RAVENSONG IS:
JUSTIN JOHNSON – all instruments, lyrics & vocals
ANJI BEE – sings & writes lyrics periodically
INTERVIEW BY LYNNEA, CONDUCTED BY ANJI. PHOTOS BY ANJI.
VEM: How did RAVENSONG form?
JUSTIN: It started in 1989 as a Christmas present where i got a tape recorder that could do overdubs on so i used that opportunity to start writing music by myself on the multi-track recorder. i’d never really written songs before so they’re all fairly simple and kind of dark because of my state of mind at the time. As time went on I’d been in other bands so i started accumulating songs that i’d done by myself, by college i took up the recording arts so eventually i wanted to release my collection on tapes. The name Ravensong seemed to fit because of the raven’s significance so Ravensong formed by accident really.
VEM: What projects are you working on now?
JUSTIN: Ravensong is my main focus. I’d like to keep releasing material.
VEM: Any live performances?
JUSTIN: I’ve thought about it a lot; it would be great fun, a lot of energy than sitting in the studio recording one instrument over and over. There’s something you can’t get that you can when playing with other people. i’ve had problems with playing with other people — cause everyone’s playing style is unique and no one can really play all my parts to my satisfaction. I’m going to put out more ads.
VEM: What philosophies and spiritual beliefs interact with your music?
JUSTIN: My music is all very personal…my own experiences. The name Ravensong is saying it all; the raven for me –dare I say a totem animal? –its a connection I have with. I have a deep set of cards similar to tarot cards called Medicine Cards. They’re based on Native American associations with various animals that live in this area, it’s basically used for finding insights into yourself through these animals. Nature has always played a large part in my life. My music reflects animals & nature.
VEM: Have your dreams and goals changed since past bands?
JUSTIN: They’ve changed significantly! My first band was when I was still a youngster in high school and it just seemed like a good thing to play in a band. It was mostly cover songs but finally we wrote original songs. The best music I ever wrote with anybody else was in a band called The Watchmen. It never worked out but had a lot of potential… I’d like to get one of the members from that band to record with me in Ravensong, if I can get a hold of him again. Ravensong is sort of intended as a personal satisfaction for myself. But I like the idea of sharing it with other people if there are people that will appreciate it.
VEM: What are your influences musically or in general?
JUSTIN: Numerous! Everything I listen to has an influence on me. The one person i could say has a real influence over me is Daniel Ash. I’ve interpreted his style into my own. I listen to everything from Projekt and 4AD music to upbeat noisy local LA bands. I like to experiment. Exorcism, I think is alittle one-sided. Its darker as a whole than I intended it to be. I love it but the future Ravensong stuff will be different.
VEM: Is what you do a reality to portray to others or an advocation of fantasy?
JUSTIN: My music doesn’t deal with a whole lot of reality as other people see it. It’s my interpretation of experiences. Its a fusion of reality and dreams.
VEM: Any bizarre experiences you’d like to share?
JUSTIN: Oh yeah… a few days ago when i was leaving for Phoenix from the LA airport this rasta/hippie person was in front of us, and judging from how red his eyes were guess its fair to say that he was very stoned, and when he got up to the ticket counter he got so confused that the ticket person was having trouble figuring out what flight he was on, and said “What are you on?!” and the guy looked at him and said “What am I on???” And the ticket person realized what he thought he was asking and said, “What flight are you on!” He was really annoyed with him.
VEM: What gives you ultimate fulfillment?
JUSTIN: I still have yet to experience that with Ravensong.I find that every time I write and record a song I want to keep going over and redoing it over and over again. I don’t think that any song could ever really be complete, I guess that’s true with anything you create; there’s always something more you can do for it, but you have to find a point that you can stop and be happy with.
VEM: What do you wish to give your audience?
JUSTIN: My ultimate goal would be to trigger feelings & emotions, ideas in other people, so that the person listening would have their own interpretation of what I was writing — regardless of whether it had anything to do with what I was thinking when I wrote it. The best music has to be something that each person can get something out of personally. That’s what I’d like to give.
VEM: Thoughts on eternal struggle of Life & Death in humamity — does it inspire anything?
JUSTIN: I don’t really think that that struggle exists except in people’s minds. If people just let go and live life as they want to, things would be a lot easier. Its just that we’re hammered with thoughts from the day we’re born that life is this constant struggle and its so fragile and death is waiting might around the corner, that people will become paranoid about it and will cease to live their life meaningfully out of fear of dying. Some become so afraid that they kill themselves and that’s just uttter hypocrisyI think its silly to go like that. Men create all these struggles and dramas to give themselves some sort of meaning because they haven’t found any higher meaning for themselves. Once people become a little more involved and start finding personal meaning that they won’t have to take all these things out on each other and live with this feeling of….
ANJI: Impending Doom!
JUSTIN: Ah, yes, thank you… if anything it inspires me to write about my frustrations in seeing people believing this-I really think that life could be alot easier than people make it. And its my goal to make it as easy & enjoyable as possible I don’t feel any gratification from living out these struggles & difficulties, I feel the most gratification from when I’m able accomplish something smoothly and easily.
ANJI: What are some of the ways that ya have??
JUSTIN: Magic is the most effective way to accomplish what you want-not black magic because that always backfires in your face, and not magic that controls other people because that, too, backfires, not the sort things Aleister Crowley talks about –summoning demons and such– but just good basic constructive magic that instills a sense of power in yourself and allows you to get what you want without harming othersand without harming yourself, Successful magic gives me more satisfaction than anything else. Really, if I were to throw away all parts of my life at once, the magic would be what remains, cause that’s the one way to create the reality that you want for yourself.
Magic has been a significant part of my life since I was young. I started off studying Wiccan traditions and from there I moved on to study to small degrees all kinds of systens taking whatever was meaningful to me out of the system and incorporating into my own system of beliefs — my own system of practice. In addition I also worked to varying degrees with Norwegian Rune Stones, Tarot Decks, of course, Quija Boards, studied different New Age philosophies, varying practices of ritual magic, and more recently Astrology. and I find that the more I use all of these different philosophies, religious, spiritual and magical systems, you find that there are certain underlying beliefs that cross-cut all of them, and you can take those beliefs and use them to gain what you want from life in a very effective manner. I suppose that eventually I should find a way to incorporate magic into Ravensong’s music.
In closing I’ll mention what I’m working on right now; I’m looking to do a few collaborative efforts in addition to my own material. If all goes well I hope to have this done by end of ’93, early ’94. But life is fluid and things could change.
