Biography Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson is:

1. a cartoonist, illustrator and designer, known for the webcomic ExtraLife.

2. an American composer (born 1952).

1) Scott Blaine Johnson was known for creating and hosting the ExtraLife radio show (ELR), a weekly off-beat, award winning Podcast about comics, movies, music, the Internet, computers and gadgets. They have interviewed noted personalities such as Todd McFarlane and Curt Schilling.

Johnson is well known in the Utah area[3] both for his online work and as host of the increasingly popular annual "Nerdtacular" gathering of fans.

Johnson (along with Randy Jordan, aka Randydeluxe) produces another award winning[1][5] podcast The Instance. This weekly podcast is about the computer game World of Warcraft. Some of their guests have included Veronica Belmont, Felicia Day, and as an occasional co-host, retired MLB pitcher Curt Schilling.

For a full rundown of podcast related work, see www.frogpants.com.

2) Composer Scott Johnson has been a pioneering voice in the new relationship being forged between the classical tradition and the popular culture that surrounds it. An early advocate of using rock instruments and technology in scored composition, he has appeared as a virtuosic electric guitarist in many of his pieces. His early work introduced the idea of instrumental writing based on sampled speech, and later works continue to develop his musical gene-splicing, blending complex and intertwined chamber music with a rock band’s hall-filling wall of sound.

Underneath the music lies a basic insight: the evolution of classical composition has always been shaped by its environments, and living composers are remaining true to that legacy when they draw on the ever-changing ecosystem of our own popular musics. Speaking the languages of contemporary culture will help us create a picture of our times, as composers of the past did with theirs.

Johnson’s music has been commissioned and performed internationally by ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and the Bang On A Can All-Stars, as well as his own groups. His three decades of effort have been recognized with numerous grants and awards, including a Koussevitsky commission and a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship.

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