We Chat With Musician and Artist James F. Johnston

Known for his guitar-slinging antics with Gallon Drunk, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, and P.J. Harvey, James F. Johnston has recently emerged as an extraordinary painter. Whose works, eerie and mysterious, bespeak a language of dreams.

In a short while – just a few years – he’s created an enormous body of striking and moving visual art.
Curious as to his shifting between artistic media, I posed a few questions as to his inspiration, influences, process, and whatnot…

Where were you born?

I was born in Guildford, about 30 miles from London, but it felt like a long way.

What year?

1966

Were your parents or siblings artistic?
Were you exposed to art or music as a child?

Neither of my parents were, or my brother Ian. But my mother listened to classical music all day, and my older brother Ian had a lot of great rock records.

My grandmother lived with us too, and she was a big influence as a self-taught painter and musician. We had her paintings up all round the house, and when my parents went out, she’d sometimes play the piano in a wild pub singalong style that I thought was absolutely amazing as a small child:
How did she do it? No sheet music or anything!

James (left) with his older brother Ian as kids in England.

What was your education like?
Did you take any lessons in music or otherwise?

I did take piano lessons, which I really didn’t enjoy, also a rather pervy teacher.
Violin I learned up to grade 5 before losing interest and wanting to make a noise on a guitar. Now that I play it again with PJ Harvey it’s pretty much my favourite instrument.
I was also in a cathedral choir, which I absolutely loved.

Any formative experiences in school?
Were you popular?

Everyone has their bullying moments, fighting back moments etc., nothing hugely special. I don’t know about popular, as I got older at school I was definitely fairly shy and secretive, but I did have good friends.

How did you first decide to make music?
What were your first musical projects, before Gallon Drunk?

I started at school, borrowing an electric guitar, before saving up for one and a Vox amp from doing weekend jobs in a school kitchen and a hotel.
At sixth form college I ended up going a band, and one of the members, Joe Byfield ended up with me in Gallon Drunk as we lived together in London once I’d moved up to go to university, which I was kicked out of due to non-attendance.

How did “punk” affect you?
What were your favorite bands?

I had Never Mind the Bollocks and the first Damned album, but the first new music that I found transportive were the first two PiL albums.
At the same time I was listening to records from the local library, like The Doors and John Lee Hooker, Leadbelly, Howling Wolf, and of course classical music like from my mum. So a mix of all that kind of thing.

What are the top 3 objects you own?
… and what is it about each of them that you so love?

Chiming clock from my parents house, presented to my Grandfather in the 30s, for work in a brewery in Preston near Manchester. The sound of my childhood.
I never met either of my grandfathers, or my dad’s mum.

Love this. Bought off someone in the street in Morocco when I was there with Nicola years ago.
So perky.

I definitely think of this as an object. Came from my parents’ attic, belong to my gran, or maybe her husband. Has a cigar burn on the back.
I learned on this at school, and now play it on the PJ Harvey tour.
Exciting to play, especially with my limited command of the instrument. When it’s bad it’s horrendous, and when it works can sound so great, a thrillingly risky tightrope.

Your paintings have some sort of “darkness” about them, despite your avid use of color.
How do you do that?
Do you relate to the word “gothic” or to “goth culture”?

They are what they are really. I just start and take it from there. Maybe there is that element to them, but I try not to analyse that aspect too much and just keep working and trying to push myself to improve or open up.
As far as goth culture goes, it’s not really something I would come into contact with that much. Each to their own.

Is your approach to painting influenced by your years of music (or vice versa)?

Inevitably, and by people involved in both, and their approaches to working.
Polly Harvey’s work ethic being a definite influence.

Why painting?
Influences as a painter?
Did you begin during the lockdown?

I started on tour in 2016. Bored in an airport, Polly showed me some of her drawings on her computer, then we decided to do a drawing a day.
I ended up becoming obsessed with it and learning as I went on. First painting in hotels, then getting a studio when we got back from the tour.

I found that locking myself in a room and painting for eight hours a day changed my mindset for the better, and luckily found something fairly late on that I absolutely love doing, and that seems to come quite naturally, or at least suits how I am.

James playing violin as part of P.J. Harvey’s band, circa 2017.
Photo by Lyndelle Spruyt.

Your paintings seem to invite the viewer to project their own narratives on the work – What comparisons are there between making a painting and writing a song or piece of music?

An open narrative is what I’m after in the pictures, and painting them can feel like watching an unfolding movie sometimes.

I like improvising on the violin at home, and recordings of layers of that have ended up as part of records I’ve made with Steve Gullick over the last few years, that has a very similar approach.

Songwriting is far more methodical.

How is it that an image can emerge from a tangle of paint on canvas? Was it always somehow there, lurking behind the surface?

We have billions of images and memories waiting to be recognized in a mark. It feels like your brushing away dirt, uncovering an old relic, a constantly changing Rorschach Test.

Are you surprised by how prolific you’ve been as a painter?

Very.

Are you surprised by the reception of your work?

I don’t know really.
From day one I’ve just done them then posted them online, so it’s been so gradual. I’ve not really noticed how it changed or grew.