When Jack Johnson shot the film Thicker Than Water in 2000 with co-directors Chris and Emmett Malloy, his tax returns read filmmaker, not musician.

"Music was supposed to be a hobby," Johnson says, "something to do on the side for a few months and then go back and make surf films. When I was editing the bonus footage and watching it again, I was reminded how much time I put into that film and how proud of it I am."

Thicker Than Water will be released on DVD November 25th, as will the film's soundtrack of rare and unreleased mellow rock.

"We grew up watching a lot of films that were edited to punk rock music and had a faster feel," Johnson says. "We wanted to the show the other side of the generation -- not so much surfing as an extreme sport, but how special it is that it brings people together. We wanted to get across the family feeling of surfing all day and hanging out with your friends."

Shot over a year and a half, the film features top surfers Rob Machado and Kelly Slater riding waves off the coasts of Australia, Hawaii, India, Ireland and Tahiti. The soundtrack features unreleased material from Johnson ("The Cove"), G. Love and Special Sauce ("Hobo Blues") and from the two together on "Rainbow." "It's a real front-porch sing-along-style old blues song he'd written," says Johnson, who released his second album On and On in May. And "Holes to Heaven" finds Johnson familiarly accompanied by just his acoustic guitar. "I wrote that out in a boat on the Indian Ocean," he says. "This version is how it sounded on the boat, just acoustic guitar and voice."

Thicker Than Water track listing:

Jack Johnson, "Opening"
G. Love and Jack Johnson, "Rainbow"
Finley Quaye, "Even After All" Bombay the Hard Way, "My Guru"
G. Love and Special Sauce, "Honor & Harmony"
Zelig, "Relate to Me"
Jack Johnson, "The Cove"
Jack Johnson, "Holes to Heaven"
Natural Calamity, "Dark Water and Stars"
The Meters, "Liver Splash"
G. Love and Special Sauce, "Hobo Blues"
Smoke City, "Underwater Love"
Todd Hannigan, "Thicker Than Water"
Harpers Bizarre, "Witchi TaiTo"

COLIN DEVENISH
(October 14, 2003)