RS: Before BT contacted you did you know about electronic music, were you a club-goer and all?
Jan Johnston: Oh yes. I was very aware because I'd gone down to the Hacienda quite a few times in Manchester. It's a really weird thing because I'd heard a whisper through the grapevine that BT was going to get in touch with me and it's a small world. So I went down to the Hacienda on one of those occasions he was playing and it was a little after that that he got in touch with me. It was fate knocking, definitely, because I'd heard a whisper, I didn't know how real it was, but the vocals were then asked for, for Calling Your Name, and then they got in touch. He was in Manchester again and I went in to the studio and wrote Remember. Paul Oakenfold, who Brian was actually signed to at that time, loved the track and sent me out to Maryland where Brian was. I wrote with Brian and we became friends and we have worked together several times. Generally I've been able to go back to each of the guys, Paul Van Dyk, Oakenfold, and BT for different projects. The one thing I've not been able to have is the big guys work on my records, so I have to find the great new guys that are coming up and that's what I've been doing.
RS: I was going to ask you if there would ever be a Jan Johnston album which combined all the different producers you've worked with onto one CD?
Jan Johnston: Wouldn't it be wonderful?
RS: How do you find the guys that you work with?
Jan Johnston: I found I have a great gut instinct for finding the new guys, I really do. Slowly but surely, as I was out there working, I'd hear new music or I'd hear somebody playing and I'd think 'wow, that's very tender' or 'that's very melodic' and I must find out what that person has done or is doing. It turned out that I met a guy called DJ Manolo when I was working in Boston and DJ Tommy Boy when I was in Philadelphia. I gave them my songs with the melodies and the lyrics written and I needed great orchestration and I needed to be able to sort of give some sort of direction. Since I am not a producer, I don't know how to find what I'm looking for, but I knew I needed something very linear and very crystal, something that was very unobtrusive.
I've also been working with DJ Shah in Berlin, Psyco and Mike Burns from Interstate in California and Mark James in Australia – all of whom I met while traveling. So I'm hoping that in the next six to eight months all these different things will begin to show their faces. They were all amazing and I would say the up and coming new DJs of the next few years.
RS: You're almost like a Joi Cardwell in that she finds the next bunch of guys and after she works with them, they become big.
Jan Johnston: Yes. Well that's the hope for all of us. There's new people sending me music all the time, but it's got to be good so that it grooves me that I can collaborate with it. So I'm working on my own things and I'm also listening to things that people gave me. When I find something that really grooves me I'm like OK, let's see if I can get together with this person.
RS: Talking about process, when you write a song do you normally write the lyrics and then give it to someone to produce, or do you get a track and you write to it? What's your normal modus operandi?
Jan Johnston: Well, both ways work really well. Sometimes I'll send out lyrics and melodies like I've done with Mike Burns at Interstate. Because I really trust, I really trust what he does and the same with Mark James in Australia, I gave him two songs that way. Then with the new guys that come along, they'll send me pretty much an open sketch, so I can write into that and then they'll re-orchestrate around it. Generally it's a center note that you're hearing, so from that your vocal and your story is built from that notation. They take all those highs and lows that you can pull from around that center note and orchestrate it and obviously if I like it or if they like what I do with their music, we'll go ahead. But I actually do it both ways, and when I feel comfortable and I really like the way that person worked with my voice and the way they see things, then I'll send them my own tracks which I would call my solo pile, and get them involved in that respect.
