Donald Johnson

Donald Johnson's grandmother was a jazz singer in the 1930's (Vera Van) who had her own radio program and also made a film appearance in the nightclub scene in the Bette Davis movie, 'Dark Victory'. His grandfather was 'freckles' in the original 'Our Gang' silents and, later, was a theatrical agent whose most famous client was Ronald Reagan. His other grandfather was a concert pianist who also performed on the radio in the 30's.
He grew up in Southern California. His dad painted watercolors, dabbled in super 8 filmmaking (with Don as his 'star') and taught him how to surf. He played drums when he was 10 for about a year before trading it in for a bass guitar. A few years later, he bought a 4 track recorder, started writing and recording songs, discovered synthesizers, guitar, piano, his voice, and girls- not necessarily in that order.
He played bass in his first band at age 16. A few years later, his second band, In Vogue (named after the song by Japan), was very close to being signed when it disintegrated. There was a very brief foray as the lead singer of Automatic, a duo with future engineer/producer Tony Alvarez, but after the recent breakup of In Vogue, he took (what would become) four years off from 'rock' music altogether. During that time he studied acting full time at a conservatory, developed a love for modern classical music, studied traditional music of Japan, learned some music theory, acted in a few plays and on a local access show, read a lot of books, studied musical scores, and watched a lot of films. He also wrote his first 'classical' compostions around this time (1990).
In 1993 a call to his friend Tony Alvarez led to a bass gig with John Rittermal, aka JR (the tireless supporter of the Long Beach music scene) in a shoegazey band called Hummer (oh, if they'd only stayed together long enough to be sued by the car company). By 1994 he had switched to guitar as his main instrument, and a move to Seattle in 1996 led to a very noisy post-rock band called Wintermute, which later morphed into Drop John. A demo was recorded, but all the noise and shouting got old very fast, and Don began to search for something a little more subtle. He also started to explore visual art around this time (1998).
His next musical project of significance was as the guitarist and vocalist for the band decalogue. The band released a CD in 2004 entitled 'nocturne'.
Thus, we come to the recording of Donald Johnson's debut CD. A few of the songs where recorded as early as 2003. The bulk of it was recorded in 2005. There were stops in different parts of Seattle, Fidalgo Island, Seattle again, Pittsburgh, and Seattle yet again, before coming full circle back to California in the spring of 2006, where the final recordings on the CD were made. Yes, a lot happened in those years and many songs were written. This CD is in many ways the document of those travels.
But facts really only tell you part of the story.
Yes, Don wrote all the songs, sang, played all the instruments, and produced these recordings.
No, he has never had any formal training- OK, he did have a few vocal lessons with the late, great, wonderful human being known as Maestro David Kyle.
Yes, quite a few years were glossed over in this biography.
For more info on decalogue- click here for band history, music, etc.
............................................................ ..........................................................
Latest news:
Don is currently putting the finishing touches on his debut CD and looking for a record label to release it in early 2007.
He is also playing guitar with The Blonde Names
You can hear and/or buy his previous band's CD, decalogue 'nocturne' : here
For the more digitally inclined it's also available at the itunes music store- right about here
It is also available at rhapsody, and many others- just search for "decalogue"................................................. ......................................................