David Johnson is a songwriter, singer, and guitarist in the SF Bay Area
David grew up surrounded by music, in a family where everybody sang, and almost everybody played. But it was The Beatles that fired his imagination, and it was early punk, and Elvis Costello in particular, that made him start writing songs “for real.” And it was blues– Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf– that became his lifelong obsession. All 3 currents show up in his music.
All his music is “classic rock,” whether that’s Beatles-ish harmonies and chords, Elvis Costello’s wordplay, blues rhythms, Nick Drake-style fingerpicking, or the sheer attack of Led Zeppelin, P.J. Harvey, Nirvana, and Sleater-Kinney. Classic Rock and Indie Rock are still the best ways to describe what he does.
His 2nd album, REWIND, draws direct inspiration from the Beatles’ REVOLVER. It will be released in late spring 2023.
Literature
David has a bachelor’s in English Literature. Literature is a lifelong passion, and informs his songs– he has drawn imagery from such authors as William Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Butler Yeats, and Flannery O’Connor. Some of his songs are direct renderings of the poetry he wrote as part of his thesis program.
David also has a master’s in Multimedia. Video art and software engineering still work their way into his creative output.