An Interview with Ripley Johnson (Rose City Band)

Ripley Johnson is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo, and his most recent project Rose City Band. Rose City Band’s newest album Earth Trip will be released through Thrill Jockey Records on June 25. Ripley Johnson’s music has been described as “dazzled psychedelic wandering” (AllMusic), “some of the decade’s most mesmerizing and beguiling albums… blissed-out songs” (Observer), and “a heaven sent sanctuary from 2020’s many brutal realities” (Mojo).

You moved from California to Oregon several years ago and you’ve mentioned in other interviews that this relocation made you become more connected again to the four seasons. I read that you composed Summerlong during that season (summer 2019?) and then waited to write the lyrics in the colder months (winter 2019?) before the album’s release in 2020. Does your creative process tend to follow this progression (music first, lyrics later)? How have the four seasons influenced your creative process?

We actually moved from SF to Colorado for a couple of years, then to Oregon. I always wait until the very end to commit to the lyrics. Part of it is procrastination. It requires a different part of my mind, so the process is different. I don’t have to think too much about the music parts — it’s more of a feeling. But I’ve also found that I like working on the lyrics all at once, towards the end, because it allows me to capture my state of mind at that moment. Like for Summerlong, I wasn’t able to finish in the summer as I had planned. (Summer is my happy time.) When I did get around to the lyrics in Nov/Dec, I was in a more melancholic state of mind and that crept into the lyrics. It wasn’t planned, but that’s what happened.

Also, in regard to the seasons, the first two RCB records were meant to be summer records. It’s porch music. I’m very influenced by the sun and the weather, the natural cycles. I just feel it strongly, so it has an effect.

The name of Rose City Band is a reference to your current home outside of Portland, Oregon. The opening song of your new album is entitled “Silver Roses” and the lyrics mention the freeway, L.A., and travel. Are these lyrics speaking about how your transition from California to Oregon transformed you?

I’ve actually been here for nine years now. There’s more of a prism effect going on with that song, the imagery a bit fractured, pulling from different times and locales, like a Nicolas Roeg film. Some of it is from tour, some from personal travel and different home scenes. It’s a reflection of my life during and leading up to the pandemic. Everything was a bit jumbled, especially early on. I came home straight from a cancelled tour and was left trying to make sense of my new reality. There are references to the freeway to LA, the Bay Area, New Hampshire, Oregon – it’s all over the map, as was my mind.

In contrast to Summerlong, your new album was composed and recorded during this ongoing coronavirus crisis and quarantine. You mention in the press release that this past year has been one of isolation for you yet also an experience of getting more deeply in touch with mother nature. This solitude appears to have influenced the album’s title (Earth Trip), the lead single “Lonely Places”, and a contemplative, reflective, slower vibe on songs such as “In The Rain”, “Rabbit”, and “Dawn Patrol”. The aura of the album feels more grounded and less psychedelic than Summerlong. How do you feel the songs on Earth Trip differ from Summerlong?

The songs are definitely mellower. That’s the main difference to me. I intended to tour last year around the release of Summerlong, and those songs were created with jamming in mind. For this album, I had no expectations like that. I initially hoped for it to come out in the winter, so I was thinking mellow, hunkered-down, winter vibes. Nature was really speaking loudly last year, with the pandemic, the devastating forest fires, hurricanes. That all affected me. I was also privileged to spend a lot of peaceful time in nature, drawing strength from that. I felt very connected to the earth.

In several songs on Summerlong (especially the cosmic-country-meets-motorik of the two-part closing track “Wee Hours” and “Wildflowers”) your guitar tone is reminiscent of kosmische musik pioneers such as Manuel Gottsching and Michael Rother. What amplifiers and effects pedals do you use?

I’m lazy when it comes to gear. I’ll usually grab the closest mic and the closest guitar and just go for it. I use a variety of Fender amps, for a mostly clean tone. For Summerlong, it was a Deluxe Reverb, with maybe a bit of Vibro Champ. Same with Earth Trip. For effects, I usually use whatever is lying around. Might be a bit of a wah (Teese RMC3) and delay (probably a Strymon Brigadier). MXR Phaser. There’s some Mu-Tron filter on the new record. For some of the lead takes I would split the signal, so I could record a take both clean and with effects. Cooper Crain added some effects during his mix too. I told him the vibe I was going for was “that feeling when you’re out in the woods and the acid just starts to kick in.” So he got that and went for some really subtle psychedelic touches.

Vinyl Writers is a community dedicated to discussing records that change our lives. What records have been most important and inspiring to you?

Too many! There were a few in particular that inspired me last summer. Early on, I picked up Van Morrison’s The Philosopher Stone, which is a wonderful outtakes comp. I was reading the bio Can You Feel The Silence? at the time. I love 70’s Van and I ended up grabbing a few of the early 80’s LPs that I didn’t have. After I had recorded most of the music, I took some time off out on a lake in New England. I had no record player, but I downloaded Neil Young’s Homegrown, Sally Anne Morgan’s Thread, and Trees’ The Garden of Jane Delawney. I remember listening to those three a lot. The Sally Anne Morgan album, in particular, really connected with me. They’re all really inspiring. I need to grab that Trees box set.

Celia Humphris had delicate, enchanting vocals. She passed away in January. Trees’ Garden of Jane Delawney is one of my favorites too. Looking forward to listening to Earth Trip at home and out on the open road this summer. Thank You so much for answering these questions, Ripley!

Interview by Mark Lager

Buy and listen to Rose City Band’s music here:
https://rosecityband.bandcamp.com/
http://www.thrilljockey.com/artists/rose-city-band
http://www.thrilljockey.com/products/summerlong