Eric D. Johnson is the founder of Fruit Bats and co-founder of the Huichica Music Festival. He has composed music for film and served as a multi-instrumentalist for The Shins. His 2014 solo album came out under the moniker EDJ.
What was the food highlight of your year?
In January 2014, I actually may have eaten the single best food that I have ever consumed, no lying! It was like the food equivalent of hearing The Beatles or Zeppelin for the first time. A friend of ours lives in Alaska in a town where there is a salmon cannery... also, does every town in that state have a rad salmon cannery in it? But I digress. Anyway, she sent us a Christmas care package of a bunch of cool Alaska stuff, which included a (totally unmarked) can of smoked salmon. Like bootleg smoked salmon. We later found out this can was like the private reserve salmon that the main cannery dude gives out only to friends and family, so it was kind of a miracle and honor that we ended up with it. And it was INSANELY good. I live in the Northwest and have eaten a lot of salmon. And I like salmon, but its not even close to my favorite fish, let alone favorite food. But this stuff that I ate was a psychedelically amazing eating experience that I'll never forget, and if not the best food I've ever eaten, it's like top 3. That was in early January, so the year was all downhill from there (but I still ate well).
What was the music highlight of your year?
This was the year that I "discovered" both Joni Mitchell and Aphex Twin. It's always amazing to finally have venerable artists with deep catalogues come across your radar. They give you so much to work with.... As far as my own musical experiences, I made my first non-Fruit Bats record in many years, called EDJ. And I learned how to play solo with loopers and samplers, which was a crazy learning curve but pretty amazing.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
Well, I'd like to say that I was listening to "Court and Spark" while eating that amazing Alaskan salmon. But that's not really the case. I think this might be a repeat of last year's answer, but its hard not to mention both Pickathon, with their incredibly curated food and music, and our own Huichica, which isn't too slouchy either.