Johnny Crow

by Camilo Londoño

This land has swallowed lives, years, decades, generations; it's like floating in nothing. In the void we resist; images, words, sounds, thoughts, questions, conversations, connectors, bridges with which we survive here, are born in this place E7O.

Photo: @juansi_

747: Any memories related to neighborhood or city sounds?

Johnny Crow: A neighborhood of Medellin is too noisy, or at least in the ones I grew up in, I spent my childhood among the Santander neighborhood at the northwest of this city, between trips to the town of origin of my family (Santa Barbara, Antioquia) and visits on weekends where uncles in Bethlehem Park, places where there is too much action all the time. I think until this moment I try to answer that question, I had not thought about how much the music that your neighbor listens to marks your life, especially in these places where you compete for the most powerful team and where it doesn't matter at all what the other thinks; it is impossible to be oblivious to the musical selection of the neighbor, some of that remains; vallenatos, tangos, lots of salsa, and in December full tropical, all those neighbors plus my family's parties surely have a lot to do with the music I'm playing today.

Photo: @juansi_ 

747: How do we talk through music? Or what conversation spaces have you found or built using music as a bridge?

Johnny Crow: I think the music itself is a communication channel. Much of his mission is about that, engaging in a conversation through songs, being in a nonverbal chat all the time, reading people's reactions and proposing new places to go. When I'm playing the music I connect with every person who is there, enjoying that moment; I transmit to them my energy and they give me back what they feel and if we manage to be on the same frequency we pass it brutal, it is a communication system proper to the enjoyment of music.

747: Darkness, emptiness is nothing or is it everything?

The emptiness? What happens when there's nothing left but you're still there? Well, you go on, and you understand that this "empty" is just the opportunity to create something new, from scratch, as you wanted it to be, as you wanted it to be something else, that it wasn't, how you wanted it to be. You go on, and you understand that it's not really "empty," it's a space for what you want but especially to be with you.

Photo: @juansi_

747:Interesting local projects or looks?

Johnny Crow: I think (in Medellin) really interesting things are happening, perhaps for those who have followed the projects from the beginning they will say that they are not new, that they have been going on for many years; but in the eyes of strangers they feel very fresh, such as the "rebirth" of the city's Hip Hop scene, with a new generation thatdecided to work seriously to make the genre a real-life project, that I love because Spanish rap is fundamental in my playlist today. On the other hand what La Pascasia is achieving in the city center seems brutal, giving us reasons to go to rumbear to the center without any problem; you can tell we're crying out for an excuse to be taken out of the Village. Finally the street art Medellinense, I think pictopia as a project and how festival is something that really makes this city a more beautiful place to see and to live.

Photo: @juansi_