When Cecilia Johnson reached out to me over email with a pitch about an act coming to Berlin, the sleek nightclub in the North Loop that offers a mix of jazz, electronic music and experimentation, it started a back and forth between us about her new role. I have known Johnson as a music journalist for many years, and so I was interested in finding out how she was liking her new job as a booker for the club. I asked if she’d be up for chatting with me about the gig.

Johnson started writing for The Current while still in college, and spent six years in various roles with the outlet, earning a first place award for arts & entertainment coverage for the 2022 Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists Page One Awards for a profile on Your Smith. That same year she ventured out as a freelancer, which she’d been doing until the shift toward booking came along. 

I enjoy Berlin every time I’ve visited. With its intimate space – it only seats about 85 people – there’s really not a bad seat in the house, even if you’re in the standing room area waiting for a spot. The last time I was there, I went to see Desert Noir, a five-piece ensemble playing a moody, atmospheric dream-like couple of sets. I find it fairly intoxicating to take in the band’s semi-improvisational style in such a cozy atmosphere (and pretty tasty small bites as well). 

Last week, Johnson was busy getting ready for Tobias Reinhardt (a drummer from the actual city of Berlin) performing at the club, but she had time to meet me for a conversation. We talked about how she’s slid into music booking after working as a music journalist since 2016. 

Johnson is using what she’s learned as a journalist and taking her experience working in restaurants into the role. Here’s an interview with Johnson I did this past week about what she’s learned from her career switch and what she’s excited about coming up. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sheila Regan: Was your first job as a music journalist? 

Cecilia Johnson: I had been working in restaurants since I was like 15, but my first full time professional job was as a music journalist.

SR: How did you get the gig with The Current? Did you start as an intern? 

CJ: Basically. I had been a college contributor, they called it back then, where they were asking for blog posts and photos from people who were in college as sort of a youth professional development opportunity that actually got a lot of us into music journalism. That’s how I met Emmett, my husband. I kept freelancing for them, even after I graduated college and a part time role opened up. It was 28 hours or something like that for me. And then I got bumped up to 32 hours, and then I eventually went full time.

SR: What led up to working at Berlin? 

CJ: I had been freelancing and I was working in restaurants. I was bartending, I was serving. So going into Berlin it was kind of like this perfect match of restaurant experience and music industry experience that has come in so handy.

SR: How did this opportunity to work at Berlin come up? 

CJ: I knew the bar manager because we had worked together at Young Joni, and I really just reached out being like, “Hey, you guys need any help?” I can do restaurant stuff and I can do music stuff. And they said yes. And then I started and was doing some of the restaurant supervising shifts, and then moved into booking. 

SR: Who was doing it before you? 

CJ: Alex Proctor. He’s on tour with James Blake. He also designed the room at Berlin and this whole sound system, which musicians always comment on, because it was done really, really well. He found a Steinway (piano) at an estate sale and had it fixed up. So the Steinway just lives on stage at Berlin. 

SR: So what makes the style of the place unique? 

CJ: I don’t know of another club, at least in town, that combines jazz music with electronic music. It was modeled on this club in Berlin called A-Trane and of course, Berlin is known for its Techno and electronic music. So it’s this kind of merging of the influence of Berlin and German jazz and then German electronic music, with a good dose of Minneapolis local artists. Also I love that you can sit down and you can have a nice cocktail, because I feel like that was what I was always yearning for. I was very, very excited when I heard this place was gonna open, but I was just like, I hope it lives up to its potential, because I’m coming from the worlds where I love fancy cocktails, I love amazing music. But often you had to pick one or the other, depending on where you’re going. So to have it both in a space feels really good to me. 

SR: What’s it like to be a music booker? Is it so different than being a journalist?

CJ: It’s way more similar than I thought it was going to be. And I think more music journalists should consider trying to get into booking, because I find that booking is really an admin role, to be honest. There’s some creativity that goes along with it, but it’s first and foremost organization and communication, and those are exactly the same skills that you’re using as a music journalist. You’re figuring out how to structure stories. You are communicating about deadlines with your editors or fact checking with the people that you’re talking with. You are just making sure you’re staying as organized as possible. I found it to be remarkably similar and also really nice to be able to collaborate with musicians now, as more of like co-creators than I really felt when I was a journalist. Sometimes it can feel kind of playful.

SR: How do you navigate curating new groups performing vs. groups that have performed before? Do you pitch musicians to come here? Do people cold call you? What’s the balance? 

CJ: It’s totally a mix. We try to space out gigs by the same folks to keep things fresh, to make sure that other people get a chance to get in the door. But we do have a number of recurring things. For example, the pianist Dale Alexander has been doing early evening jazz shows every fourth Thursday, and it’s so enjoyable to listen to him. Actually, last week, Jearlyn Steele just got up on stage with him and sang “Over the Rainbow” just because she was there and it was a vibe. People will definitely reach out because they’ve heard from other musicians that it’s a good club. 

The jazz scene around the United States is much more tight than I knew. Minneapolis and St. Paul jazz musicians recommend Berlin to a lot of people. That’s how we landed this Ari Hoenig show that’s coming up on Thursday that I’m really excited about. He literally slid into the booking inbox and was like, “Hey, I’ve heard this is a cool spot. Should we set up a show?” And then we did. 

Sometimes, I’ll reach out to people as well. I definitely asked Medium Zach to come do a monthly series at Berlin. That was one of the first things that I did after starting because I think he’s so well connected and well respected around town, and he’s really down to play. He’s doing a monthly series while he’ll bring a different collaborator for each month. The next one is Lady Midnight. I think on March 31 it’ll be those two, and that’s just such a treat. So I’m really happy and excited that he has enjoyed it enough to make it a monthly thing.

SR:  What are you excited about with the Ari Hoenig’s upcoming show?

CJ: I have gotten to learn so much about jazz in this role. I knew that I was gonna get to find out about and learn about so many legends of jazz. And Ari is really getting up there. I think he’s had a monthly residency at Smalls in New York. For a long time, he’s played with some super cool musicians, and he has this kind of calling card where he can make almost any pitch come out of a drum, like he’s really playing melodies on the drum, which seems so hard to do, rather than just keeping time. He’s really playing it like an instrument. That’s what I’m excited about.

Ari Hoenig Trio performs Thursday, March 13 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at Berlin, 204 N. First St., Minneapolis. ($30). More information here.

Sheila Regan

Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at [email protected].

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