Zoë Johnston

Zoë wrote with Nottingham-based house duo Simon White and Cal Gibson, firstly on the single "Cherry Trees" (1999) and then on a number of tracks which were released on their debut album A View From the Heights, released on both vinyl and CD by Glasgow Underground in 1999. In all work with Neon Heights, Zoë is credited under the moniker "Zed J". Numerous remixes of the album tracks followed. Johnston received praise in early write-ups with one reviewer finding her vocals to be "so distinctive, almost unearthly".^[1] She also wrote with Hubtone ("Wayback" in 1998 and "Red Balloon" in 1999), Weekender ("Sunday Session" in 2000), and created an unreleased solo EP entitled Balloon Woods (1999).

After reuniting as old school friends, Zoë began exchanging demos with Simon Mills (one half of the UK electronica duo Bent along with Nail Tolliday). The band were in the process of putting together their debut album having just been signed to Ministry of Sound. At home, Johnston was using a 4 track to record guitars and vocals and had just completed an acoustic version of her song "Private Road". Simon immediately loved it and asked her to re-record it with Bent for inclusion on their debut album, Programmed to Love (2000). Zoë played guitars and sang on the album version of the track. Shortly afterwards, she wrote her vocal parts for the song "Swollen", which was described by the British actor Michael Caine during his BBC Radio 4 broadcast of Desert Island Discs as "one of the most romantic songs in chill music I've ever heard".[3] In keeping with the format of the show, he included "Swollen" in a list of only eight songs he would take with him were he cast away on a desert island with limited resources. He also included the track on a self-compiled chill-out album entitled Cained.[4]

Upon the release of "Swollen", Faithless member Rollo Armstrong was one of a few people tasked with re-mixing the song. He was immediately drawn to Zoë's voice but assumed she had been sampled from a 1930s-era record as Mills and Tolliday were at this time frequently building their songs around vocals lifted from old vinyl.[5] When he received the audio parts, he realized otherwise and contacted Zoë asking her to write with Faithless. He sent her a cassette tape of an instrumental track which would eventually become the song "Evergreen". Zoë worked using the 4 track at home and wrote the vocal parts, before re-recording them at the Faithless studio in London with the approval of Rollo and Sister Bliss.

Following this, Johnston returned to the studio to record "Crazy English Summer". Rollo and Sister Bliss had written an instrumental to which Zoë added the lyrics and melody from the first verse and bridge of an acoustic song she been writing at home, called "Crazy English Summers". Johnston also sang with Maxi Jazz on the song "Liontamer".

All three songs were included on the platinum-selling album Outrospective (2001). It became Faithless's biggest selling album in the United Kingdom. Despite some critical press reviews of the album as a whole, Zoë was repeatedly picked out by online commentators and media sources as a stand out highlight, with the BBC writing that "it is Maxi Jazz's soulful testament to his childhood hero "Muhammad Ali" and Zoë Johnston's sublime "Crazy English Summer" that will give this album a shelf life"[6] and reviewers praising her "obvious musical talent" and "original voice, style and sound [which] are so rare in today's music world."[7]

In support of the album, Zoë accompanied the band on an 18-month world tour, performing in multiple countries throughout Europe, as well as in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. She sang live with Faithless on the main stage in front of nearly 90,000 at the Werchter festival in Belgium (headlining in front of Coldplay) and on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom in 2002. This Glastonbury gig was included by The Daily Telegraph in its 2015 article, "The 100 best Glastonbury performances ever"[8] and was listed at number 21 ahead of many other notable artists.

Whilst on tour with Faithless, Johnston wrote the first of three songs for Delerium, entitled "Love" (2002). She received the track on a CD and recorded all of her vocal parts at her own studio before posting the finalized piece to Delerium's label management in the USA. The same set-up yielded the tracks "The Way You Want It to Be" (2003) and "You & I" (2004).

