Zone Magazine Issue 033 - Jan Johnson

Hey Gavin, I really love your latest
album.
I truly appreciate that you took the time to listen
to the album because I made it so that people could dip
into my imagination outside of the Spotify-single-song- AIplaylist
paradigm that we're in right now. It's a longform
expression. I didn't even want to release it as 18 separate
songs. I wanted it to be a 120 minute listening excursion.
Like a great DJ mix except I made all the music. And why I
put it up on BandCamp, so that I could offer it as a
continual mix. Then people started asking for
individual songs so made those available too.
I put it up on BandCamp and then shelter in place
happened so I haven't even sent it to many DJ's or made
the songs available on popular digital music sites.
What was the idea behind it?
You can read a little bit of what I wrote
here https://www.hardkiss.org/hawke and even more
about it here https://www.hardkiss.org/forword
To frame it in from another perspective -- A couple
of years ago, I had a shopping deal for a novel that I wrote
called CUBIC LUST. I had adapted the novel into a
screenplay and had a Hollywood production company
opening some doors for me to pitch. I had 18 months to
see if this would amount to anything. I'm an outsider, not
a Hollywood type, but I have family in LA so I make a few
trips there every year. It dawned on me that I was waiting
for something to happen that was out of my control. I felt
uncomfortable with the possibility that nothing constructive
might happen. Amazing things could also happen but none
of it was in my control. So I began a new project which
became THE DARK ART OF LIGHT WORK.
Many ideas and influences come together in this
project which is both a book and an 18 song album and
other forms yet to be developed. This idea of how the
imagination creates reality came into focus. I was exploring
the occult, astrological predictions, integral philosophy and
reading and listening to podcasts from the finest minds of
the past and current times. I began writing a song a day
with some new instruments and VSTs. Probing the art of
bringing things from the imagination into existence. A lot
of music and words were written in the spring/summer of
2019. I had a good idea of what 2020 would bring forth,
my guides were telling me that shit was about to get rearranged,
and I wanted to make something for 2020.
Something alert, beautiful, peaceful, contemplative and
hopeful. I wanted to poison the ugliness and corruption
with a contagion of another kind.
I sought out collaborators and drew on ancient
musical influences, voices in Sanskrit and Hebrew,
instrumentation from Africa and the Middle East. The music
grew into a mix of uptempo and downtempo elements
almost creating two different albums. I had been DJing for
my wife's yoga class for a few years on Saturday mornings.
Starting with solo piano pieces and moving through tribal
and ethnic tapestries into ambient outros. Not really what
you'd expect from a yoga class, moving around tempos and
playing with different global flavors, creating space and
mood for the teacher and students to explore. This
aesthetic influenced THE DARK ART OF LIGHT WORK.
There's both music for moving and savasna. There's
enough uptempo tracks to rock a Northern California
dancefloor but also chill vibes too.
Can you tell us more about the 4
hawke albums you released?
I pretty much release my music myself or through
friends. DARK ART OF LIGHT WORK is the 5th Hawke
album which hasn't really been released but you can get it
on BandCamp on Hardkiss Music. The first album,
NAMAQUADISCO was released on our Hardkiss subsidiary
Sunburn Recordings. Heatstroke came out on Six Degrees.
Love Won another came out on Eighth Dimension. Plus Plus
Plus was self released. Love In Stars came out on Hardkiss
Music. It's available on the website: https://
www.hardkiss.org/product-page/hawke-vault-mp3-5-xhawke-albums-extras.
What was the inspiration behind the
albums?
Each album is a different period of my life. I'm
just messing around with sounds and ideas and techniques
and song writing. It's a hodge podge of different shit some
of it more cohesive than others. I'm learning and
experimenting with the people around me.
Can you tell us more about the
treasure hunt album and
gold USBs?
For the album LOVE IN STARS which came
out around 2017, I wanted to bury my music catalog
underneath the tallest building in San Francisco
which they were building at the time.. But when I
tried to infiltrate the building site to put the golden
USB in the cement mixer, I got stopped. I wanted so
some future archeologists to find my music as an artifact.
Plan B was to triangulate the Bay Area with my music. I
chose to place golden USB drives with my music catalog in
three of the highest points around the Bay. I hid golden
USBs in Richmond, San Francisco's Alamo Park and in
Marin County on top of Mt Tamalpais. I inserted the first
clues to finding the USBs in Hardkiss vinyl record sleeves at
several record stores in San Francisco, Berkeley and San
Rafael. People who got the first clue were directed to the
second clue - a URL to a video clue to finding the USBs.
Then people went on missions to find my music. A fan flew
in from Texas. Eventually all the USBs were found. It was
a super fun way to connect with people and take the whole
process off of Spotify and the other digital monopolies into
the real world.