on his WEBSITE whilst you can follow along with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
Country Calling will take place at Kings Farm in Chelmsford over the weekend of August 14th to 16th and you can find more details, along with ticket information on their WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all of the latest news on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK or FACEBOOK.
