{"id":13057,"date":"2026-05-15T16:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=13057"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:35:28","slug":"outside-talks-to-jack-johnson-about-his-new-film-surfilmusic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=13057","title":{"rendered":"Outside Talks to Jack Johnson About His New Film SURFILMUSIC"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Published May 15, 2026 09:58AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Most of the world knows Jack Johnson for his mellow, feel-good songs like \u201cBanana Pancakes\u201d and \u201cBetter Together.\u201d His is the type of music that stirs up memories and transports you to a happy place. But, long before Johnson was selling out stadiums, he was making surf films and surfing barrel-like waves on Oahu\u2019s North Shore, where he was born and raised.<\/p>\n

A new documentary about Johnson, called SURFILMUSIC<\/i>, takes viewers back to the early memories and moments\u2014mostly in and around the ocean\u2014that have shaped him as a singer-songwriter. The film is a lens into Johnson\u2019s evolution from surfer to filmmaker to musician. It\u2019s also a celebration of friendship, freedom, wanderlust, collaboration, and taking creative risks. SURFILMUSIC<\/i> is a snapshot of a specific era that will leave viewers nostalgic for analog experiences like listening stations at Tower Records and postcards written from far-flung locales around the world. The film is part of the Outside Days film lineup in Denver, May 29\u201331.<\/p>\n

SURFILMUSIC <\/i>starts in Johnson\u2019s North Shore, Oahu home as he and his wife Kim dig through the old cassette tapes and photo albums that influenced his career.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a quarter-century since Johnson, surfer and filmmaker Chris Malloy, and Grammy Award-winning director Emmett Malloy (Chris\u2019s cousin) released their seminal surf films Thicker Than Water <\/i>(1999) and September Sessions <\/i>(2000). <\/i>
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<\/i>Johnson and Malloy had set out to restore those original films. \u201cJack shot those on 16mm film,\u201d recalled Emmett Malloy on a call with Outside<\/i>. \u201cI carried those rolls of film around in boxes all of these years like a badge of honor. I felt committed to getting these out in the digital era one day.\u201d Early in the process of digging up the original footage, they decided that creating a new project from the old clips sounded like more fun than just enhancing them.<\/p>\n

Jack performing at Hyde Park in 2008. <\/span> (Photo: Emmett Malloy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt felt important to do it right,\u201d said Emmett Malloy. The trio, along with Kim, combed through years of old footage, photos, scrapbooks, mini-discs, four-tracks, and Chris Malloy\u2019s journals, which Emmett said, \u201cformed the spine\u201d of Thicker Than Water<\/i>. Then, friends started to give them old-school material, like the Super 8 footage of Johnson in diapers, and their friends surfing the Pipe Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we started going through the old footage we started to make five-minute clips about water photography in Tahiti, or John John [Florence]\u2014the best surfer in the world now\u2014putting his leash on the wrong ankle when he was so little,\u201d said Johnson. The original idea was to use those clips on social media to promote the remastered films, which premiered last year. But the shorts unfolded into SURFILMUSIC.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIf Emmett had said let\u2019s make a feature-length documentary based around my life, I would have never said yes,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cNever, never,\u201d agreed Emmett Malloy emphatically. But those short snippets tell the stories of so many of Johnson\u2019s closest friends, including the late North Shore surfer and lifeguard Tamayo Perry, while also sharing his own journey.<\/p>\n

SURF<\/h2>\n

Johnson would never call himself a rockstar. He identifies much more as a surfer. When he wakes up in the morning, he doesn\u2019t always reach for a guitar. But he does think about where he can go surfing. \u201cI\u2019ve always surfed and I\u2019ve always wanted to surf so it\u2019s my through line through my whole life,\u201d he says in the film. \u201cEvery other creative process kind of waxes and wanes but I\u2019m surfing through that whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hype around the new film made one of Johnson\u2019s childhood dreams come true. At age 50, he finally landed on the cover of SURFER <\/i>magazine<\/a>. \u201cI was pretty excited,\u201d he confided on a call with Outside<\/i>. \u201cMost of the guys I grew up with had already been on a cover like eight times and were like, \u2018Oh, you finally got one.\u2019\u201d Johnson\u2019s childhood posse included surf legends including Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Benji Weatherly, Shane Dorian, and the Malloy brothers Dan, Chris, and Keith.<\/p>\n

\"Jack
Jack age 17 surfing the world famous Pipeline in 1992.<\/span> (Photo: Jeff Hornbaker )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the nineties, this tight-knit group represented a new era of surfing and inspired pioneering surf filmmaker Taylor Steele\u2019s flicks like Momentum <\/i>and Focus <\/i>and the 2018 Emmy-Award winning documentary Momentum Generation<\/i>. Johnson hovered right on the perimeter, being a hard-charging surfer in his own right.<\/p>\n

Most people assume Johnson\u2019s laid-back tunes are representative of his persona. \u201cI\u2019ve been labeled Mr. Casual,\u201d he laughed. \u201cBut you have to be competitive at Pipeline,\u201d he said, referring to the North Shore\u2019s powerful, barreling wave that breaks over shallow reef. \u201cIt\u2019s not advertised, but Jack is a really competitive guy,\u201d vouched Emmett Malloy. \u201cBe it ping-pong or board games. It\u2019s unsuspecting but it\u2019s a fun energy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when friends were pitted against each other in the ocean, music became a form of connection and escape. \u201cEveryone would pass the guitar around at night,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIt was something we could all do together without worrying about who was winning or losing.\u201d When the waves were flat on the North Shore, they\u2019d entertain themselves by playing music and making DIY films.<\/p>\n

