They call me mellow fellow: Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson likes to keep a low profile. The world's most laid-back rock star rarely does interviews and tours only when the waves back in Hawaii are no good for surfing. Even when he is lampooned, the easygoing singer refuses to get riled. U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live recently featured a spoof TV advert in which beach-loving Jack endorsed 'JJ Casuals  -  the shoes that look like feet'. Johnson thought it was hilarious.

'Even when people make fun of me, it is sometimes a close representation of what I'm like,' he says. 'I appreciated Saturday Night Live  -  I deserve what they did to me. They had one skit where I had my own talk show, The Mellow Show. My guests were John Mayer and Dave Matthews. The three of us sat around chatting about how mellow we were.'

There are times, however, when even the mellow Mr Johnson gets animated. In his solar-powered recording studio, where he regularly works long into the night, he claims he often gets 'very excited'.

On the road, too, he is a willing showman. And, with next month's UK tour including an open-air headliner in Hyde Park, it isn't only the intimate venues that appeal to him.

The 33-year-old, who has sold 15 million albums worldwide and won a Brit Award as best international newcomer in 2006, says it is often easier to build a rapport with fans in the bigger arenas.

'The small places aren't always the best,' he says. 'And I love playing outdoors. That's one of the reasons I tour in summer. The other reason is that the waves in Hawaii tend to be better in winter, so I tour between March and September.

Jack Johnson: The singer is a surfing addict

'When I started playing live, I thought I had to be a different person on stage. Now I realise people just want to hear my songs. They want me to be myself. That's a lot less stressful.'

July's UK gigs will feature long-standing favourites such as Better Together alongside tracks from Johnson's latest album, Sleep Through The Static. A chart-topper when it came out earlier this year, the album sticks to the same sun-kissed feel as its predecessor, In Between Dreams.

But while the new record's soothing blend of rock, reggae and blues will be familiar to those who loved In Between Dreams, Johnson has at least tweaked his winning formula.

With the addition of full-time piano player Zach Gill, his backing band has grown into a more robust trio. And while some of the new songs are also more electrified, the biggest changes have come in the lyrics. Now the father of two young sons, aged two and four, he writes sensitively about his family and the world around them.

In doing so, he pulls off the rare trick of singing about ecological concerns and the Iraq war without hectoring his audience. 'We didn't spend too much time thinking how we were going to change,' he says. 'We just went in and played what came naturally.

'We've used more electric guitar and the harmonies are louder. I'm also at a different-point in my life and the songs reflect that. A close friend, my cousin Danny, passed away while I was making this album. With a lot of the songs, I started out writing about my kids, but Danny was always on my mind.

'The theme of letting go is very prevalent. On one song, Go On, the verses are about my children, but the choruses are about my uncle having to let go of his son as he went on his final journey.'

Johnson's wife, Kim, also inspired a song, What You Thought You Need. The couple met at university in California and got married (on the beach, naturally) eight years ago.

'That song goes back to 1997,' says Jack. 'My wife and I had finished college and decided to take a trip through Europe. We flew to London and bought an old VW van. Before we left, I made a cassette tape with some Beatles and Otis Redding songs on it. I also included a Taj Mahal blues, Farther On Down The Road. My wife and I fell in love to that song.'

Johnson spent his youth on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, growing up in a house overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Like his dad, Jeff, and two older brothers, he was a surfing nut. And while he was also a punk fan, playing guitar in local bands, it was the surfing lifestyle that shaped him.

'Surfing is an addiction  -  and I've been addicted since the age of five,' he says. 'Like a lot of addictions, there are negative aspects. But, on the whole, it's pretty healthy. It has dictated my life to a large extent.'

Johnson: Stripped back, acoustic tunes

As a finalist in the prestigious Pipeline Trials at 17, he toyed with the idea of becoming a professional surfer. His ambitions changed after a serious accident in which he wiped out on a coral reef and was left needing hospital treatment for facial scars that are still visible.

'I was feeling on top of the world, and then I smashed my face,' he recalls. 'I lost my front teeth just before the high school prom, which wasn't the best time in life for something like that. But in the long run, it was good. Kids of that age think they are invincible, but that taught me about the power of Mother Nature.'

Already a keen acoustic guitarist, Johnson used his time out of the water to hone his technique. And, years later, when he needed musical accompaniment for the 16mm surf movies he was making at college, he kept within his limited budget by supplying the songs himself.

The stripped-back, tuneful template that Johnson created for those films has stood him in good stead. His big break came when a tape of his songs found its way to Californian blues singer Ben Harper and his manager, who put him in a proper studio for the first time.

With Sleep Through The Static a Number 1 album in the States, he is now a superstar in his homeland. But, despite his fame, he remains reassuringly down to earth. He tries to incorporate surfing breaks into his gigging schedule (hence his two shows in Newquay next month) and is reiterating his close ties with the natural world by making his tour as environmentally friendly as possible.

His touring practices include an insistence on onsite recycling, low energy light bulbs in the dressing room and a tour bus run on biodiesel.

'It's just common sense,' he insists. 'A lot of people who get involved in the ecological movement had experiences with nature when they were young.

'They say that character is what you have when nobody is looking. Using energy-efficient light bulbs and a solar-powered studio just seemed right.'

• Sleep Through The Static is out on Brushfire. Jack Johnson's tour starts in Hyde Park on July 2. For tickets, visit livenation.co.uk or call the 24-hour hotline on 0844 576 5483.