Ape School

Michael Johnson records as Ape School, a Philadelphia-based multi-instrumentalist and studio specialist whose prior band affiliations were with the indie rock outfits Holopaw and Lilys. His first Ape School project appeared in 2009 through an arrangement with Ninja Tune. Born in Miami, Florida, Johnson relocated as a child to the Florida panhandle and spent his adolescence in Gainesville. During that period he played in Holopaw, the group fronted by John Orth, who had previously teamed with Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock in Ugly Casanova. Orth’s connection to Brock helped secure Holopaw a deal with Sub Pop, the imprint behind the Ugly Casanova album Sharpen Your Teeth (2002) and Modest Mouse’s early singles. Holopaw issued two Sub Pop albums, Holopaw (2003) and Quit +/or Fight (2005), both showcasing Johnson’s multi-instrumental contributions.

Outside Holopaw, Johnson delivered the solo album Nonsense Goes Mudslide (2004) on Must!Delicious Recordings. He later settled in Philadelphia and began working with area indie rock figures such as Kurt Vile and Kurt Heasley, most prominently joining Heasley’s band Lilys to record Everything Wrong Is Imaginary (2006) and to support its subsequent tour. Johnson next collaborated with Daedelus on Love to Make Music To (2008). Daedelus’s association with Ninja Tune, the label that issued that album, led to Johnson’s signing with Counter Records, a newly formed subsidiary. Under the Ape School name he released Ape School (2009), a psychedelic indie electronica album constructed largely on a 1965 Moog, reportedly the fourth modular synthesizer Robert Moog ever built. In 2012 Johnson, working with drummer Eric Slick and additional guests, returned with the second Ape School album, Junior Violence, on Hometapes.