Anders Johnson

for Love” by Def Leppard and the rest was history. Largely self-taught through tablature books and a good ear, Anders began making his own arrangements and simple songs almost immediately. As for playing other artists’ material, the challenge became making a full sounding song with one guitar. In order to produce the fuller sound, Anders would combine the lead and rhythm guitar parts as smoothly entwined as possible, even playing other instrument’s portions on the guitar where it would allow. This technique carried on when composing his own songs. “I want full sounding songs, something a little more than strumming a chord for four beats, changing chords and strumming that one for four beats etc.”

Recording:
While enjoying the recording process and filling songs out with drums and bass and other instruments, the goal is for the song to be able to stand alone and not sound lacking in a solo setting. First, performing a song solo completely translates as it should. Secondly, in adding percussion, bass, and other instruments to an already full sounding song gives the listener “a lot to listen to”. As time went by and Anders had amassed a small amount of original music, he began playing some for friends and relatives. The initial reaction was quite positive. Until someone brought up the lack of vocals. It was suggested that Anders find a singer to preside over the music. There was a risk to going in that direction, a collaborator, especially a vocalist, might deter from the initial essence of the song. Anders then decided that in order to keep in harmony with his material, he would take the reins in lyric writing and singing. Then came the pleasant surprise that baffled not only the artist but those listening, Anders also had a voice. To this day Anders puts a great deal of effort into lyric writing. As he states: “I want to put out the best product I can. I don’t want to be cliché with my words. To be honest sometimes I feel like I try too hard, you hear some music on the radio and it’s a catchy hook but the lyrics don’t have anything to do with anything.” Anders also claims to ‘over thinking it’ a bit. “I remember I sent some lyrics to my sister once, I said “I’m having trouble with this third line, should I re-phrase it? What do you think?” She simply wrote back: “Sounds good to me, I don’t see why you need to change anything.” Almost needless to say, Anders has a bank of material awaiting just the right words. Performances:
Anders began performing after nervously attending an open mic and winning the prize for best performance. Soon sporadic shows opened up at restaurants and bars. Patrons would often ask for business cards and copies of cd’s. One performance even prompting a couple to hire Anders for a private New Year’s celebration. Anders has expanded to playing three hour sets at venues across Connecticut and in Rhode Island. Despite having a solid amount of original material, Anders relies on cover songs which he, as he puts it, “re-imagines”. “It’s not verbatim” he says of other artists material, “It’s how I would play a song if it was my own.” “I play to the crowd” Anders says of his set lists. “I love music from the 60’s and 70’s and get to play heavy doses of that material for a crowd of a certain age group. A younger crowd gets some of that too but I want it to be ‘familiar’ so I include newer material too.”

One thing Anders says about his own music in the sets: “I can’t really figure out my target market. I write these songs to appeal to someone within ten years or so of my own age...what I’m finding is there are avid listeners who rage from much, much younger to a great deal older. It’s very flattering that a twelve year old boy and a sixty year old woman can hear one of my songs and say “That’s a good song, I like that”.”