Jack Johnson 04: Environmental Music – Discovery Planet Green / TreeHugger

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Does Jack Johnson intentionally set out to write songs about the environment?

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::GREEN DEETS::

My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

– Jack Johnson

::LINKS::
Official Jack Johnson website
Making It Mellow and Keeping It Green NYT

::TRANSCRIPT::
Jack Johnson: I don’t necessarily sit down and say, “I want to write a song that’s going to be, you know make people think about the environment or not.” But it is in my mind, and so it comes out. I don’t restrain it from happening, that’s for sure. But I can’t ever force them. I can’t ever think like, “This is what I want to write a song about.” Then I’m doomed. The first few lines write themselves. They just come from somewhere.

A lot of times they’ll just be my son was running a couple of months ago and he was racing his shadow. I saw him out in the yard and he kept looking at his shadow. And he would run. And he would stop. And he would go faster. Then I asked him who was faster, him or his shadow. He said his shadow was faster than he was. And I liked that line, and I just used it. I started playing and I said, [singing] “Your shadow walks faster than you. You don’t really know what to do about it.” At first it was just literally about what he was doing. And then I started thinking of the metaphors that come along with it and then I started writing a song about it.

::VIDEO CREDITS::
Creator | Executive Producer: George Spyros
Interviewer: Jasmin Malik Chua
Editor: Michelle LaTorre
Graphics: Tim Goodwin
Junior Editors: Holly Buechel, Indio Martinez
Production Company: Big City Pictures

1. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by environmental problems?

2. Is there a theme to your new album?

3. How do you deal with the static?

4. Do you set out to write environmental songs?

5. Any songs about the environment on the album?

6. Why do you use music to reach people?

7. Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?

8. How did you get so passionate about the environment?

9. In what other environmental themes are you interested?

10. Thoughts on the world we're handing down to the next generation?

11. What inspired you to start the Kokua Hawaii Foundation?

12. Advice for those overwhelmed by the static?