Having listened to the Bent album Programmed to Love and fallen in love with Zoë's voice and song-writing abilities, Heaton got in touch and asked her to perform on his debut solo album Fat Chance on Mercury Records. It was released in 2002 under the pseudonym Biscuit Boy AKA Crackerman. Johnston had by this point formed a habit of only singing her own lyrics, but took a rare deviation from this to duet with Heaton on his own song "Poem". The album as a whole was critically acclaimed but not a commercial success owing in part to Heaton's initial choice not to release the album under his own name. However, "Poems" received high praise from reviewing buyers and also from journalists who were moved by Johnston's performance:

"The album's standout, however, is the rueful, stinging and achingly bittersweet "Poems". When I heard Nick Cave’s song "Love Letter" earlier in the year, I thought I wouldn't hear another song all year that would match its beauty and sad-smile grace. "Poems" comes damn close. One reason is the presence of guest singer Zoe Johnston, who has one of the most incredibly emotive voices I’ve heard in a long time. Sounding like a teary Polly Harvey watching stars fall from the sky or a less self-conscious and mannered Chan Marshall, her duet with Heaton is a real gem and worth the price of the album alone."[9]

Zoë reprised her role with Heaton in 2008 when he invited her to sing on the single "Little Red Rooster". A different version featuring Heaton without accompaniment appeared on his album The Cross Eyed Rambler. Although the main vocals were Paul Heaton's own lyrics, Johnston created and sang all of the choir style backings and harmonies on the track.

In 2004, Johnston began working with the UK trance/EDM trio, Above & Beyond (Paavo Siljamäki, Tony McGuinness, and Jono Grant). Her cousin contacted her to say that his old school friend, Jono Grant, and his band wanted her to sing on one of their tracks. Zoë received a CD of instrumentals through the post, and in her own studio wrote and recorded the vocal parts for what became their first collaboration, "No One on Earth".[10] She has said that the song is about being rescued from loneliness by aliens and taken to a different planet ‘"for some heart-repairing".[11] The single was voted Tune of the Year in 2004 in Armin van Buuren’s trance radio show A State of Trance.

In 2006, Zoë wrote and recorded vocals for "Good for Me", which was released on Above & Beyond's debut album Tri-State. The song was again voted Tune of the Year in van Buuren's radio show.

In February 2016, Johnston attended the 58th Annual Grammy Awards is Los Angeles as a Grammy nominee with the song "We’re All We Need" (co-written with Above & Beyond). The song was entered into the Best Dance Recording category. Other nominees included Skrillex, the Chemical Brothers, Galantis, Diplo, Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus and Justin Bieber. The award went to Skrillex and Diplo (as Jack Ü) with Justin Bieber for the song "Where Are Ü Now".[36]

In 2004, Johnston released an album of unpolished home recordings called Happenstances. It is mostly self-recorded, with Zoë playing acoustic guitars and layering harmonies to hone a unique vocal sound. It features the original version of the Faithless song "Crazy English Summer". One notable guest appearance is that of Miles Davis and Carlos Santana band member Benny Rietveld, who performs bass on the song "Something More". The album was released without press coverage and Johnston did not promote or perform it at the time, nor has she since. In the absence of media commentary, it received favourable write-ups from internet reviewers who described Zoë as "a rare talent… she varies her voice in timbre, texture, tone, octave, and volume in a way that is intoxicating". Buyers who posted their views of the album praised "the genius and brilliance of her lyrics", with one writer reflecting that "[the songs] never forced themselves into my consciousness. They simply lay there and made an impression that is indelible."[37][38]

Johnston wrote and self-recorded vocal parts for the tracks "Leche" (2004) and "Inside Out" (2005) with renowned Faithless, Dido and Spice Girls linked percussionist Sudha. They were released on Sudha's solo album Anti-Freeze in 2009. She also wrote her vocals for instrumentals with house act Weekender ("Sunday Session" in 2000) and with Sleepthief on "A Kind of Magic" (2009), "Reason Why" with Coury Palermo (2009) and "Alice's Door" (2018).

Zoë Johnston has a First Class Honours degree in Journalism, Film and Broadcasting and is a keen writer. She creates both impasto and photo-realist paintings and has undertaken a number of private commissions throughout the years. Her main focus is on figure painting and portraiture, but she has also been commissioned to paint creatures including celebrated racehorses.[39]

• "Zoë Johnston Official Website". Archived from the original on 17 June 2008.
• Official Zoe Johnston Facebook page
• Shiva Records
• Dr. Octagon (6 January 2007). "Zoë Johnston interview on Auralgasms.com". Auralgasms.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2008.
• Zoë Johnston discography at Discogs