We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bobby Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bobby, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Becoming a musician has been one of the most rewarding challenges of my life. My love of music started at a young age, listening to country music on the radio and my dad wailing away on his electric guitar. It wasn’t much of a guitar, a Japanese Stratocaster copy and an old Fender amplifier, but to me, the wild, distorted sounds roared from the speakers and my dad was a rockstar. Eventually I picked up his acoustic in high school, trying to learn songs from the radio. My hands wrenching as I barely made the chord shapes. Even worse was my sense of rhythm. I had a long way to go.

When I went off to college, music became everything to me. On top of my studies, I was learning about all sorts of new bands, genres, musicians, artists, and things that I’ve never heard and at the same time, I got myself my first electric guitar, an amplifier, and a laptop to record. By sophomore year, I was recording songs weekly, playing with other musicians that were far more talented than I had ever dreamed. I still had a long way to go. From there, I learned songwriting, producing, sound engineering, and how to show my feelings through music.

It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago, after graduation, that I played my first gig, with my first band. We were a post-rock instrumental band with music ranging from beautiful orchestral sounds to heavy metal chugging. The other guitarist in the band, was a bit older, wiser, and had played music his whole life. He showed me how to play with purpose and passion, write better compositions, to listen to the tones and every little tweak or change, and how to work within a band, together, to make beautiful music. I appreciate that he took me under his wing and taught me so much. I even began to learn the technical side of guitars and amplifiers, and even building my own! It was at this point, when I felt like I was an actual musician. Together, we recorded two albums, and played shows around Chicago, and even had a little tour. While in Chicago, I was also able to experiment with other instruments like drums, piano, mandolin, banjo, and violin.

After a few years, I had decided to pack up and head home to Michigan to be closer to family. Immediately after moving to the Detroit area, I started a new band with new aspirations. My goal was to start an art project, more so than a band. I wanted it to be fun, passionate, original, and new! I soon met a drummer, someone as wild and passionate as I was. We started experimenting in odd time signatures, blending genres, and increasing the tempo. We then found ourselves a bass player, and so began Panda House. And we have been playing music in the Detroit scene since our conception in 2015, with a few line-up changes through the years. Panda House is now a genre-bending, boundary-pushing, hyper-nostalgic, midwest dancing moshpit, that is best enjoyed live. We do have some albums out on all the major streaming services, if you need to kick it in your car!

I would have loved to have been more involved in music at a younger age, perhaps orchestra or bands. The fundamentals you learn when you’re younger seem so much more ingrained. I am mostly self taught, which sometimes can be a roadblock to progressing as a musician. Without a guide or someone to push you, it seems to take a bit more time, figuring it out all on your own. I also have very little classical training in music. I can understand the basics and have found patterns and styles that work for me, and have helped mold my original style, but I know that I still have much more potential to unlock.

Patience, Patience, Patience. It took me over 10 years to even feel comfortable enough to call myself a musician. It all just takes time. Rarely are people born musicians or composers, it takes years of practice and failure to finally succeed. You also have to put yourself out there. The first few times I played live, it was a disaster, but you can’t let it get you down.

While in Chicago, I broke my wrist while bike riding. I was devastated and to make it worse, the first cast was placed incorrectly. That meant that I was going to be in a cast for over half a year. I remember crying in the doctors office, asking over and over, “will I be able to play music again?” After months of being in a cast, and months of physical therapy, I finally have the motion back in my hand, but by now my skills were obviously a bit dull. It was a long road back, but everytime I grabbed my guitar, I could feel myself playing better and enjoying it again. Some days after a long band practice, I still feel a bit sore in my wrist.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a guitarist for a local Detroit band called Panda House. Described as a midwest emo math-rock band, Panda House was formed in 2015 by myself on guitar and drummer Anthony Brass. Our initial goal with the band was to create what ever music style came through. Having a similar taste in music, we hit it off naturally. Innovative bassist, James Dunstan joined the band shortly after, along with synth player Chad Golda. We recorded two albums together; “Ursa Artem” & “Explorers”. Each album was recorded by Hamtramck recording legend, Adam Cox. After our sophomore album, Golda left the group and the remaining members went on to write our third album during the pandemic. After having most of the music recorded by ourselves, we reached out to several singers to audition for the band. Tobias Hardoin distinguished himself from the rest and easily became natural friends with the group. He went on to record his own licks on guitar and his nostalgic yet new-way vocal harmonies to the newly recorded songs. Thus, in 2022 our third album “Enjoy Your Habitat” was manifested!
The band has played at countless Detroit and Metro-Detroit venues and seeks to expand they listeners to a broader arena. But most of all, they aim to evolve they music and create many more innovative and emotion-filled tunes. Hitting the studio in April!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Music to me has always been about expressing emotion and getting others to feel that emotion. My personal goal is to make you feel the whole spectrum of emotions in a song, while at the same time, hearing something original and passionate.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Learning music early on, I quickly became a purist for real instruments, and real sounds. Digital music and effects were still relatively new when I began my musical journey. I was apprehensive to adding digital effects and computers to my music because at the time I was into the classics which mainly include just guitar, bass, and drums. However, after hearing so many new bands and genres in Chicago, I knew I had to get some of these effects pedals for my guitar. Little did I know that once I bought one pedal, it would soon be an obsession in finding all the weird digital sounds I could from reverbs, delays, octaves, harmonizers, and especially loopers. I went from purist to experimentalist, but it took me years to realize that any music, digital or analog, has its place and is equal and appreciated.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pandahousedetroit.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pandahousedetroit/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PandaHouseDetroit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIPj80TPOAufdvsm666GQng
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0HuGjGGYSPTGINTZpc6ziy