Moon Duo's Ripley Johnson: "I have control freak tendencies sometimes"

Erik 'Ripley' Johnson is eager to gauge reaction to his group’s album Mazes, the second full-length born of his collaboration with his partner Sanae Yamada. “It’s interesting to get feedback because it’s hard for us to have any sense of how people perceive it,” he offers, very politely. An on-the-fly cliché-laden appraisal follows (“Eh, multi-layered, hooky, accessible, notes and stuff, not bad at all”) which Johnson duly considers and responds to: “OK, that’s cool. The one thing we tried to do was a lot more tracking, so there are more guitars on the record. It’s less minimal than on the previous recordings, so that is something we did consciously. I expected people to say ‘it’s more pop’, because there are a couple of songs on there that have that kind of thing going on.”

Johnson and Yamada have been recording their kraut-psych-drone (and now pop) out of San Francisco since 2009, when Johnson decided he needed another creative outlet for his musical vision to operate in tandem with his other, increasingly successful, going concern: psych-rockers Wooden Shjips. “Basically, I have control freak tendencies sometimes when it comes to the music and with two people it’s easier for me than with four people in that sense, because there is a little more control. Sanae and I have pretty similar musical taste whilst with the WS it’s varied, we have common interests but people are all over the map as far as potential direction is concerned. So it’s more focused on things that I like and things Sanae likes.”

The pair have also departed San Francisco in order to live in rural Colorado, a move motivated not just by economic reasons (“San Francisco is expensive, we wouldn’t have been able to afford to record the album if we stayed there”) but also to immerse themselves more fully in the project. “There are no distractions, we’re off the road and we can play music, be in nature, and it’s very tranquil.”

Is this relocation likely to have an adverse impact on the productivity of the Wooden Shjips? “It doesn’t really have an impact because when we do stuff I can just go to San Francisco. We’re not as active because other people have other responsibilities. Omar [Ahsanuddin] has a child, he’s busy with that. Everyone has got things going on, so even the boundaries that we set up for that band, left me with lots of free time to do other stuff. So Sanae and I decided to do our thing mostly full-time and then whenever the Wooden Shjips are available, I can just go and hang on with them.”

Johnson is at first taken slightly aback when asked if his lyrical content is primarily autobiographical (“It’s funny because nobody’s really asked me about that so I haven’t really thought about it too much“). One of the album highlights is a track called When You Cut, a rumbling, driving maelstrom which seems to be an ode to hedonistic excess. Is this a concept with which he is familiar? “I don’t want to take a cynical view on that, but maybe it’s a commentary on that type of attitude,” he admits. “There are people who do that and it’s part of rock 'n' roll and it’s what you see touring around and part of the lifestyle. I think it can distract people from playing music and you can see that in other bands, but that’s just not something we do.”

More generally, he is of the view that the album is about transition, reflecting his own scenario at the time of recording. “Themes tend to pop out of the subconscious or something. Generally, I think the songs on the album, for me looking back at it, are a lot about moving on, about trying to find your place in the world I guess, in the general sense, and saying goodbye to things and moving on to greener pastures.”

Speaking of pastures new, it turns out that this is the first time that Johnson has had experience of dealing with “a proper label.” Well, two actually, Sacred Bones in the U.S. and Souterrain Transmission for the European release. Holy Mountain, the imprint used for Wooden Shjips releases, is, in Johnson’s words, “a midwife for the album, to help get it out there, but other than that it’s not like a normal label which is spending money and putting pressure on to tour. So I’ve never had a lot of contact with the music industry. There is a lot of support there and they do a lot with promotion, so the question will be ‘does it pay off in the end’? We’re going through that now and hoping for the best.”

But he’s not all about conforming to industry norms and expectations, admitting that he tends to prefer smaller, spontaneous projects which kleep alive the spirit of the DIY ethos. Touring 7”s with Wooden Shjips, releasing a Christmas EP with Moon Duo and making plans to produce another one in October with a Halloween theme are all part of the plan, he says, “of keeping things interesting for us, but also as a way of connecting on a deeper level with the fans. I believe in karma, trying to do the right thing and being nice to people. And working with people who are nice, good people and aren’t industry assholes, I think that helps. People have to like the music obviously, but I attribute a lot of it to that.”