Episode 80: Eric D. Johnson Of Fruit Bats & Bonny Light Horseman

By Team JamBase May 20, 2021 • 10:01 am PDT

Episode 80 of The JamBase Podcast, a partner of the Osiris Media Network, features an interview with Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman. JamBase’s Andy Kahn interviewed Eric about the recently released Fruit Bats album, The Pet Parade, Bonny Light Horseman’s Grammy nominations, upcoming touring plans and more.

This was Johnson’s second time being interviewed by Kahn on the podcast, following their previous chat on Episode 45 in September 2019. Since then, Johnson released The Pet Parade on Merge Records, which was produced by his Bonny Light Horseman bandmate, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Josh Kaufman.

Johnson, Kaufman and the third member of Bonny Light Horseman, Anaïs Mitchell, also released their self-titled debut album, which earned Grammy Award nominations for Best Folk Album and Best American Roots Performance for the song “Deep In Love.” Johnson discussed his Grammy experience — he was tapped to give the speech had they won — and talked about starting work on the second Bonny Light Horseman album.

Johnson told Kahn about trusting Kaufman with producing The Pet Parade, which became ever more essential when last year they were forced to record the album remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson described his songwriting process and shed light on some of themes explored on The Pet Parade. Eric explained how Kaufman pieced together remotely recorded tracks made by drummers Joe Russo, Brian Kantor and Matt Barrick, vocalist Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett, fiddler Jim Becker and bassist/vocalist Annie Nero.

Johnson also talked about getting back on the road to tour in support of The Pet Parade, what an actual Pet Parade is, his complete cover of The Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream and more.

Listen to Episode 80 of The JamBase Podcast below or via all major podcast services including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Podcast: