An Interview with Zoë Johnston

An Interview with Zoë Johnston

AnjunafamilyUK 

Music can be many things. Emotional. Moving. Inspiring.
It can make you feel sky high. It can be the biggest sticking plaster during those darker times. And it can bring us all together as one. 

The music industry has been blessed with Zoë Johnston's truly beautiful vocals right across the globe, taking inspiration from Jazz, pop and drum and bass to bring us her iconic sound. 

We asked Zoë what her biggest inspirations are, and what the future may hold for this established vocalist and songwriter...

Hi Zoë! Thanks for your time today! We're so thrilled to be speaking with you!
Ok, let's start from the beginning. A hard but tough question: What's your favourite song?

Hi guys! Ok, I have a lot of favourite songs and they come out for different moods. Today I was thinking about how much I love Nina Simone's version of 'Here Comes The Sun'. I also kept hearing Joni Mitchell's song 'Electricity' in my head. That's a song I really love.

  

Both of those are nice and chilled. We can see why you've been listening to those. So it's not all trance music then! 

Speaking of trance, we know you work a lot with Above & Beyond (and you've done some absolutely astounding projects with them!). What's the best thing about working with the boys?

Best thing: I get to spend time with my friends making music! It's all second nature now, the writing and the catching up while we're doing it; it's like spending time in another home.

We're not the slightest bit jealous! Honest!

So where did you meet Jono, Tony and Paavo? How did you come to start colaborations with them?

Jono went to school with my cousin Roland and is still good friends with him. A&B were in a meeting discussing singers they might like to work with and both Tony and Jono mentioned me. Tony liked a song I'd written with Faithless and Jono had heard the music I'd done with Bent. Jono asked Roland to contact me to ask if I'd be up for a collaboration and the rest is history.

It was fate! We love stories like that. Written in the stars!

We mentioned Tony earlier and we had a question from enthusiastic Anjunafamily member, which was: Would you rather fight ten duck-sized Tonys, or one Tony-sized duck?

Oh definitely the ten small ones. Advantage in height and all that. Also I'd just enjoy seeing lots of little Tonys with beaks wobbling around.

Ok, there's an image we're not going to forget in a while! We'll never look at A&B in the same way again!

Now music can be an incredibly emotional, and sometimes, personal thing. Some of the tracks you have performed must be harder to sing than others because of real life experiences. Which would you say has been the hardest and why?

In some ways 'No One On Earth' might have been the hardest. I wrote and recorded on my own at home; it was way back at the start of the A&B journey and we hadn't even met each other in person yet. All our correspondence had been through the post. I was in a very introspective phase of life going through a difficult time and it would have been easy to write something quite generic and without reference to raw states such as intense loneliness, just to avoid appearing as vulnerable as I felt. Even though it felt exposing I had this compulsion to write something very honest, kind of like a purge. Nowadays I can appreciate that took bravery.

A true musician wears their heart on their sleeve, and No One On Earth is an incredibly powerful song. That bravery gave you a special home in our hearts, and we thank you for that. Now, we know that you're not the only singer/ songwriter that works with Above & Beyond. Are there any tracks that you didn't feature on that you wish you had the opportunity to?

No but I think because I write whatever I sing in that order I don't ever wish I was singing somebody else's song. That's their life, their story. I write what's on my mind and sing to get it out, and it seems to work OK sticking to that formula.

And is there anyone other that Above & Beyond, or even outside of the dance music scene that you would love to collaborate with?

Nobody specific comes to mind but I'm always up for interesting music projects. Although I love what Anjunabeats do I'm not looking to take on other EDM collaborations. I'm always up for more music with A&B but aside from them I'm feeling a call to work on music of other genres outside of trance and EDM. I'm quite into the idea of something along the lines of the old jazz standards. Anyone with soul, talent and sincere intent.

So we may potentially have a jazz album in the future? We'll look forward to that.

Ok, so we've talked a lot about Above & Beyond. 

Let's try some quick fire to get to know Zoë a little better!

Favourite Food? 

Peas

Favourite animal? 

Monkey

Marmite – Yes or No? 

Somewhere in between the two

Favourite Colour?

Probably green

Last album you bought? 

'Make The Road By Walking' by The Menahan Street Band

Morning person or a night owl? 

Night owl

Pineapple on Pizza? 

