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RADIO INTERVIEW
Listen to the interview on Real Player
JH: In studio with us this morning is artist Jared Johnson. He has a compact disc out called Piano Pop. Jared, how did you first get started in the business?
JJ: Well, I first got started basically right after my [church] mission. I came home, and after a lot of friends and family encouraged me, I found out a friend of our family actually would record a demo for me for free. And so I used his help and got a CD out and sold enough copies of it to finance a real CD in the studio. That was Piano Pop. I recorded it last December, and we got it out about March of this year.JH: Now you're using the title Piano Pop. I assume that it's just all instrumental?
JJ: It is; it's all instrumental, and the title Piano Pop came when I was trying to decide how to describe my music to people. It would often come across really vague, and soon enough I started using the term "piano pop" meaning something in between jazz and new age. It's right there in between; some of it was upbeat, some of it was more mellow. A lot of people compare it to Jon Schmidt.
JH: Okay, name a few of the songs on the album and maybe some of the inspiration that is behind some of those songs.
JJ: The one that usually sticks out the quickest is Snow Angels. It's the last song on the album, probably the most mellow and the most sentimental. I actually wrote it on my mission, one of the few times when a song's actually just popped in my head. There's a six-note main melody, and it just popped in my head in between appointments on my mission. A few days later, I found a piano and just cranked it out and wrote the whole song in a few minutes.
JH: Not too hard to do if you're anywhere near a chapel. Was it any specific experience on your mission, or was it something while you were out there working that came to you?
JJ: It was at the hardest time on my mission. It was at the hardest time, when I was struggling. It was about six months in; I was just really trying to do my best out there and keep all my memories and everything in context while still doing the work.
JH: Now I understand that you also go out and you do concerts with various LDS artists. And you did one just this past week; who was that with?
JJ: That was with Julie de Azevedo.
JH: How did that turn out?
JJ: It was spectacular...[lists concert dates and stores where Piano Pop is available]...
