Jack Johnson was only two shows into his thirty-date US summer tour when the singer was struck down with COVID, and forced into hotel isolation.
As with the pandemic itself, COVID didn't slow the Hawaiian native down – when he stops to chat for this interview (a few days after his COVID diagnosis) he was in the middle of creating a stop-motion animation for one of the tracks from his new album, 'Meet The Moonlight'."I like doing stop-motion animation and I've had some time to do it," he says from his "messy" hotel room.
"I don't know if I'm ever going to put it out or anything, but I have these little creatures that are like people walking around, but their whole head is an eyeball."
The track in question, 'Don't Look Now', began as something of a joke between Johnson and his eldest son during an early-morning conversation between the pair.
"Every morning he talks about this rooster that he's going to kill that's outside of his bedroom, and then I tell him, 'well if you kill it, what are you going to do with it? You're going to have to deal with the kill when you're done'," Jack explains.
"We were playing guitar and half to make him laugh I [sang] 'every day my son says 'I'm gonna kill that rooster with the gun that you won't give me', if you kill it you're gonna have to deal with the killin' you done.'"
Johnson says almost half of his songs start out from saying something in jest, but if something feels right he will work on it from there.
"Like when I said, 'you're gonna have to deal with the kill when you're done', that like didn't actually make it in, but it ended up being 'the light that you stole, you're gonna have to deal with the light when it's gone', I think it was," he says.
Jack admits a lot of the latest album was inspired by the pandemic, or themes he saw during the pandemic including connection, isolation, communication and empathy.
"I always try to write from as true of a perspective as I can, of what I'm seeing and the conversations I'm having, and it's been a strange couple of years," he says.
"I didn't want to sit there and specifically try to make like a concept record about the pandemic or anything like that, but the more broader themes. . . Not only the negatives, but also positives of people coming together – even though it was a stressful couple of years, there was a lot of things to celebrate."
After consistently taking two years between studio albums in the early days, the time between Johnson's releases has slowly stretched out – it was five years between his last album, 'All The Light Above It Too', and this one.
Johnson admits that whenever he releases another album, he tells his wife that will be the last one. "I guess in the back of my mind I might make another one, but almost every time I think, 'why do I do this? This is weird,'" he laughs.
"So I don't know, I don't think there was really a plan on like how long it would be. I always kind of think, 'oh, this could be the last one'."
Jack adds that he loves touring, but because tour dates are decided so far in advance he sometimes wonders how he agreed to it in the first place, and by the end of the tour he sometimes thinks he doesn't want to do it again.
"But then you're home for a couple years and you start thinking of all the good parts, and you think, 'man, it'd be fun to go tour again'," he laughs.
"Sometimes the whole cycles confuse me and I think maybe that'll be the last one. . . After the last record I didn't really know how long I'd wait [for the next tour."
Although he says the natural progression seems to be a seven-year wait until his next album, Johnson admits he enjoyed the process of recording '...Moonlight' so much, part of him wants to jump straight back into the studio and make another record.
He cites producer Blake Mills as a big part of that. "It took a minute for me to figure out whether I loved it or not, but I think once you gain a certain amount of trust with somebody then it's nice, even if they're making you try things that maybe you don't love on first listen," he says.
"You're just a little more willing to give it a shot, knowing that it might be one of those things that grows on you."
One such thing that made Johnson step out of his comfort zone was the use of beer bottles, each filled with water to produce a different tone, on the track 'Costume Party'.
As Johnson enjoyed a beer in the studio while working on another track, he accidentally recorded the sound of breathing into the bottle as he took a sip at the top of the track.
Mills jumped on the sound, encouraging Johnson to keep it as part of the record. "He kept trying to keep this beer bottle thing on, and then eventually we figured we should at least give them the right key if they're going to be on there," Johnson laughs.
"So then we started tuning it and stuff, and then we had the idea to have a real track with beer bottles after that."
Jack appeared on Jimmy Kimmel recently to perform '...Moonlight''s lead single 'One Step Ahead' in promotion of the US tour. But Johnson says TV always freaks him out.
"My whole life has become a thing of exciting but nerve-racking: a lot of fun, and then sometimes overwhelming," he says, "but TV is one of those things where there's been a couple times where it's been pretty fun. . . but there's been times where I don't even remember performing, and I thought I was going to pass out.
"They come back from commercial and they're like, 'five, four. . .' and they start counting down, and then your vision starts going in and it just gets a little scary."
After performing throughout the US and Canada with guests including Ziggy Marley and Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Johnson will bring his tour down under with Australian supports Ziggy Alberts and Emily Wurramara in late 2022.
By then, Johnson should be used to being back on stage again. "It's the first time the band has been together in five years, so it's been fun learning the old songs but we've got a whole batch of new ones to learn too – it's just more about getting together and playing music has been really nice again," he says.
"It also takes a little getting used to, it's like the first show back is strange to walk out in front of that many people again, and the energy was exciting but I'd kind of go through waves – there'd be times where I would start thinking about it too much and then I would miss a chord."
For Johnson, missing a chord brings him back to the moment. "Whenever I hit wrong chords or forget my lyrics, all of a sudden the show loosens up and everybody starts cheering, and it reminds me that, oh yeah, people are here just to have a good time and they don't really care if I remember all my words," he says.
"If anything they can help me remember them, and it becomes fun."
As much as he's looking forward to performing for Aussie audiences again, Johnson says he can't wait to get back to Australia – his first trip since headlining Bluesfest in 2019 – to catch up with friends.
"There's so many friends I haven't seen for a really long time, and so for that reason alone I'm just really excited," he says.
"It's just a great energy in Australia playing music there, it's one of our favourite places to be, and so can't wait to be there for the music and the friends."
Jack Johnson 2022 Tour Dates
Tue 29 Nov - Kings Park And Botanic Garden (Perth)* sold outWed 30 Nov - Kings Park & Botanic Garden (Perth)* new show
Fri 2 Dec - HOTA Amphitheatre (Gold Coast)* sold out
Sat 3 Dec - The Riverstage (Brisbane)* sold out
Mon 5 Dec - Sydney Opera House Forecourt* sold out
Tue 6 Dec - Sydney Opera House Forecourt* limited tixs
Wed 7 Dec - Sydney Opera House Forecourt* new show
Thu 8 Dec - Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne)
