Lisa Johnson

You may not know the name Lisa Johnson but you’ve definitely seen her work. Over the past sixteen years, she’s earned the titled of Official Warped Tour Photographer as she’s taken pictures at every single tour; but she’s done so much more than just that. As one of the most sought after rock photographers, she’s worked with everyone from Rise Against, Strike Anywhere and Avenged Sevenfold toSum41 and The Cramps – oh, and she shot Nirvana did I forget to mention that?

It has been her photos that have graced the cover of every single SideOneDummy Warped Tour compilation, she just teamed up with Hurley Clothing for a limited edition T-shirt run and she worked withBlink182 to develop a line of limited edition tour shirts for their reunion tour. As she prepared to shoot the sixteen annual Vans Warped Tour, we talked about what she looks for when finding that one perfect image to grace a shirt or the annual compilation, tips for new photographers, the iconic London Calling cover and the evolution of the Vans Warped Tour.

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Bobby: So Lisa, what exactly do you do with Warped Tour? You’re the official Photographer if I’m not mistaken.

Lisa: It’s a title proudly earned and yes, I’m the Official Photographer for Warped Tour. I’ve been shooting it since the beginning and when you’re around for as many years as I’ve been, they start giving you the title and I’m rolling with it.

Bobby: So do you do all the shows or just certain shows?

Lisa: I come every year but I just pop in and out of shows. Like I’m based in California so I’ll be at those shows and then I’ll pop in somewhere on the East Coast and I’ll pop in at the end again.

Bobby: What do you do with all the photos once you’ve collected them all?

Lisa: Well every year SideOneDummy puts out the Warped comp so I photograph all the pictures on the packaging and on the CD and on the inside; so I basically spend all summer running around collecting pictures that we deem worthy of being on the Warped comp.

So this year we actually have Blink-182 on the cover which is an historical image from 1999. It was actually taken sort of close to their home town. It’s in Del Mar which is the closest venue to San Diego that we had. It’s sort of a really important show and a really important date for them and then we happened to get this killer image. Now Blink’s back together so it seemed like a good time [to use it].

Bobby: So what made you decide to put Blink on the cover especially since they’re not on the tour this year?

Lisa: They’re not?

Bobby: Are you suggesting they may come out and do a surprise show?

Lisa: I don’t know I haven’t heard anything but wouldn’t it be awesome seen as they’re on the cover and everything?

Bobby: You should somehow make that surprise show be in Edmonton; because that’s where I’m from so if it happens to be there, I’ll be happy.

Lisa: I’ll see what I can do. [laughs]

The process for picking the Warped Tour cover is lengthy and arduous and very few people have patience for the process. What it is, I take all the photos that I shoot all summer and I take them over to SideOneDummy. We sit down and we look through them and we pick out our favourite.

Bobby: With Jon?

Lisa: There’s Jon and Johnny, there’s Joe, there’s Bill. Usually I sit down with Jon or Johnny. We sit down and it’s a full, lengthy process. We go through them all. I’ll have my favourites so I’ll put a dog tag on them and be like “hey, check out this one.” From the thousands of images, we’ll narrow it down to a hundred; from the hundred, we’ll narrow it down to forty, then to ten and then to five. Because we need about five, one for the cover and then the rest on the inserts.

Bobby: Do any bands come and say “oh, you should totally put us on the cover this year?”

Lisa: They do say that!

Bobby: And what’s your reaction when they say that?

Lisa: I giggle. I giggle and I say “well, maybe if you rock hard enough.” If they rock hard enough, maybe they’ll be on the cover. You never know, you never know; somebody could be in an amazing shot but then we get an even more amazing shot and they get bumped out.

Bobby: So like you’ve said you’ve been doing this for a long time, for all sixteen years you’ve been taken photos at the Warped Tour. Have you noticed any changes at the Tour throughout the sixteen years or is it still always just The Warped Tour?

Lisa: I love the Warped Tour. There’s tons of changes, but I think changes are a good thing. It’s so smooth; they’ve really got a fine oiled machine going on here. That takes years of practice and years of doing this. Like today I can’t believe how smooth it’s going, it’s impressive.

It’s awesome. I mean, there’s so many kids who weren’t even born yet and they’re now playing at the Warped Tour. They weren’t even born when we first started or they were barely.  So it’s pretty exciting.

Bobby: They would’ve been two or three, now they’re playing it. It must be kind of weird thinking about how long it has lasted. Kevin’s little project has survived for so long.

Lisa: Yeah, his little punk rock summer camp keeps going. It’s sort of grown legs of its own and it just won’t stop. Warped Tour’s really special. It’s just a huge, giant family slash camping trip that lasts for like eight weeks.

Bobby: There’s a very unique atmosphere here. Like there’s the music but then there’s a familial feeling with all the bands being friends, the crew who has been here for twelve, thirteen, fourteen years. So you come back and the bands are different but the crew is always the same. You have things like the skate ramp in the middle too. So it’s a music festival but a unique atmosphere to it too. How would you describe the atmosphere to the show?

Lisa: The atmosphere is pretty crazy. It’s exciting, it’s hectic. The atmosphere is just kind of a very organized chaos. [laughs] I don’t know how else to say it: organized chaos. It’s like there’s a puppet master, nobody knows who that is, and then things just happen and we don’t know how it happens.

One more thing I should probably tell you about Warped Tour. The photography that I do, I’ve done a collaboration with Shirts for a Cure to raise money for the charity. So Rise Against and I have collaborated to create this new Shirts for A Cure shirt. This is a t-shirt that’s part of the Lisa Johnson Rock Photographer signature design and it’s a Rise Against photo. If you buy it, the proceeds go to cancer awareness.