Go on then

Cats or dogs? 

Both get the thumbs up

Pineapple on pizza! You're our kind of person Zoë!

Now we know you a little better, we're interested to know when you realised you wanted to sing.

I never had a realisation about singing in that way. I see it as something which all humans can and should do. It's a form of expression and a source of great comfort to me, and something I've always done.

And what experiences have influenced your songwriting? 

One of my teachers at college wrote the most thought-provoking, unique and poetic music which had a really profound impact on me. I was part of a small group chosen to perform his pieces and during this time was introduced to other music which totally altered my ideas about how songs could be constructed. I really started zoning in on the stories in music around this time and couldn't get over how one recording played over and over could make you feel like you knew someone so intimately when really you didn't know them at all. It was also the fact that this teacher really believed in me and encouraged me to follow my own intuition when it came to art in all forms which changed my life. He genuinely respected my talent and that only made me want to try harder with everything. I was so fortunate to have a mentor like this. I think everybody deserves to be championed by someone, particularly when they're very young: your life opens up to you with greater colour and clarity.

So external influences and experiences really do have an impact on the music we make. I can imagine traveling from place to place to perform can build many of these memorable experiences too. 

Yes. Acoustic II was extremely memorable. I was totally overwhelmed by the constant stream of loving, gorgeous people. Everywhere we went, people bursting with positive vibes were waiting to inhabit our world. It was just incredible.

Would you say it was one of your most memorable performances? 

Lots of shows have stayed with me. But yes, there was one during the A&B Acoustic II tour where everybody stood up during 'Peace Of Mind' which really moved me. 

There were some incredible ones I did with Faithless too – gigs which caused earthquakes and one in Belgium with 90,000 people swaying with their arms in the air as the sun was going down. Very powerful and moving experiences.

So is there any particular place in the world that inspires you the most? 

No not really. Songs just come whenever and wherever. They just fall into the mind when they're ready.

That reminds us of a song from the 90s! Ahh, that takes us back! 

Are there any more traditional artists that inspire you?

By 'traditional' artists, do you mean mainstream artists? Off the top of my head I wouldn't say I feel inspired by any particularly, but I can be entertained by them. I've been listening to some of John Mayer's stuff recently – he's what you'd call mainstream I suppose? I'm up for it all though – pop, folk, jazz, drum n bass, dance, soul, funk, rap... all music stirs you somehow.

  

They do say variety is the spice of life!

Ok, let's talk music videos. What was your absolute favourite video to shoot?

I have really fond memories of the 'We're All We Need' shoot. Every single person working on it was lovely and we had a good laugh together. I was there watching when all the aerial and car chase scenes were being shot, then the next morning at sunrise a few of us went out to get my parts done. There was an amusing moment in the van a way into the journey when I asked “Have we got the music?” and got the reply “Erm...... oh.... no.” Fortunately I had my laptop with me so we loaded the song up on that and I sang to it over the sound of heavy traffic just behind us on a freeway!

Yup, we've been there and left music behind too! But what a song. It's one of those tracks that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

So with all the performing and video shoots you've done, you must have some pretty funny stories. Can you share your funniest moment with us?

Hmm... lots of funny things have happened but the one which comes to mind right now is being sprayed with champagne by someone just seconds before walking out onto stage at a very large festival. It was going out live on TV, too. Mandy, who was singing next to me, nudged me and I looked down to see what looked like huge milk patches on my chest like I'd had a breastfeeding accident. We finished the first song off trying not to crack up and then I had to run as fast as I could back to the tour bus to put a clean top on and leg it back in time to sing again.

We never thought we'd hear that from you Zoë! Haha! 

We're almost at the end, but we have one final question for you.

Many of our AnjunafamilyUK would like to know what would you change if you could change anything in the music scene?

I would bring loads more women into the dance music scene (in particular) as writers, DJs, engineers and producers. I think it's starting to feel extremely repetitious and tired having so many men dominating the scene. I think there needs to be deliberate effort made to invite women with talent to participate. Fresh energy, new talent.... who wouldn't want that? It's time it happened.

 

Connect with Zoë Johnston on Facebook. 

Check out Zoë's music on Beatport and Spotify.

 

AnjunafamilyUK would like to say a massive thank you to Zoë Johnston for this interview.

All images used belong to Zoë Johnston and are copyrighted.