Singled Out: Johanna & The Dusty Floor

The Forest EP was recorded over the span of a year in Los Angeles and Sydney in 2009-2010. I wrote a lot of the songs for this EP and the upcoming record (spring 2011) whilst moving from NYC to Los Angeles. I was so tired of the pace and I really needed a break. So, I packed up all my stuff and my friend and I drove all the way down to Nashville and across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to get to LA. It took about 5 days and was a time of great sadness and joy for me.

"Forest Of Sorrows" was written shortly after I arrived after seeing a film. The visual stimulation i got from it cause this song to pour out of me in about ten minutes. I have since moved back to NYC. Go figure, it has me by the heartstrings this city. It's like a lover that you keep going back to no matter how good or bad they are to you.

I knew exactly how it would sound before I went into the studio which still to this day, is one of my favorite places to record. My friends Andy Ellis
(the engineer) and John Balicanta (producer and lead singer of Lola Ray) would go into Andy's tiny little recording room and come out with these songs in a day. It was a very satisfying process for me with those two. Because it was such a small space, we had no room for drums so John flipped over the trash can (a plastic paint bucket) and with pens, started tapping the rhythm to Forest of sorrows. We recorded it like that and it is my favorite sound on that song now. It's funny how you can make the best sounds without having great mic's and big expensive instruments.

"Spring Clean" was recorded at my friend's studio in Sydney called Free Energy device. Being from Australia, I really wanted to make sure that I was doing some recording there and especially Richard Belkner's place. He built it from scratch and used all recycled Tasmania wood that could tune the rooms to a certain pitch. I remember when he recorded out of his little house before all this. This one was a big production. Strings, Horns, lots of backup singers. As different as the recording process was, I was so surprised with how well the songs fit together.

I am a huge Kate Bush fan. The bonus track on the EP was more of a kind of demo. It was recorded however, with a Linn drum machine which was a pioneering electronic drum sequencer from 1979. Kate Bush was famous for using it. We recorded "love is a breakable thing" using only the Linn Drum, a piano and a Juno.

"Witch Shoes" was written in Seattle whilst I was on a tour for another artist Kate Tucker. I have a pair of shoes that look like witch shoes, and I was in love with a boy. The rest, you can figure out by listening to the track.