With Ruminant Band’s release last year, these folk/pop/rock musicians have finally hit their stride, providing not only a soundtrack to the lives of patchily bearded hipsters across the globe, but also a reassurance that the appreciation and understanding of true folk music has not gone out the window. Last week, when we had a chance to sit down with Eric Johnson, the creator and core member of The Fruit Bats, it was not just his reputation as a dedicated musician that impressed us, but also his intelligent, thoughtful answers to questions most often passed over by others. From news of a new album in the pipeline, to his childhood aspirations, Eric Johnson provided us with an interview and a half, as well as a look inside the mind of one of indie music’s bright lights.

IYS: Alright great! So where do we begin…you started the Fruit Bats back in ’99 right?

Eric Johnson: Yeah right around then, I don’t really have a necessarily pinpointed date inception, but yeah ’99, right thereabouts. For a long time it was just me and a four-track. I would sometimes mark the four-tracks but that was kind of a joke. So it was somewhere around ’99, maybe even a little before that even. The first Fruit Bats show was in 2000. Lately I’ve been saying this is the ten year mark.


IYS: What made you want to start the Fruit Bats? Did you have anything before? What other projects did you work on, and what made you decide to go in that sort of folksy direction?

EJ: Well, back in ’99, I was in a super loud rock band called I Rowboat. The Fruit Bats came to be because I was pretty heavily into folk music at the time, and couldn’t really cross genres with my main project, Obviously, its pretty well worn territory at this point, but at the time it was a little weird, and there weren’t a ton of people playing new folk music.

Interestingly enough, now I’m circling back towards rock ‘n roll again, but at the time, I was definitely just heeding the call.

IYS: So, you started the band with Dan Strack and Brian Belval; were they also in I Rowboat with you?

EJ: I started it with those guys, but they were only of halfway-in; for instance, Brian Belval never even did a show with the Fruit Bats. The project consisted of just me at the beginning even though I wanted it to be collaborative in nature.

IYS: How about now? Do you play all the music on the albums yourself? Or do you have other musicians record tracks with you?

EJ: On the first three records, I would collaborate with a bunch of people, you know, I’d have a lot of special guest stars. Like I said previously, I really wanted The Fruit Bats to have sort of communal spirit, which worked out relatively well with the last record, Ruminant Band. This time, I consciously put a band together, really started from scratch again.

IYS: And how did that affect the record? How did Ruminant Band turn out in comparison to say, Mouthfuls or Spelled Out in Bones?

EJ: There was a palpable sense that it was a rock band, rather than a creep, a guitar and a click track, with me laying things over the top. The most important thing though, is that we were able to recreate the way we played in the studio much better live.

IYS: That’s cool that you were able to transition from the studio to the live show much easier this time around. It’s a very important part of being in a band, you know?

EJ: Oh yeah definitely! I think that was a huge part of I made the change; I wanted to consciously do something that was gonna be more like a band and be able to translate to a live environment.

IYS: Speaking of full bands, I heard you recently joined The Shins.

EJ: It had been a pretty casual relationship when I started worked with them in 2007. At the moment, it turns out that The Shins are still kinda the number one priority for me. We started out at the same time, and obviously they got hugely successful. So joing up with them was a very organic process.

IYS: Did playing with the Shins in any way affect your decision to get a band together for Ruminant Band Did it spark that drive for the live show mentality, and the fun that comes along with it?

EJ: Well, if anything, my band is very similar [to The Shins] in that there have been a bunch of lineup changes over the years; The Shins is very much James Mercer’s band in a lot of ways. In that regard, it’s almost the opposite; people see them as a band but it’s very much James’s thing so, I don’t think it had much of an effect on the way I did it.

It is definitely interesting watching the inner-working of The Shins, this highly successful musical machine. It is really quite inspiring and interesting to me. I’ve definitely been able to re-approach music from a lot of different angles; the experience made me a better player. It’s deceptively complicated music that James makes; playing it turned me into a better piano player for sure.

IYS: Speaking of influences, were you always the music kid in your childhood? Did you grow up recording, playing music or writing?

EJ: No, actually. I definitely had fantasies about being in a band like any other kid, but it wasn’t pervasive or anything. That said, I did always enjoy singing, like as far back as I remember. And I’ve always really liked music, I’ve always just really responded to it.

But you know how it is being a kid. I wanted to be in a band; I wanted to be a movie director; I wanted to work in a zoo; I wanted to be a pilot; there were all kinds of weird things I wanted to do when I grew up. I guess I sorta was lucky enough to fall onto this one thing.

Believe it or not, but I only started playing guitar when I was about sixteen…

IYS: Have you been writing music as long? One of my favorite things about your music is its natural-sounding lyricism. Did you start writing along with singing way back when?

EJ: Yeah, I think I had always written too. I was just always interested in creating stuff. Back in junior high, if you had asked me what I wanted to be, I would have said “a writer.” I was always into writing stuff, particularly short stories. Words were, and still are, fascinating to me.

When I was sixteen, these kids invited me to be the singer of their band, but I was too scared to just stand there and sing, so I learned to play guitar. So, then I learned two chords on guitar, and was like, “well that’s not enough to really learn any songs.” Since I didn’t want to take guitar lessons or anything, I decided to just write some songs instead.

That was how I started writing. It was this weird chain of events, which sort of forced me into it. Of course, I liked to write, so no one had to twist my arm to do it.

IYS: So your writing preceded you actually playing music itself. I don’t know of too many other artists that stated off that way.

EJ: I don’t know if it preceded it, but it kinda started exactly at the same moment. Eventually, I learned like four more chords, and did a couple of covers after that. The very first song I ever played on the guitar was one I wrote. Terrible song. [Laughter]

IYS: So, although it is pretty prevalent in the indie scene now, folk music wasn’t exactly booming in the late nineties. Who were the influences that inspired you start up such a folksy project?

EJ: A lot of sixties music, like The Byrds and Dylan, real folk music. It all came together because I was working at this folk music school at the time. But also, as far as today’s “folk” tag goes, I guess it sounds too general to me; I think what I play is still like pop or rock music. It would do real folk an injustice to sort of lump us in with that. I mean, we don’t even have an acoustic guitar anymore! Nowdays, “folk music” just means anything drawing from the roots. Take a band like Fleet Foxes, who I like a lot, you just know that they were influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were already like two generations removed real folk. We’re so many generations removed now that the meaning is diluted.

Folk music is like populist parlor music played on acoustic instruments; The Fruit Bats have a full drum kit and electric guitars, stuff like that. I don’t think Pete Seeger would consider us to be part of his uh, gang.

IYS: I appreciate that you consider things like that; it’d would be a real shame to do the “folk” label an injustice by taking away from its meaning.

EJ: I’m really interested in that stuff, and I’m certainly coming from a folk-esque angle, but it’s just so many generations removed. Plus, there is a lot of alchemy involved today, mixing one form of music with another. I personally like to try to emulate all kinds of different stuff to move my music forward.

IYS: Yeah, definitely. It’s really nice to talk to someone so thoughtful about this stuff! So, where are the Fruit Bats going next?

EJ: Well, I’m kinda starting to think about another album right now, nothing too specific at the moment. Plus we’re actually out on the road doing the tour thing.

IYS: So you’re gonna keep the ensemble, from Ruminant Band, keep touring with them, and record the next album as a group?

EJ: Definitely. We really worked well as a group for the latest record, and like I said, I’ve always wanted The Fruit Bats to have a celebratory nature. It looks like we are finally starting to achieve that aim!