It’s a particular time to celebrate 20 years of musical career. The release of his album debut, The Nada in 2000, was considered a breeze of fresh air, coincidentally the same fresh air Mother Earth was gifted during the stillness the world was obliged to in March, both on a work and vital level, but Johansen is living up to the spirit of his understanding of things while exploring further the strange world musicians have been forced to dive in to. “I am slow, I take my time,” he laughs. “However, for some odd reason, from that Sunday, March 15 to Monday, March 16, something happened. I woke up at six in the morning and composed a song that came out in one take. It has to do with what I envisioned. I enjoyed having that immediate creative reaction.”
The Nada was recorded between 1999-2000 and marked the conclusion of a 10-year period in New York City. “Round numbers always make you meditate on your life, your cycles,” he continues. “It was a very important period in my life because it was a learning stage where I really trained as a musician at CBGBs, where Hillary Krystal supported me unconditionally, it helped me to grow as a musician.”
The album was a globalist take on pop music melding highs and lows of cultures and genres, fiddling with technicolor compositions exposing candid and lithesome topics where New York sounds and his Argentine and Latin American reverberations unlocked new rooms of possibilities. “I’m extremely thankful and also have a little pride,” he laughs. “My chest swells – in the good sense – with having played in such an emblematic place, of having recorded in the last decade of the 20th century in one of the most incredible cities on this planet. You lift a stone and you find an Argentinean musician, a Cuban percussionist, an Arab-Israeli drummer, an Israeli trumpeter, Cuban son, Argentinean tango musicians, it’s just incredible.”
Inadvertently, he had set the stage for young musicians to become just as musically ‘degenerate’ (des-generados) and had lifted the weight of belonging to a musical party. “Back in Argentina there was a lot of neighborhood rock circling, a lot of rolinga and cumbiachero rock. In turn, it was an album that was received with great reception by the media and fellow musicians.”
Johansen has deftly fueled a galvanizing blend of musical cultural diversity with eight studio albums, always advancing through unknown terrain with a peculiar sonic collage but remaining faithful to his essence and never compromising his artistic integrity. “There is a fine line in the creative task,” he continues. “I say, do not succumb to others’ gaze, keep it in mind, though, stay faithful to the faithful, awaken the gullible with an idea, song or line. Music is an eternal education, one is an eternal student. Making songs is a format that also has infinite possibilities in that puzzle, so there is always something interesting to discover. ”
The conversation further contextualizes his upcoming album or perhaps an opportunity for a new format of releases, following the footsteps of his recent “The Available 20s.” “I think I’m going to continue releasing songs here and there, individually,” he adds. “They could end up being part of a new album. It’s something I never did, I’m experimenting. I think there are songs with themes strong enough to have a chance to attract attention without falling into an effect.”
Posted from: https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/kevin-johansen-music-journey-9428088/