Interview: Joyful Noise Recordings celebrates late singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston

Hi, How Are You Day is an annual event honoring the late singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, a pioneer of outsider and lo-fi music. Johnston’s work has been celebrated by artists including Beck, Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits and Lana Del Rey.

On January 24, the Indianapolis-based label Joyful Noise Recordings will host their own Hi, How Are You Day event, featuring an exhibition of Johnston’s visual artwork in their Church of Noise.

WFYI’s Kyle Long brings us the story.

This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Kyle Long: Daniel Johnston was born in California and grew up in West Virginia, but he does have a connection to Indiana through Joyful Noise Recordings. The label's founder Karl Hofstetter is a long time Johnston fan, and he's issued Johnston's music on his label. I asked Hofstetter to tell me more about Hi, How Are You Day.

Karl Hofstetter: It’s a celebration of Daniel's life. There are multiple events happening this year. We're doing one here, other people are doing other ones throughout the country. We hope it becomes a thing where every year there's a Hi, How Are You Day.

It's like a perpetual memorial to him. He's always been one of my absolute heroes. I think it's one of the most important musical legacies that I will see in my lifetime.

Long: Joyful Noise Recordings’ celebration of Hi, How Are You Day will feature a substantial exhibition of Daniel Johnston's visual art, curated by Don Goede.

Don Goede: My name is Don Goede, and I met Daniel Johnston in 1999 and we fast became friends and band mates, and I became his tour manager, and his caretaker, and we traveled all over the world together.

But always in the back of my mind, I was a super fan, so I was always pinching myself, going, “Oh my God.” I'm even more of a super fan now that I work with his brother. I work for the Johnston group, and we work on Daniel's legacy, we honor it, and I'm also proud to say I'm the executive producer of his record label.

Long: What about the music spoke to you so deeply?

Goede: I think there's a vulnerability to it. Obviously, there's a raw emotion there. There's a faith in God, which is really cool. And then you learn about the mental illness, and you learn about the trials and the tribulations and the struggles. You kind of connect with it, and you go, “Oh my God, this guy isn't afraid to sing about these fears and these anxieties,” I mean scary shit, man.

Long: Most people know Daniel Johnston is a musician, but you're here hanging an entire show of his visual artwork. Tell me about his visual artwork and how that, to you, connects to the music, because the characters, it's like they stepped out of the lyrics of his song onto the paper, right? 

Goede: You ain't kidding. Okay, so that's a really, really good question. The reason I like that question is because here's an example of a song title and a drawing. So the mythology and the characters also work their way into the music.

So we found out that Daniel used his characters as coping mechanisms for hardships and all these ups and downs in his life, and these struggles. Between the music and the writing and the art, oh my gosh, I just think he's like the ultimate representation of hope.

Long: Hi, How Are You Day is happening on January 24 at Joyful Noise Recordings, the event is free, but requires advanced registration at Eventbrite.