Eric Donald Johnson is an American singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the leader of the influential folk-rock band Fruit Bats, and for his frequent collaborations with bands such as The Shins, Vetiver and Califone. He has also scored films, most notably Our Idiot Brother and Smashed. In 2014 it was announced he would begin a new solo recording project called EDJ.
Fruit Bats
Johnson formed Fruit Bats as a solo 4-track project in the late 1990s. At the time he was an instructor at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, and fronted a band called I Rowboat. In 2000 he became a member of the experimental folk-rock group Califone. It was on tour with Califone that he befriended the members of Modest Mouse and The Shins, who took an interest in Fruit Bats and made an introduction to Sub Pop records. Fruit Bats would become part of Sub Pop's early 2000s folk-rock boom and record four albums for the label, with Johnson being the only constant over many lineup changes. They played at festivals such as Sasquatch Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, and Le Guess Who, and made TV appearances on Last Call with Carson Daly and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Fruit Bats' 2003 song "When U Love Somebody" was featured in the film Youth in Revolt, and was later covered by The Decemberists. In November 2013 Johnson announced he would be dissolving Fruit Bats. They played their last show at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon on November 16, 2013.
The Shins
Johnson joined The Shins in late 2006, after having guested on their Wincing the Night Away album. He toured with them for the next three years, joining them for appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Johnson left the band in 2011 due to scheduling conflicts with Fruit Bats, and went on to appear on several tracks on their Port of Morrow album. Johnson also joined the band for their set at the Bonnaroo Festival in June 2012.
Film scores
In 2010 Johnson was hired to score Max Winkler's comedy Ceremony, starring Uma Thurman and Michael Angarano. Later that year he worked on director Jesse Peretz’s feature Our Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Johnson co-scored the film with Nathan Larson, and also wrote and produced three original songs for the soundtrack, as well as contributing a cover of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." In 2013 Johnson collaborated with Vetiver front manAndy Cabic on scores for two critically lauded Sundance features - one for the dramedy Smashed and the other for the documentary After Tiller.
Johnson has been in a relationship with photographer Annie Beedy since 2004. They were married in 2011. A Chicago native, Johnson has lived in Seattle, Los Angeles, and as of 2010, Portland, Oregon.
