Interview with Ever-Evolving Witty Writer, Johnson Soldout
Papers: We know that you grew up in New Jersey and the East Coast, how has your upbringing molded your creative voice and ultimately shaped your writing style?
Johnson: The beauty of living in the NJ/NYC area is it being a massive tourist attraction. Still living here has allowed me to run into so many people from the country and even across the world. Meeting people with different backgrounds and lifestyles opened my perspective on a lot of things. Couple that with the fact that I always was reading as a kid, I’ve always been into world building and taking everyone’s thoughts and ideals into perspective. With so much wonderment in the world I hated doing popular activities or watching popular shows just solely because it was the most popular thing to do. It made seek out things that were different. Luckily, the internet was a thing growing up for me and sites like LimeWire, Datpiff and YouTube exposed me to a lot of different sounds and writing styles I wasn’t hearing locally. That approach trickled into my performing and writing of poetry. I would go to open mics in NYC around 2017-2018 and everyone was talking about the SAME THING. And it bothered me so much that I vowed to make sure that if I were to talk about the same topics and ideas as my peers, I’d approach it from a different angle without it being forced; being from a competitive area also helped me take my artwork seriously and not so seriously if that makes sense. It definitely made me make sure my pen was always on point and my stage presence was equal to that, however it also showed me how artist in the NJ/NYC/PA area take their art a little too serious. While at times the arts can resemble sports, it’s better off not taken so seriously and just seen as an outlet for fun or creative expression.
Papers: We here at Papers live by those same ideals! That is why we try to balance them the same way that you’ve seemed to achieve. Speaking of recent achievements, we know that you’ve also released the deluxe version of your debut poetry book, Scattered—what were some of the challenges in writing your book, and what made you want to expand on the first edition?
Johnson: There was no challenge in writing the book because I didn’t have any expectations for myself. Scattered came about because of the people not because of me. I always wanted to release a book, but imposter syndrome made it seem like I needed to be more accomplished in writing or have a degree or be backed by a publisher. I kept on performing as usual, and after shows people would ask me, to my surprise, if they could buy my book. I kept getting asked so much, that I was like, I need to make a book so I can finally give the folks what they want! I found out Amazon let you self-publish your own book so the only thing left was figuring out how to make a manuscript. I had a bunch of poems written from 2012-2019 at the time of me really considering making a book, so then the fun part came of which ones get the honor of being in it. I went through about 12 or 13 different drafts for the original Scattered. Some versions had close to 100 poems, some had less than 40. I finally settled on 47. I can’t remember how I landed on the title of Scattered unfortunately, but clearly it made the most sense to me considering the concept I was going for. I guess there was the challenging part of editing the manuscript on Word, I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it so I had to learn myself with the help from Kim Gomez on proofreading. Another little challenge was overcoming the perfection aspect and allowing multiple peers and mentors remind me that this will always be a learning process and that I will always be able to release another book.
Scattered Deluxe came about for a couple reasons. Book 2 has taken a turn in direction because my life (for better or worse) has taken a turn, so I’m not really sure if I’m still in love with the initial theme I was going for. Another reason is I wasn’t 100% happy with how the book came out. I love the cover Liz Lauren created for me, and I obviously loved the poems themselves, but the book didn’t fully feel like a book because of my subpar edit job and lack of thickness for the title to appear on the spine of the book. As I mentioned before, there were drafts of Scattered that had close to 100 poems, so I figured why not re-approach those ideas? They were essentially “leftovers” and didn’t fit the themes for any future book ideas I had. But, leftovers are great, I don’t want it to be misconstrued as filler or lackluster. These poems are equally as good as the original 47 and deserve a proper home too. As far as the editing goes, my lovely amazing superstar girlfriend, Justina Avent offered to re-edit my book and killed it! I also had Liz make 5 pieces of artwork based off 5 poems from Scattered. The book went from around 80 or 90 pages to 141 pages. 38 more poems and artwork should fill the void while I get myself together in both my personal and artistic life.
Papers: Wow! It really seemed to have come together seamlessly! And it’s amazing that so many people also came together to make this happen for you. With the idea of community in mind, if you could share one poem from Scattered to every person in the world, which poem would it be and why? Do you mind also explaining the meaning behind that poem, and what inspired you to write it?
Johnson: How can I just choose one?! Hahah, this is tough because there are a lot of poems people should be exposed to from the book. I think at this very moment, every one should read Banana Tree. The poem talks about the “faults” of human existence and figuring out the best ways to live forever with the allotted time given. A few months ago I performed this piece at a weekly poetry series and facilitated open forum called Unfold Poetry at Ispresso in Union City, New Jersey (it’s every Thursday at 6pm I highly recommend), and the folks loved it and the questions/discussions of mortality, life, time and religion all flooded in! For such a short piece, I didn’t expect it to resonate and impact a room full of people the way it did. Not sure where the inspiration initially came from for Banana Tree, but throughout this book and in most of my pieces, I’m constantly trying to figure out how to live forever. Not because I’m scared of death, but I’m scared of my life not being impactful. A conceited thought, but a reality I constantly face with trying to leave something behind to keep me tethered to this dusty cats-eye we call Earth.
Papers: You’ve already made such a heavy impact on so many people, especially in the NY and NJ communities, but what is something you would want readers and fans to understand about your personal growth as an artist?
Johnson: Biggest thing I’ve come to terms with is I wish I didn’t monetize my art. I’m not going to get all longwinded about the perks and flaws of capitalism, but man I thought making money off of my art was the “dream” and who wouldn’t want to get paid doing something they love? Well I’m kind of boarding that boat hahah. I love the fact that people would literally throw money at me because the art I put out resonates with them in some aspect, but honestly I’d do it all for free if my life was set up for that. While I definitely do my best to give out portions of my work out to folks without a price tag, I find a balance of both free and paywall might be the best for me at this time. I’m happy to announce my website www.johnsonsoldout.com is up and running and I’ll constantly be sharing poems, music, and videos for folks nonstop. I also realized that I can being doing so much more, not just in the creative aspect, but giving my time back in the community by volunteering to assist at events. Everyone wants to always headline (me included), but have you ever attended a show at said place? Have you ever shared their flyers on your social media? Have you ever asked what could you do for them outside of a performance perspective? There’s no right or wrong answer, but for me I realize I get more when I give more. I want to keep my favorite venues and shows running as long as possible, and if me being a door man or personal errand person for host during the show helps the continuance, I’m all for it.
Papers: It’s so important to help with supporting these venues, as they’re the ones who literally provide performers like us a stage! Now last but not least, how has your relationship to writing evolved since becoming a published author, and do you see yourself continuing to expand on Scattered or placing your attention on a different project?
Johnson: The cliché, the pen is mightier than the sword makes all the sense in the world. I have a voice and it can be used for greatness or mediocrity. As someone who likes to put words together, it still never fails to amaze me how my words have touched people. I plan on being uncommon and unusual for all my future book releases. I also plan to study in depth with more poetry outside of my style to see how that impacts my writing. As I mentioned before, book 2 is still being worked on, and I have several other ideas for books in the very early stages. It’s no rush for me. The books will get to y’all in time. I plan on making music with my spoken word as well, for those audiences not a fan of reading anything larger than an Instagram caption.
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