FILM<\/b><\/h2>\n

Johnson left Hawaii to attend college in Santa Barbara, where he met Kim. She was the first person to put a video camera in his hand and she convinced him to change his major to film. The couple went to Europe, bought a van, and started chronicling their travels on film.<\/p>\n

When Chris Malloy got injured surfing Pipeline, he tracked down Johnson in Europe and asked if he wanted to make a surf film. They had both done some work for Steele, and with the confidence of youth, enlisted a few friends to travel to Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, India, and Ireland. They set out with no plan, no sponsors, and no budget and created Thicker Than Water<\/i>, <\/i>one of the most influential surf films of all time.<\/p>\n

\"Jack
Jack and his Bolex camera.<\/span> (Photo: Tom Servais)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe level of surfing was so high in Taylor Steele\u2019s films, and we were all fans of them,\u201d reflected Johnson. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like we set out to make something better as far as surfing goes. But we wanted to try to make something that felt a little different and that shared what it felt like to be a surfer in this generation. It wasn\u2019t all fast-paced and edited to punk. On the North Shore, life felt a little bit slower and we wanted to capture that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In SURFILMUSIC<\/i>, a young Brad Gerlach, who starred in Thicker Than Water, <\/i>says that the 1999 release was, \u201cone of the first stories that surfers needed to hear to know what we\u2019re all made of.\u201d The film captured the camaraderie, adventure, and romance of surf exploration at the turn of the millennium through a fresh lens and that resonated with people.<\/p>\n

MUSIC<\/h2>\n

Shortly after Johnson competed against OG Gerry Lopez in the 1992 Pipeline Masters contest, he had an accident at the infamous surf break. He knocked out his teeth and required 100-some stitches in his forehead. SURFILMUSIC<\/i> shows a toothless teenage Johnson with a bandaged head commiserating about being landlocked with then-up-and-comer Kelly Slater. The injury in 1993 changed Johnson\u2019s life trajectory and the traumatic experience inspired the lyrics to his song \u201cDrink the Water.\u201d \u201cWhen you have to stay out of the ocean, you\u2019re bummed,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to channel that into other outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jack
Jack Johnson and family on the front porch North Shore, Hawaii in 1978.<\/span> (Photo: Photo Courtesy of Johnson Family Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turns out that Slater had talent as a musician. In the film, Johnson shares how, at around age 14, Slater was the first person to teach him to sing his own lyrics. \u201cI was still learning to play covers on guitar and had never seen anyone sing their own lyrics,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was a big influence on me. When you hear your hero do something, it\u2019s one thing, but when it\u2019s a friend you feel like maybe I could do that.\u201d When Slater left his four-track behind on the North Shore Johnson took advantage.<\/p>\n

Johnson developed many of his lyrics during his time shooting surf films. \u201cAs I was looking through the lens all day and taking in all these things, when I\u2019d get home at night I\u2019d want to reflect on those things but in a whole new way,\u201d says Jack in the film. \u201cEmmett and Chris were supportive of me doing my acoustic noodlings behind certain scenes.\u201d Those noodlings became the lyrics to his first hit songs. Slater shares in the film that Johnson\u2019s music was already his crew\u2019s favorite soundtrack before it became a hit on every national radio station.<\/p>\n

Collaboration has been the heart of Johnson\u2019s creative process, no matter the discipline. With music, he was embraced early on by G Love and Special Sauce, and shortly after by Ben Harper. \u201cThe intensity he puts into surfing was in the music, but with an ease I had never heard,\u201d says Harper in the film. It\u2019s no surprise that collaboration is also a central theme of SURFILMUSIC.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s 17-track soundtrack was recorded with the guitar-singing brothers Alejandro and Estevan Guti\u00e9rrez, alongside a companion second album of original 4-track demos, which will be released on May 15. \u201cThe coolest byproduct of this film, other than rekindling old friendships, is creating new friendships with people like Hermanos Gut\u00ederrez,\u201d said Johnson. Emmett Malloy said that the emotional connection Johnson created with people like the Gut\u00ederrez brothers, who went to his shows as kids, underscores the influence of his music.<\/p>\n

His collaboration with the brothers led to the new song, Hold Onto the Light<\/i>, inspired by the archival footage he unearthed of his late friend Tamayo Perry. \u201dI realized I was so lucky to have the footage of him, and I shared it with his wife and friends, but I had to let it go,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cThere was something about holding onto the light of that imagery and projecting such a positive person into the world. It felt good as a friend to do that for somebody who gave us so much light when he was here. This film is really about expanding on that light with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Jen Murphy took her first surf trip to Oahu\u2019s North Shore in her 20s and after went to see Jack Johnson perform on Kauai. She still has the DVD of <\/em>Thicker than Water.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Published May 15, 2026 09:58AM Most of the world knows Jack Johnson for his mellow, feel-good songs like \u201cBanana Pancakes\u201d and \u201cBetter Together.\u201d His is the type of music that stirs up memories and transports you to a happy place. But, long before Johnson was selling out stadiums, he was making surf films and surfing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wild-living"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}