Music: Ethan Johns
The sought-after music producer performs at Komedia
Born in 1969, to Glyn Johns, Ethan Thomas Robert Johns has followed in the family footsteps to become a highly sought-after producer in his own right, but one who has also struck out to pursue his love of music making via the release late last year of his album, If Not Now Then When? released at the age of 43, and more than 20 years after the release of his only previous album, the long-forgotten Independent Years.
His father has produced the heavyweight likes of The Eagles, The Who, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones, while son Ethan Johns has worked with artists including Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon, Ray LaMontagne, Tom Jones, The Kaiser Chiefs, Rufus Wainwright, Crowded House, The Vaccines, Laura Marling, The Staves, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. His extensive work saw him collect a Brit last year as Best British Producer.
With his uncle (Andy) also well known in the music industry as a producer, it really is a family affair, helped together by father and son working together for the first time last year on The Staves debut album, Dead & Born & Grown. “We both found them independently of each other, and was why we decided to do it together. I found them on a Tom Jones record, they were recommended to me by an A&R guy… and my dad saw them perform and thought they were amazing. We both thought they were great so we decided to do it together,” Ethan has said.
In 2012, Johns won the 2012 Brit Award for Best British Producer. Encouraged by Laura Marling, Johns headed into the studio as an artist, the result being a 10-track debut album; a gutsy and rootsy affair, combining ‘70s folk with touches of psychedelia, and garage. It’s retro but in this day and age, very relevant.
“I think pop music changes, the style and fashion changes, but the kind of music that I make, it may come in and out of fashion, but the people who are into this kind of music are always into this kind of music, it has nothing to do with fashion. It’s the kind of music you have to listen to, pay attention to.”
Ethan also recruited his father to mix his album for him. “I said ‘do it how you want to do it’. I mean, with a guy like that, [making suggestions] would be like hiring Picasso to do a painting and then showing him how to do it. You’d be an idiot. So I just let him do it how he wanted to do it, I mean that was the whole point of getting him to do it… it was easy for me to trust what he was doing.”
Ethan Johns, Komedia, Tuesday 17 September, 7.30pm, £10
