How strange is it for a kid from the North Shore to become a pop star?
Johnson: Growing up here, the surf world is everything. We lived on the beach, right in front of Pipeline. When the waves got gigantic, the crashing would rumble our windows at night. All I ever dreamed of was being a pro surfer. That’s all any kid who grows up here wants to be. I never thought about music being more than a hobby that we’d do at night or when the waves weren’t good. So playing tunes was all about chilling out? There was definitely that reggae/aloha/island style growing up here. It wasn’t like L.A., where you could go see all these fancy shows. The music I got turned on to was by friends of my dad’s who could play guitar or ukulele. They would sit around playing Marley or Cat Stevens or the Beatles. I didn’t learn guitar so I could get up on the stage; I wanted to lead the sing-alongs on the front porch. Sounds like that classic Hawaiian aloha spirit. The aloha spirit is strong, and it’s not just some tourist marketing shit. It’s true: There’s a really warm feeling you
