ALL ABOUT GREG JOHNSON - BRITISH SINGER/SONGWRITER

The Full Story

Hello, my name is Greg Johnson and I'm a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. I sing, playing piano, keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. My songs are Adult Contemporary, Easy Listening Pop.

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I was born 16th January 1999 in Bournemouth, a small seaside town in Dorset. I still live in my family home with my parents and younger brother, spending my time between my hometown and University in Bath. 

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My musical journey began from an early age. Aware of the clichè, I really have been singing and performing since I can remember. I used to perform 'shows', with a big clothes chest as my dressing up box. I'd be a variety of characters, dressing up as a cowboy clown or other variations, running from the front room into the lounge to my 'stage', with an audience of family and friends. There's various bits of home footage, showing me performing. Notably, there's some footage of me around three years old, sitting in the lounge eating lunch, singing along to Camberwick Green. I used to love that show, singing along to various different characters songs, in this footage, Peter The Postman's song. Another musical film I loved growing up, was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with another home video showing me trying to emulate the dancers in Me Ol' Bamboo. Taking a builders hard hat from the dressing up box, after singing and dancing in the lounge, my parents threw money into my hat at the end.

I think it was clear to see by my parents, that I had a real interest in performance. Although I played football and rugby for a few years, I think they noticed where my heart truly lay and it was with performing. They signed me up to various musical theatre schools, which I attended on a weekend, for about ten years, from 2005 to 2015. This was alongside instrumental lessons at school, where I started on the recorder, before picking up a guitar in Year 4, in 2009. I remember being involved in so many music groups, from the orchestra, to ensembles and choirs. It was a few years later, in 2011, when I discovered songwriting. It was part of coursework, which was also styled as a competition, to write a four chord song. I ran my musical theatre and songwriting alongside one another for a few years, until I realised that I needed to focus on one or the other - it was either improve my dancing ability or invest in my songwriting. Although I'm sure you know the answer, I've still got two left feet. 

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As aforementioned, it was 2011 that my songwriting journey began. I was in Year 8 at secondary school and as part of the coursework, we had to create a song using four chords, inspired by the comedy routine by the musical comedy band, The Axis of Awesome. It was also a competition, with the winner getting to use the schools recording studio to record their song. I'd never song written before, but having loved music for several years at this stage, I was really invested.

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Originally, I decided to work with friends on the coursework, however, I remember before we even started, they all expected me to do all the work, as I was 'the musical one'. I therefore decided to work on my own. I remember where I was when I wrote it. My Dad used to coach my brother at rugby, so I took my guitar in the car, as it was the day before the song was due and I had nothing. I wasn't writing lyrics at that point, but for some reason, in the notes of my old Nokia brick phone, were some lines of prose, more like a poem. It was such a revelation, almost as if those lyrics were put there by someone else, as I don't remember writing them! I've always enjoyed English and creative writing, so I guess it was from that. I must have written the song within 30 minutes and performed it the next day. It was called 'Tried My Best'. I remember the surprised reaction of everyone in my class, including my usually grumpy music teacher, that I'd written the song. I won the competition

and from that moment, I've not stopped songwriting since.

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Although I was writing for fun at that stage and had no idea of it being a career, I just wrote songs and performed them in assemblies at school, as that was really my only audience at that stage. However, in 2012, I attended CarFest South festival, hosted by Chris Evans and got my first experience of performing to a huge audience - over 20,000 people. I was really thrown into the deep end, as my biggest audience at that stage was my year group of about 250 people. Chris Evans was leading a crowd sing-a-long to Mr Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra, pointing a microphone at different people in the crowd. When it reached me and he heard me sing, Chris got him me onto the stage. Later, when Chris learned I was a songwriter, he gave me the opportunity between bands setting up to sing one of my songs. People have asked how I performed to such a big crowd and I think it was due to everyone blending together, as there were so many people. I performed A Cappella, as there wasn't time to find a guitar. I sang my first song and thought that was it, however, Chris asked the audience if they wanted another song, which they did and I performed my second song, called "When I See Your Face", which is the first song I'd written about someone. Although not a turning point in terms of thinking I could make a career out of my songwriting, I decided to set up a Facebook page as a place for people to find my music, especially after how many people I'd performed to.

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During 2013, there were a lot of local, regional and national talent competitions within my area for music. I'd never entered a competition like this before, let alone with my own music, but I remember my parents bought me entry for a talent competition. I think they could see I needed further people to hear my music and this was another platform to get to industry professionals and get feedback, getting beyond friends and family. I'd only been songwriting for 18 months, however, I won a regional competition called 'Star Sensations'. I also reached the semi-final of 'Talentcall', performing at the 02 Academy in Bournemouth, as well as 'TeenStar', where I performed in the regional final at Portsmouth Guildhall.

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In the same year, Wave 105, one of the south's biggest radio stations nominated me as their 'One To Watch', after I received a lot of support, where I was interviewed and performed on Andy

Jackson's evening show.

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In August 2013, I returned to CarFest, this time getting a chance to perform live on BBC Radio 2, on Chris Evans Breakfast Show. This time, I had a guitar and performed to the live crowd and the millions of listeners that Chris' show gained at the time.

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As aforementioned, I had to choose to focus on either musical theatre or my original music. I decided to leave my musical theatre school 'Big Little Theatre School', in 2015, where I'd been for about

five years. It wasn't a wasted experience - it helped me to improve my confidence performing and I think influenced my songwriting style (some of my songs have been commented that they're unintentionally of musical theatre style or could be used in shows). There were several reasons I left, mainly as I needed to finance equipment and instruments for my original music, meaning that I needed to get myself a weekend job. This'd also allow me to focus on my original music.

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A year later, in 2016, I started to perform regularly, across the south of England. I performed acoustic sets, of original music and covers, with crowds enjoying my covers of popular Rick Astley, Elton John and Sting songs the most. My first gig was Easter 2016, at Arcado Lounge in Christchurch, Dorset. This was the first paid gig I'd played.

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September 2018 was another turning point, seeing me perform my biggest show to date, at Bournemouth Air Festival's 'Night Air', on the Saturday evening of the festival. It's usually reserved for tribute acts, however, I was the only original artist to perform that evening.

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Later that month, I started a Commercial Music Degree at Bath Spa University. During the latter part of 2018, I formed my live band, consisting of lead guitarist Adam Daly, bassist Petros Christoforou and drummer Jack Connor. Jackson Clark originally played keys, but left the band due to other commitments in late 2018. 

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On 22nd February 2019, I released my debut single 'Boyfriend', performing with my live band at Moles, Bath to celebrate the release. In May of that year, I returned to Moles to support Echobelly with an acoustic set, as well as performing a set at the Bath Festival Finale on the acoustic City Stage. Boyfriend was played on BBC Radio Bristol that summer.

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In November 2019, I was invited to host a TEDx Talk at my University, on 'The Power of Creativity and Sustainability'. I performed and talked about the writing process of three of my songs. The next month, I performed a Christmas set with my live band at Komedia, Bath.

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In 2020, I continued to gig until the COVID-19 lockdown. My last gig was at The Wine Vaults in Bath. Over lockdown, I continued to work on music, both writing and recording. I made a series called 'Live From Greg's House', uploaded on my Facebook page, which included a variety of videos, such as covers, original music and a Q&A.

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As of 2021, we're still in lockdown and I'm still working on new music. And that is the story so far.