Daniel Johnston

William Patrick Butler

by Adam Lynch
August 12, 2009

Daniel "Danny" Johnston, a senior music composition student at Belhaven College, mixes some of the most brilliant concoctions the city's coffee-drinkers can handle. While the blender churns out its caffeinated brew at Wired Espresso Cafe, Johnston is happy to riddle your ears with details on the music movement in Jackson and the industry in general. He's quick to point out the many problems facing the music industry these days—or art, for that matter.

"The music industry today is such a sad thing," Johnston, 20, says.

"People talk about not being able to get jobs, but contemporary society, as a whole, still has the idea that people's pipes are always going to burst, and their electric system is always going to need mending.

"But the arts, the healing measure, the elixir of life to people's souls, is the first thing to go when the budget gets tight. People take their kids out of art class, they take them out of ballet and they take them out of everything. It seems that singing and music—the very things that make life bearable—is dispensable," he says.

Wired Espresso Cafe, in the historic Tucker Printing House Building across the street from the Old Capitol, is always looking for new talent to present to a crowd, and Johnston scouts talent to come play.

"We mix our genres here at Wired, and I'm happy with that," the California native says. "I don't understand people who just write in one style of music—they just write jazz or they just write folk—because I love to dabble in all of it. Music is alive, and I don't feel that there are any restraints. There's just accents."

Johnston plays guitar and sings a folk/jazz fusion. He frequently makes a circuit around town, playing at Belhaven College, Cups and Sneaky Beans, not to mention Wired where he plays with his fiancee, Abigail.

Ask him what he wants to be when he hits 40, however, and you'll get a nervous look of bewilderment: "It's always easier to say what you don't want to be, than what you want to be," he says.

Johnston knows his stance on music, however, and what he wants to do for the industry in town.

"I'm always interested in connecting artists with artists," Johnston says. "Artists don't easily get connected with one another, but connection is what any artist most needs to develop and market their talent."

Musicians looking to make connections can e-mail Johnston at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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