Jack Johnson

The important things in life can be so simple. Hawaiian singer-songwriter Jack Johnson sums them up this way: “Surfing, movies, music, good friends, and community.” These aren’t just the pillars of his life, but also the central themes of the documentary “Surfilmusic” by director Emmet Malloy, which was released in select theaters this summer and will hopefully be available for streaming soon.

The film traces Johnson’s life, recounting his youth, his surfing skills, his films—and, of course, his music career, which ultimately became the most successful aspect of his life. This, in turn, took Johnson’s commitment to the environment to a new level. His label, Brushfire Records, and his tour crew, for example, are leaders in making the music industry more sustainable, and his social action network, All At Once, inspires fans to get involved in their local and global communities. And those are just two of many examples.

For the “Surfilmusic” soundtrack, Jack Johnson brought his friends, the instrumental duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, on board to perform new compositions and mixed these with reworked 4-track demos from before his breakthrough. Even then, you can hear the warmth, the accessibility, and the emotional, nature-inspired poetry that would make him so successful.

Next summer—the perfect season for his music—Jack Johnson will tour Europe with his “Surfilmusic” tour, performing on June 23 at the Tollwood Festival in Munich and on June 24 at the Citadel Music Festival in Berlin. The tour aims to bring the spirit of the film to the stage. Which brings us back to the factors mentioned at the beginning—“surfing, film, music, good friends, and community”—three of these five things are sure to be experienced in all their glory on these evenings.