christian johnson
Christian Johnson is a rock and roll Midnight Cowboy, slashing at the foibles and phantoms of daily life. From the Christian Johnson periodic table of inspiration: dark secrets, closely held; an impossible crush; the barbed hook of self abuse. Christian wallows in the redemptive power of rock and roll, seizing it with the intensity of a wasted teenager jamming in the garage. . . .
Christian Johnson's adolescent dabblings in the musical arts were a telling indicator of the brilliant things to come. While painting was an ever-present pursuit, music remained the primary medium for his angst and dirty laundry-airing. Christian remembers his discovery of rock and roll well. "Like many an American family, ours disintegrated, and I remember rock and roll being the soundtrack of its destruction. It was the only thing that could have possibly expressed the chaos, rage, fear, and electrically confused sexuality of those times," he said.
Like many before him, Christian was introduced to music by his sister, whom he credits as his major influence. "The whole rock and roll thing wasn't my idea. . . it was my sister's. She was, and is, a primary muse. She thinks she isn't musical because she doesn't play an instrument, but to me she is a high priestess of rock and roll. It was how she lived her life. . . she ran with the wrong crowd. . . dark, dirty boys of the eternal pagan underclass. . .young satyrs with wispy mustaches," Christian reminisces. "Man, I dug those bad boys. . . they were outlaws, forever in trouble, and my sister was their queen. They found a world outside the world, and I wanted to be there. I wanted to speak its language." That language, Christian insists, is rock and roll.
Thirteen saw Johnson in a poetic punk affair paired with his first musical collaborator, Golden Deadvoice, now known to the music world as Nathalie Archangel. Nathalie, a gifted vocalist with her own dark tales to tell, took Christian under her wing and got him started writing songs. "The first song we wrote together was called 'Baby Jane', a punk ode to a carnivorous young girl I imagined lived in the crawlspace of our house. I used to tell my little sister that to scare her, so I wrote a song to calm her down."
Being second banana didn't suit Christian's big young ego, so he went on to head a psychedelic concoction called "The Lysergic Depressions." a band which wrote, recorded and performed its own music. The band's eventful three year spate foreshadowed the front man's often introspective, always lucid artistic temperament. Reagan-era, anti-nuke rallies and a year-long convolution with the Lower East Side radical, David Peel of Plastic Ono Band-notoriety were two of the more tangible features along the trail of this drugs-and-innocence fueled, rock and roll rumble. "The Depressions let me discover the liberation of being a lead singer. . . the lead singer can use his whole being to express something. . . .words, gestures, sexuality, theatre ! I truly get off on communicating this way."
Christian left the Depressions to go to college at New York University, where he studied English. He kept up solo performances with his accoustic guitar, at school events and in Washington Square Park. But Christian readily admits that this was "down time" as a musician. "I was absorbed by my studies. . . I have no regrets," he remembers.
After college, Christian renewed his mission by forming his next successful music venture. A glam slam by design, "Airport 75" was the picture of eighties big-rock melody mining and an early testament to the mythical status of actress Karen Black that predates the popular band of the same name by some years. "It was crap," Johnson unfairly remembers. "We, like everyone back then, cared more about being famous than making art. It was shameful. I'd say that 90% of the music I wrote back then was meaningless fluff. It wound up demoralizing me. . . .I ran away to San Francisco and gave up rock for a while. . . just to try to purify myself, I guess."
After his sabbatical in California ("I call it my 'vision quest'," Johnson says), Christian returned to New York, determined to make only honest, artful music. "I stripped it down to the bare bones," he recalls. "My first shows back from California were all accoustic, adding instruments and amplification slowly. The songs had to be the first concern."
Johnson refers, in typical comic fashion, to this as his "Lesbian Folk Singer" period. "My songs were improving. . . the honesty thing was working for me. I was truly introspective, and I was finally singing from the heart." Why is that like a lesbian folk singer? "Because sometimes the emotional pendulum would swing too far. I took it all with desperate seriousness, and would be hurt if people didn't understand my music. It would get maudlin, with me crying on stage and all that shit. I think that some lesbian folk singers can be excessively serious and emotional, as well, that's all."
It was during this phase that Christian was discovered by Trip Records wunderkind Tommy Davis, who asked him to contribute to "This Way Out", Trip's collection of "queer" music. "I was a little flipped out about 'coming out' as a musician," Christian remembers. "I mean, I spent the eighties believing that being a big-ass rock star was worth any price, including the closet. This was a whole new ballgame, but it fit nicely with my pledge to be more honest in my art. So I thought 'Fuck it. Here I am, world, a big sissy faggot. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.'"
Johnson's signing to Trip Records has proven to be the shot in the arm he was looking for, as demonstrated by the release of his solo album, "King Baby." "Working on King Baby was such a phenomenal experience," Christian beams. "I really cut loose for what felt like the first time. I just put everything down that I was feeling, without caring how noisy or sentimental it was. 'Steven', for instance is as courageous a thing as I've ever done, and not just because of its homo themes. It's brave because it's not afraid to be a big, sappy, emotional radio song. 'King Baby' is filled with such candor. . .from the fist-pumping rockers to the weepy ballads."
Currently, Christian Johnson is performing in the New York City area, writing new songs and preparing for a national tour with Trip labelmates The Velvet Mafia.
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