I point out that it was back in 2011 that he last played in Northland, and that was in Whangārei.
‘’Really! I was thinking about it the other day and I thought it must be five or six years ago, I didn’t think it was 13 years,’’ he said.
But with the Covid ‘lost years’ it was easy to lose track of time a bit, so was Covid an influence in your music as it has been for so many other artists?
‘’Not really. I thought the whole thing was a bit tedious, but there wasn’t much you could do about it. It’s great to get back to real life.’’
Friday’s gig at the Turner Centre in Kerikeri, is his first show in the Far North and he doesn’t really know why it’s taken this long.
‘’I haven’t been up north for so long, but I love it up there. The Johnsons are from the north and my great grandfather probably chopped down half the trees in the Northland forests in the 1920s so as a family we have a connection with the north.
‘’I’m not sure why I haven’t played that far up before, but I’m really looking forward to playing in Kerikeri for the first time.’’
These shows will take a fairly standard format where he plays all the hits his fans love and some new songs from the album, but also one or two he’s testing out.
For his next tour he intends to do something similar to what Elvis Costello has done on one of his.
‘’I’ve finally got together like 86 songs that people love. Not just the singles and album tracks, but even some obscure live ones that people have heard and told me they love. Then I will have a large wheel for people to spin and what it lands on I will play.
‘’It may have to be solo acoustic only though as I can’t expect to get people to be able to know and play all 86 songs.’’
The first single from Thunder In Fall , Rooster Tail, was released in December to great acclaim, and it has already become one of Johnson’s best performing streamed songs.
Thunder In Fall, is an atmospheric and, at times, dark album about which Johnson says: “I bought an old upright piano for two hundred dollars, sight un-seen. It turned out to be a beautiful American Baldwin, with a wonderful sound. So I decided to build the album around five main elements: the piano, analogue synth, some classic 808 drum machine, trumpet and voices.”
The album was recorded at Johnson’s new Los Angeles-based recording studio and features a number of other well-known musicians.
It also features legendary English singer Julia Fordham on Smile Or Frown, who he got to know through a mutual friend.
‘’She came to the studio one day and I asked if I could work with her and luckily she said yes. I love Julia Fordham and it was such a pleasure to work with her. Smile Or Frown started life as a bit of a folky number and she said she’d love to do something with it. And it’s just amazing what she has done.
‘’She’s got such a unique voice that really resonates with me. Working with Julia was amazing. She’s got such a distinctive voice and as a writer, she really pushed me to get to the heart of the subject.”
And as for that expansive feel to the album, it was almost inevitable given that the country just has that ‘vibe’ to it.
Songs like Grasslands give it out in spades and you can almost imagine laying on your back on a windy prairie looking at the stars.
‘’Yes, that’s it. There’s a lot of talk at the moment about us going back into space again and Grasslands is about a human just watching the stars. That appeals to people and fascinates them. We feel cramped on Earth at times and some look to space for a bit more room. We need that feeling’'
Greg Johnson brings the 1000 Miles Tour to at the Turner Centre, Kerikeri, from 7.30pm on Friday, with tickets from www.eventfinda.co.nz/2024/greg-johnson-1000-miles-tour/kerikeri.
He also plays at One One Six in Whangārei on saturday, but that show is already sold out.