Bobby: Can you tell me a bit about the Lisa Johnson signature series? I think you did the Blink-182 limited edition shirts for their tour last year right?

Lisa: Oh yeah! Blink-182, for their last tour, they wanted to do a different shirt for every night – like a flier. I, along with another photographer Jered Martin, we photographed tons of stuff and then they put together shirts for the tour. So yeah, that was pretty fun. They made sort of punk rock flyers out of it and they sold a different shirt every night that was unique to the show.

Bobby: Yeah, I have the one from the first show on the tour – July 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have that one, with Travis on the front.

Lisa: Oh awesome. That’s cool. I think that might be a Jered shirt; I’d have to check but I’m pretty sure it’s a Jered shirt. Still, it’s totally cool.

Bobby: I think it’s kind of cool how it’s limited to 182 t-shirts per show. So it is a bit of rock history that’s incredibly rare. Have you worked with any other bands to get those types of shirts done?

Lisa: I haven’t done that, no. I mean there are artists out there that have my images on their shirts, but as far as being called to do something because they want my look or whatever – that was kind of a new thing. I did a collaboration with Hurley Clothing and that just recently sold out – so if you see it anywhere, grab it. But with Hurley Clothing I did about three seasons of shirts where they wanted to have a different image on them. We have one with Fat Mike, one with Matt Skiba and they were all the Lisa Johnson Rock Photographer signature line collaboration with Hurley Clothing. That was pretty cool. Right now, they’re some at PacSun – the girl tank that you can still get. But all the guys shirts are all sold out.

Bobby: So I’m out of luck then basically.

Lisa: I heard that there was store called Detox in Toronto that had the Skiba, three-quarter sleeve baseball jersey. A friend of mine said they saw it there and I was like “you better buy it, because those are collectibles.”

Bobby: So you obviously takes thousands of photos, what do you look for in a photo when you are selecting a photo for the Warped compilation or a t-shirt? What do you look for in a photo to then reproduce and publish?

Lisa: When I’m shooting, I’m trying to get something iconic. I don’t want to just get a picture that’s kind of bland. I want to take something that stands the test of time. I don’t want to just waste my time taking a picture of something.

Bobby: You want something like the London Calling photo of him smashing the guitar. It’s famous, it’s iconic, and you always remember that.

Lisa: You got it right. You gotta be really patient. Because with that photo, that moment happened within a fraction of a second. You can’t just be like “oh, I think I’m going to take a picture of this.” It just happens, it’s not like they planned it.

Bobby: It’s also partly luck too, because one second later or one second earlier, the guitar would not be half broken.

Lisa: Well it’s not really luck. You have to be completely ready for it. There’s no luck involved. It’s totally planned. You have to be in the right space to do it.

Bobby: Do you have any advice for any photographers who are trying to get into rock photography or live concert photography? What should they keep an eye out for?

Lisa: They should keep an eye out for so many things. Be courteous to your other fellow photographers. Don’t wear big, clucky backpacks into the photo pit and knock people over – thanks guy earlier today whoever you were. I guess be aware of your surroundings. There’s nothing worse than not being prepared. Like if the barricades about to fall and people are going to crush you, you should really be prepared for that to happen. Don’t get trampled you know. Have eyes in the back of your head.

Bobby: Just a few more Warped Tour questions. The tour has been going for sixteen years now and you said you’ve been shooting it for sixteen years. What are some of your fondest memories of Warped Tours long gone?

Lisa: Some of my fondest memories are the most random. I love going to the Gorge and watching bands on the big grassy hill. We’ll spend weeks figuring out “what are we going to ride down that hill?” We’ve tried cardboard before and that didn’t work. Last year we bought little plastic discs at Wal-Mart and that worked [laughs]. So I guess I spend a lot time thinking “what are we going to ride down the hill at The Gorge this year?” So stuff like that, that’s really fun because you get to travel and you get to go to these places and you get to meet a lot of really wonderful people and you all end up doing the same thing and yet you’re also having a great time.

Bobby: Kevin has said before that he wants Warped Tour to be a safe place for kids to come to their first punk show or first concert and stuff like that. So while this may not be their first concert, for a lot of kids every year it will be the first time ever coming to Warped Tour. So what advice do you have for kids coming to Warped Tour for the very first time?

Lisa: If you’re coming to the Warped Tour for the first time, I’d recommend wearing closed-toe shoes. If you wear these flip flops sandals, you’ll be sorry.

Bobby: Chucks are good for a reason.

Lisa: Yeah, put insoles in them and wear socks. I know it’s not cool to wear socks but really, it’s better at the end of the day. Also, put on some sunscreen. I know it’s not cool to wear sunscreen and I know I didn’t wear any today but I wish I had and you will too when you come to Warped Tour; and stay hydrated. And bring ear plugs. It’s really important to wear ear plugs.

Bobby: Especially when you’re shooting because you’re standing right next to the speakers. You’re standing right next to the stage with it thumping in your ears for three songs – it can’t be healthy for you.

Lisa: And sometimes its so loud that I try to put ear plugs in and I already have them in. So I’m like “oh well.”

If you do all those things, you’ll have a nicer day; and bring some money to spend so you can buy a shirt.

Bobby: Buy your Rise Against tshirt.

Lisa: That and the five dollar Warped comp, you will not be sorry.

Bobby: Yeah, fifty bands, five bucks – you can’t really complain.

Lisa: No you can’t.

Bobby: Awesome, thanks a lot. Do you have any final thoughts?

Lisa: Nope, thank you very much.