Mixin' with The Fruit Bats

The Fruit Bats are Eric D. Johnson's recording project. The band has been active since the early 2000s, releasing a series of albums that sit at the quiet end of the folk-pop and indie Americana spectrum.

Johnson's songwriting is characterized by a quality of understatement that becomes affecting through accumulation. The songs do not declare their emotional content. They approach it obliquely, through specific details and carefully chosen images, and allow the listener to arrive at the feeling rather than being directed to it.

This is the folk and country approach to songwriting, and Johnson uses it with enough naturalness to suggest that it is not a chosen style but a genuine mode of thinking through song.

The records

Mouthfuls (2003) is the record most often cited as the entry point. Spelled in Bones (2005) is slightly more ambitious in its arrangements. The Ruminant Band (2009) is the record that received the most attention and represents a good introduction.

The production across these records is consistently warm and understated. Nothing is overproduced. The acoustic guitar is the center of the arrangements. The voice is forward in the mix. This is the correct approach for this kind of music.

The Mixin' With context

The Mixin' With format at this site is an introduction to an act that is worth knowing. The Fruit Bats in February 2010 had an audience but not the full attention of the music press. This entry is that attention.

For more Mixin' With entries: Mixin' with Hoots and Hellmouth, Mixin' with Best Coast. Full interviews index: Interviews.