Jack Johnson is serenading me over Zoom. It's not the first time either. It turns out if you are lucky enough to find yourself chatting to the laid-back Hawaii-based surfer-turned-filmmaker-turned-muso, the odds are fairly high he will burst into song at some point.
Johnson's willingness to sing me a few bars from an unnamed, unreleased song he wrote on Easter Sunday is very much part of his charm. He's a 'what you see is what you get' kind of guy at a time when other public figures have become more guarded about their lives and intellectual property.
Johnson's willingness to connect with people and keep himself open and grounded is also part of why he has been able to safeguard himself from the bruising nature of politics at a particularly tumultuous time in US history.
'I've got a built-in weird optimism,' Johnson says from his wood-panelled living room, where guitars and other stringed instruments hang from the walls.
Johnson's antidote to the Trump-era chaos is to focus in on what is happening around him. Specifically, he likes spending time at Kokua Learning Farm, which he and wife Kim set up through their not-for-profit organisation Kokua Hawaii Foundation.
'It was part of the theme of the last record that sometimes you just have to draw a circle and focus within that, so I've been in that little circle of the learning farm for the last five years,' Johnson says.
'It has evolved from an overgrown invasive forest to native wetland, and we've seen insects start to return and birds have started coming back. Recently we saw an endangered bird species, the alaeula, come and we are hoping they are going to build a nest and have some babies.
'It is somewhere families and kids can come to learn about the environment and sustainability and see that we are trying to make the world better. That brings me a lot of joy. And it keeps me optimistic.
'When the news seems overwhelming, I can just put the blinders on and keep weeding out the invasive plants,' he adds with a laugh.
Besides weeding, Johnson has been working on a documentary film Surfilmusic, which chronicles his creative journey from surfer to filmmaker to world-renowned musician. Directed by Emmett Malloy, it blends footage from his early surf films with family archives and personal reflections.
'I spent hours and hours going through Super 8 footage of my family from when we were kids,' Johnson says. 'There's shots of my brothers grabbing me and putting me on a surfboard in diapers and stuff like that.
'But really it's a film about friends making things together and early attempts at making things that weren't very good. I think it was important to show teenage kids that you're not working on your masterpiece on your first one.
'We included some really crappy little things, like when me and Kelly (Slater) made this thing called Mr Slater Goes To Work, when I was around 10. It's so bad, but it is important for me to show people that it takes a lot of work before you start making something that's any kind of quality.'
Surfilmusic also comes with a companion double album subtitled Soundtrack & 4-Tracks. It includes the film's original score by Johnson and Latin instrumental duo Hermanos Gutierrez featuring brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutierrez along with new recordings, previously unreleased song, and some of Johnson's early four-track recordings.
The lead single is a new rendition of Johnson's song Drink The Water, while his personal highlight is new song Hold On To The Light, both recorded with Hermanos Gutierrez.
'It is fun to reflect and go through the old stuff but it's even more fun to make new stuff,' he says. 'I really enjoyed collaborating with the brothers and forming a new friendship with them.'
Johnson will also be bringing some older friends on tour with him when he heads to Australia, with Ben Harper and John Butler supporting. The line-up guarantees there won't be a surfer left in Yallingup when the tour hits Kings Park on November 10.
'You're probably right,' Johnson says, laughing. 'It's going to be fun. We're really looking forward to it.
'It's like a reunion playing with both those musicians, and it will be great to be together again. Ben actually brought me to Australia the very first time I played there.'
Johnson is also curious if he can reconnect with a frog that once accompanied him and his band when they were jamming backstage at Kings Park on a previous tour. He laughs at the suggestion that he should perhaps tempt fate, and the frog, once more by adding Rainbow Connection to the set list.
'That's a good idea,' he says. 'If it happens, it will have been because of you.'
Jack Johnson plays Kings Park on November 10. Tickets from livenation.com.au. Surfilmusic and its accompanying soundtrack are out on May 15.
