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Calvin Johnson.
 For more than twenty years Calvin Johnson has worked hard at helping those around him make the music he and they want to hear - and more importantly, pursue an artistic path that shuns the conventions of centralisation and corporate structure. With a strong emphasis on music as a family through regional and societal co-operation, Johnson works as a record label boss, a producer and a musician and has been involved with more than 100 bands.
Most found a home at his own K Records, the label he began as a (very) young man back in 1982. Johnson and K Records are based in tiny Olympia, Washington, U.S.A. The town's population of only 35,000 hasn't stopped it from producing much revered indie rock and pop music.
When this interview took place Johnson and his small team of employees was preparing for the release of the new Kimya Dawson (ex-Moldy Peaches) and Karl Blau records right in the middle of a month-long rain-wave. Johnson will tour Australia for the first time on the back of his second solo album 'Before The Dream Faded', released locally by Sydney label Popfrenzy.
Including himself, the album features five producers: Khaela Maricich (The Blow), Mirah yom tov Zeitlyn, Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) and Johnny Jewel (Glass Candy). "They're mostly people that I have worked with in different capacities over the years," says Johnson. "I gave them cassettes and was very open to their ideas about how to arrange the songs or how to record them. It was exciting to collaborate with them on the recording. I mean these are people whose work I admire and I certainly trust their judgement."
The various producers are joined by a cast of musicians including Adam Forkner and Jona Bechtolt, who have toured and recorded with Devendra Banhart. The songs on 'Before The Dream Faded' range from spindly lyric-filled rock songs to meditative drum-less pieces to songs with beats both acoustic and synthetic. There's a trumpet, a violin, even a bassoon, all of it bookmarked with Johnson's characteristically deep voice and sombre tunes about love - incongruous and otherwise.
Most of the tracks were recorded at Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studios, where he has recorded innumerous bands including Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Gossip. Johnny Jewel and Johnson recorded I Am Without at his Death Disco in Portland, Oregon mostly in the hours between two and six in the morning while Phil Elverum recorded all the instruments on Deliverance at home in Anacortes, Washington. "Well, he is very organised and he's also very capable," says Johnson of Elverum. Contrasting the techniques of Jewel and Elverum, Johnson was forced to record during the day at Dub Narcotic Studios. with Khaela and Mirah. "There's no heat and we were recording in like December; you have to work while the sun is up or it gets prohibitively cold."
When I ask Johnson how it feels to be on the flipside of the recording process, to be the one being recorded by people who have looked up to him as a founding father of a continually flourishing scene, he humbly corrects me. "Well I don't know if that's accurate. As far as I'm concerned, I admire their work and I look up to them. I get a lot of inspiration from Khaela and Mirah in terms of the whole reason for making music. They're very inspiring."
The fact remains that Johnson has been instrumental in the blossoming of a defiantly DIY American music subculture that has spread slowly to all parts of the world. From his roots in Beat Happening to his work with Halo Benders and Dub Narcotic Sound System, Johnson has played anywhere and everywhere, while his studio knows no time limit.
"There's no clock," he says. "You just work until it feels right." It comes as no surprise that Johnson does not play off a set list but fans of his older work may find that he doesn't play a lot of favourites simply because he doesn't know how to anymore. Nevertheless it's absolutely fitting that he should fill his Valentine's Day show in Adelaide with love - and un-love.
Lenin Simos
 | Calvin Johnson brings the love to Rocket Bar on Tues 14 Feb.
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