Will Johnson

Known for his efforts as a vocalist, composer, record producer, visual artist, and performer on multiple instruments, Will Johnson stands among the most active creators in American indie rock. Although his primary recognition stems from fronting Centro-Matic, he also leads South San Gabriel, has issued numerous solo recordings, contributed as a supporting musician and producer to several other significant projects, and issued nearly 40 albums across his various groups apart from the many compilations featuring his contributions. During the 2000s and 2010s he maintained his core outlets through Centro-Matic releases such as 2000’s All the Falsest Hearts Can Try and 2014’s Take Pride in Your Long Odds alongside solo efforts including 2012’s Scorpion and 2023’s No Ordinary Crown while also participating in Undertow Orchestra, Monsters of Folk, New Multitudes, and Overseas.

Born in Kennett, Missouri in 1971, Johnson cultivated an early devotion to rock & roll during adolescence, going so far as to master the guitar, bass, and drum parts for two beloved albums, the Replacements’ Let It Be and Soul Asylum’s Hang Time. Upon finishing high school he moved to Denton, Texas to enroll at the University of North Texas, pursuing a double major in English and elementary education. He first gained notice playing drums and in 1991 joined the Dallas-based group Funland. The band achieved enough success that Johnson paused his studies to accommodate their touring demands, and Arista Records briefly signed them, issuing the EP Sweetness in 1995. Months after that release he returned to Denton to finish his degree and started capturing introspective solo pieces on a four-track cassette recorder, initially crediting the songs to “The Centro-Matic Band.” Those early self-released cassettes drew favorable local press attention. By 1996 the first official Centro-Matic album, Redo the Stacks, had emerged, by then expanded into a full band featuring Mark Hedman on bass, drummer Matt Pence, and Scott Danborn on bass and keyboards. Between 1996 and 2001 Centro-Matic put out two cassette-only compilations, four 7" singles, two EPs, and six albums, building a devoted cult audience through their richly atmospheric sound and Johnson’s incisive, literary songwriting.

Johnson issued his debut solo album, Murder of Tides, in 2002, and introduced South San Gabriel in 2003, employing the same musicians as Centro-Matic yet pursuing a more restrained and introspective style. As both projects continued earning praise from listeners and reviewers, he expanded his collaborative activity, performing guitar in Anders Parker’s Varnaline, drumming for Jay Farrar’s Son Volt, co-founding the Undertow Orchestra alongside David Bazan, Vic Chesnutt, and Mark Eitzel, and touring with the all-star indie-folk collective Monsters of Folk. Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, a longtime admirer of Centro-Matic, enlisted Johnson to supply backing vocals on the band’s 2008 album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark; when Hood issued his 2009 solo album Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), Johnson appeared on the recording and joined Hood’s touring band.

Following Centro-Matic’s 2011 release Candidate Waltz, Johnson joined a special project in which he, Farrar, Parker, and Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket created New Multitudes, setting previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to new music. His purely solo output resurfaced in 2012 with the swiftly recorded Little Raider EP and the subsequent full-length Scorpion, a stark collection of austere songs and isolated atmospheres, both issued on his own Undertow Music imprint. To promote Scorpion he toured that autumn, alternating conventional club dates with intimate living-room performances in supporters’ homes. After Centro-Matic’s 2014 album Take Pride in Your Long Odds he returned to solo work with 2015’s Swan City Vampires and the 2017 follow-up Hateras Night, A Good Luck Charm. The single “A Solitary Slip” preceded his next solo album, Wire Mountain, in July 2019.

Released by Keeled Scales in 2020, El Capitan presented a minimal, atmospheric collection centered on Johnson’s acoustic guitar; later that year he contributed vocals to John Moreland’s LP5. He guested on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s 2021 album New Fragility, while 2021 also saw the emergence of Gulf Collide, a Marie/Lepanto project uniting Johnson with Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster of Water Liars. (Marie/Lepanto’s second album, The Fix Is On, arrived in 2022.) Johnson published his debut novel, If or When I Call, in 2021, drawing on his Missouri upbringing. In 2023 he joined Jason Isbell’s band the 400 Unit as a touring member supporting the album Weathervanes, and that September he released No Ordinary Crown, which incorporated noisy guitars and atmospheric textures into his characteristically direct, folk-rooted compositions.