Johan Hoffman (Sweden) – Day One (single/possible future album track)

This one is quite old now, from mid-June. It somehow managed to get stuck in a folder and overlooked.

Johan Hoffman paid us a couple of visits in 2022/3 at which time I identified him as an ‘edgy’ performer and (get this) one that possibly spent his life on the wrong side of the tracks.

I hope he didn’t take any offence at that, it’s just that some artists do have a noticeable rawness about them even if they have a double life as an academic, which indeed he does.

Anyway, now he’s back with a single, the first from his fourth album. In fact he may have released another single since then but we’ll stick with the original.

I’d previously noted his minimalism but on ‘Day One’ he takes it to extremes and it works a treat. It’s just him and a Stratocaster through a Supro amp, with a hint of Moog.

The song touches on transformation and rebirth, starting over again on the ‘Day One’ of the title and it could be taking place in the same bedroom where Elbow’s Guy Garvey urged his partner to “throw those curtains wide”, because“one day like this a year will see me right.”

Garvey was singing about having sex once a year and the benefits it bestowed upon him and in Johan’s case whatever transpired before the sun got through the blinds (both literally and metaphorically) acts as an open sesame to freedom however one wishes to interpret it.

Musically, it really grabbed me, being a (small) child of the sixties. There are so many reminders in there, from an opening skiffle riff onwards. After that you won’t have to listen too hard to hear elements of the Stones, The Kinks, The Animals and even the dystopian angst and urgency of Zager & Evans’ ‘In the year 2525’ and Hedgehoppers Anonymous’ ‘It’s good news week’.

If Johan could clamber into a time machine and go back to 1967 he’d have a red hot hit on his hands.

In any it era says a lot, in a few words, and that’s the mark of an artisan as much as an artist.

Find him on:

Website: https://johanhoffman.carrd.co/