ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Some of the world's wonders are natural, and others are man-made, even mundane - like a landfill.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LANDFILL")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) Lookin' down from the landfill, I can see the city lights a-shimmerin'. And it's like a holy vision of what could be and couldn't be and could have been.
NADWORNY: That is the title track from the latest album from Fruit Bats. Eric Johnson is the band's sole permanent member, and he joins us on tour, backstage with Fruit Bats in San Diego, California. Thank you so much for joining us.
ERIC JOHNSON: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
NADWORNY: OK. So landfills (laughter). How did you get hooked on the landfill? What fascinated you with them?
JOHNSON: It was growing up in Illinois.
NADWORNY: OK (laughter).
JOHNSON: When I was a kid, I lived in this apartment complex when I was, like, 10. And it was a fairly featureless view out my window, but there was a landfill, which I always found to be very epic. It was just a very Midwestern thing. You just, like, don't see hills.
NADWORNY: Yes. I'm from Erie.
JOHNSON: Yeah. I just always liked that image in those words. Sometimes when I write songs, I get the title first, because - and it's like, it's evocative, but I don't know why. It's sort of turned into this metaphor for life. A landfill is the mountain that we stand on that we can look upon everything that we've made, but it's a mountain that we stand on that's made from our own garbage.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LANDFILL")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) Yeah. I always knew you would end up somewhere good.
JOHNSON: That's sort of where the metaphor came in, but I had to figure that out later. I had to sort of retrofit that, which often happens with me. I get struck by something first that I just am like, I like this image, but I don't know what it means yet, and then I'll kind of start writing.
NADWORNY: So it's like you're meditating on an idea, and you're just kind of free writing to get to a song.
JOHNSON: Yeah. Pretty much. I call it walking down the wrong hallway. I'm not Brian Wilson. You know...
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
JOHNSON: ...Like, I just feel like there's certain people...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...Where they can see the finish line. I never can.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
JOHNSON: I'm always just, like, fumbling towards something, but in a good way, like, where you just took a wrong turn and it took you somewhere cool, you know?
NADWORNY: Yeah. And you're not afraid of, like, losing your way.
JOHNSON: Not at all. I kind of need to.
NADWORNY: Yeah. So you begin the album with the song "The Saddest Part Of The Song"...
JOHNSON: Yeah.
NADWORNY: ...Which I find pretty funny.
JOHNSON: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SADDEST PART OF THE SONG")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) Found every little turn to take wrong to get to the saddest part of the song. Didn't you? Endlessly, endlessly, sleeplessly here. Breathlessly, breathlessly, endlessly here.
NADWORNY: OK. Usually, you have to wait a bit to get to, like, the sad part of a song or an album. Like, why start with it?
JOHNSON: Hey, I love referencing a song within a song, for one thing. In this case, like, sort of a song within a song within an album.
NADWORNY: What do you mean by that?
JOHNSON: I love to reference songs. I hate using the word, like, meta, or something like that, but just singing about listening to a song or...
NADWORNY: Oh.
JOHNSON: ...Singing about writing a song or something like that. I've always liked that idea.
NADWORNY: Why?
JOHNSON: I mean, because, well, write what you know. So like - and that's what I know. I'm not going to write about, like, sword fighting or something...
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
JOHNSON: ...Like that, because I've never done that.
NADWORNY: Do you like writing those sad parts? Like, is there payoff?
JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, I've always said my music is happy because I'm writing it to soothe myself. You know, like...
NADWORNY: Oh.
JOHNSON: ...It's actually kind of riddled with anxiety, but I'm writing it to make myself happy, you know? So, like, I think comedians are kind of like that, too, a little. I mean - but that the rhythm of comedy is soothing to them. And for me, I think, like, yeah, major keys, that's usually just where I start.
NADWORNY: Sure. I mean, it's an interesting thing to think about, especially for you. What? - Fruit Bats has 12 albums. You're part of Bonny Light Horseman. You've...
JOHNSON: Yeah.
NADWORNY: ...Worked on a couple of film scores. It would be apt to say that you are prolific.
JOHNSON: Yeah. We live in a weird era where, actually, we've gone back to being like - you know, The Beatles used to make, like, two records. I'm not comparing myself to The Beatles, by the way.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
JOHNSON: But, like, they would make...
NADWORNY: Just two records (laughter).
JOHNSON: ...Two records a year, you know? I kind of started off in the early 2000s. You would make a record and then tour on it for, like, three years. Making a record was, like, the Olympics. And you'd...
NADWORNY: (Laughter) Four years later...
JOHNSON: ...Be, like training.
NADWORNY: ...You show up again (laughter).
JOHNSON: Yeah. You're training. But, like, the notion that - where you're like, just keep making stuff, that is kind of fun so...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...For me.
NADWORNY: I want to play one more song. And to me, this kind of also sounded like you were trying to find something in the song "Perhaps We're A Storm."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERHAPS WE'RE A STORM")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) I was born in a soybean field. How'd I make it all the way here? Wide-eyed and stumbling, wondering, what if it's a dream and I'm still just a seed out in the cold mist floating on the breeze?
NADWORNY: Perhaps we're a storm still taking form.
JOHNSON: Yeah.
NADWORNY: What is it that's still taking form for you?
JOHNSON: I don't know. Like, well, for one thing, that image I slightly cribbed from Stevie Nicks, from the song "Storms" off of Fleetwood Mac "Tusk," where she sort of describes herself. She's - I have always been a storm. And I thought that was just such a beautiful image. I mean, I think she's talking about some tempestuous relationship stuff as, like, I think a lot of Fleetwood Mac stuff in the '70s...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...Was mostly about that. So - and maybe that's what I'm talking about, too. But that was, like, an image that stuck with me. Like, people as storms, you know? Which is, like, these things that they're fleeting, you know? Like, they form, and then they - it's crazy, and then they dissolve, you know? So I mean, it's all just an allegory for life.
NADWORNY: And so it's just, like, this building storm.
JOHNSON: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERHAPS WE'RE A STORM")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) Out in the cold mist floating on the breeze. And perhaps we're a storm still taking form.
NADWORNY: Oh, Eric Johnson. It was a pleasure to chat with you.
JOHNSON: Yeah. Great chatting with you, too. This was fun.
NADWORNY: Fruit Bats' new album is called "The Landfill."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERHAPS WE'RE A STORM")
FRUIT BATS: (Singing) Maybe just babies about to be born. Or maybe just babies.
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