My name is Derek M Johnson.
Here's a direct quote from a recent performance:
"What did you think of the celloist?" (yes, that's how they said it)
"It was very *instrumental*."
I like ice cream.
I like to pick on violinists because they deserve it.
I have a younger sister, Erika, who's an amazing percussionist. Hire her.
My cat is named Ginny, after Ginny Weasly.
I work for the USPS as a rural mail carrier and like it.
I have no children, except for the ones I sold off a few years ago to pay off the credit card.
I really like to eat and should be much larger than I actually am.
At the moment I'm 36 and am based in Olympia, WA, my hometown. By the summer of 2009 I should be living in Rhode Island. There's a blog on here that covers the whole move.
As you can probably tell, I play the cello and have done so most of the time since 1979. I didn't do much with it during my 20's but I sure pretended I did. There were only two successes that I can think of from that decade, an ambient piece of 8 layered cellos and a song from a band I was in during my years in Bellingham, WA.
I work very hard to not have contrived performances. I feel absolutely horrible when they occur, even if it's for a brief moment. To me it's like cheating the audience and myself.
Many of my performances are a soundtrack to slide shows I've created of manipulated, undeveloped film. I pull out the film from the canister and proceed to scratch, paint, burn, and apply chemicals after which I cut them up and place them in slide mounts. The hard part comes next. How to arrange them for this show? Once arranged, the dissolve unit (which controls the fades between multiple slide projectors) has to be programmed. Finally I get to make noise to it. It's fun, rewarding, a lot of work, and people tend to respond well.
I also play many other instruments, just not nearly as well as the cello.
well, that's the press release version. always so stale, don't you think?
Most of the time I perform solo cello improvisations, be they acoustic, electric, or both.
I am also a frequent member of two noise bands.
the Dead Air Fresheners. oly/pdx/sea/tac A bunch of weirdos doing weirdo stuff.
Bloodclot. We do live, improvised soundtracks to 'experimental' films that they and friends have made. I play cello and drums.
I call my home the Apple Valley Hotel/airporter/studios. Guests have included: Warhamer 48k, Mangled Bohemians, My Education, Wummin, Darwinsbitch, Crank Sturgeon, Hobby Knife, IDied, among others. The wonderful Claudia Meza (of Thunder Thunder Thunder and now of Explode Into Colours) lived here for a few months before she moved to PDX.
People I WISH would stay over include: Deerhoof, some people who will go unnamed (wink wink nudge nudge say no more!), George Crumb, Rodger Daltry, Spinal Tap, Ewen McGreggor, Prince, John Lennon's offspring, and a whole host of others.
CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS: ***10min slide show performance w/ new slides and focus. ***Some silly stuff for an audition. ***Recordings. ***
If you feel like snail mailing me:
Derek M. Johnson
PO Box 12242
Olympia, WA 98508-2242
My sincerest gratitude,
DerekJ
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