Van Johnson by Matt Dixon, March '06

Photo by Alex

Haunting This Body from Holiday Tour CDR

1. Please introduce Van Johnson & give a brief history.
Van Johnson = Andru ­ guitar, Steve ­ guitar, Gnick ­ vocals, Bill ­ bass, Dave ­ drums. We formed in the spring of 2002, played a lot of shows, did two 7 inches and a full length, had a lot of fun, we haven’t played any shows since the summer of 2005.

2. How would you describe Van Johnson to someone who has yet to hear you?
Hmm… I’d like to say just hardcore but that’s no longer specific enough for some people, so post hardcore, screamo is fine as well. We always thought we kinda sounded like In Loving Memory, Spirit of Versailles, Shotmaker, Saetia type stuff but maybe a little heavier and more spacey parts… I don’t know?

3. What were the original goals of Van Johnson? Have they been met?
Besides world domination? Pretty much what we accomplished, play shows, have fun, tour a lot, find a label that was willing to work with us. We don’t really play live anymore or operate so we don’t really have any goals. I guess keep pushing the records whenever possible so Katy Otto and Ryan Gobie (the people responsible for putting out our records) can make some money back.

4. What do you try to communicate through your music?
Lyrically this would be Gnick’s department. Musically = rock out and have fun.

5. A few years ago at a house show in Charlottetown, PE Gnick said the lyrics were about ghosts. can you explain this a bit further?
Again, this would be Gnick’s department. I don’t feel like bringing him in on this interview so I'll just copy/paste his manifesto from the first demo:

Manifesto:(found on the demo)

On the subject of ghosts:

These songs are about ghosts. Ghosts of love, ghosts of the past, ghosts of ideas and ghosts of the people we used to be. These songs are about being haunted by those things in our memories that we refuse to forget, or about being haunted by thoughts of things to come, about not being able to move on.

We have all grown up in a world that has taught us to hate and despise ourselves, and not one of us has a clue as to how to go about loving each other. These songs are about growing up in a world that wants us to live in little white-washed coffins of beliefs and ideologies and dogmas. They want us to live like ghosts on city streets, voiceless and bodyless, screaming silently to each other...it's no surprise that we wear our griefs and unhappiness like badges, so proud in our suffering...and we are sick of seeing a world that is in the throes of death. We are sick of leading lives that are lies. We are sick of living like dead men. These are our days, and our nights, and our hopes, and our dreams, and our hearts...and we have to promise ourselves, that from now on, with every breath in our dying bodies, that we will not waste them.

These songs are about looking around and seeing dead things, about seeing the people we love dying away. It seems we are all so haunted and so ready to die. We are all ghosts, frightened by the ghosts of other ghosts, and we are all so terribly afraid of the light.

6. Is it easy for you to play infront of an audience? What would be your ideal show situation?
I’ve always been very comfortable playing in front of an audience and I would assume everyone else in the band is as well.

Ideal show? Probably a drunken house party with a ton a kids that doesn’t get shut down by cops where everyone can just have a ton of fun. We never cared about playing the fanciest club in town or having awesome pa access. If we did we’d have to buy better equipment.

7. What's your most memorable live show to date?
There are a couple. The last show of our us tour with Kaospilot in NYC was amazing. It was the last day of like 40 shows. The place was packed, super hot, I remember Gnick crowd surfing at one point. That probably should have been out last show. In ottawa there’s a huge halloween show every year and those always went well for us. A lot of other places were always really good to us as well, too many to name, and of course Charlottetown.

8. Interesting tour/road stories?
Fuck man I could go on all day. Our border crosses alone would take up several pages. Keep in mind we tend to drink a lot on the road and act like idiots so barely a day went by without something stupid/weird/wonderful happening. Ok I'll do a few quick ones…

When we played Macrock in 2004 we almost got arrested for being really drunk and reckless because Dave rode a trailer down a hill onto the street and like 3 cop cars appeared out of nowhere.

After our second show ever I fell off the back of the van and nearly broke both my arms.

We had the windshield of our van shattered when a huge sheet of ice flew off the back of a truck. $1000 later we were back on the road. We drove 24 hours from Toronto to Kansas City for our next show to find out it had been cancelled.

9. What band made you want to be in your own band?
Me personally? Nirvana and Sonic Youth.

10. What are the last five records you bought? Current top five?
Jesu ­ s/t, Sigur Ros - Takk, The Holy Shroud ­ Ghost Repeaters, Bjork ­ Vespertine Live, Isis ­ Panopticon. That might not be right. It takes me forever to actually get out and buy records.

Top five ­ that’s tricky, I think I'll just skip it because there are too many things.

11. What can we expect from Van Johnson in the future?
Probably not much, We haven’t played since the summer and will likely never play again. But there is a ton of ex VJ bands now.

Black Actors ­ this has Dave and Steve from VJ.

Cartography ­ this is my new band with Steve and Bill

Nick Digaetano and the Vespertine Choir ­ Gnick’s country band, Bill and I play in this as well.

Embassies of Denmark ­ Bill’s other band.

So we have a lot of overlap among the bands and I’d say they all have elements of Van Johnson in them, except Gnick’s band, that shit is pure grownup music, which means no one gets to have fun.

12. How can kids get in touch with you?
To the best of my knowledge our website is still up at www.vaj.cjb.net. we have a myspace page as well. (m- here)

13. Final words?
Thanks for your continued interest in Van Johnson! Can my new band come and play in Charlottetown this summer?

Listen to Van Johnson:
myspace.com/myvaj

I WAS AT THE FIRST VAN JOHNSON TOUR
TAKE A LOOK AT OTHER JUNNNKTANK INTERVIEWS HERE