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On Tuesday, Texas state Sen. Nathan M. Johnson was elected to succeed Ken Paxton in the attorney general’s office—making him the first Democrat to win that seat this century. The shock of the state Democratic Party’s victory has brought national attention to an unexpected chapter of the AG-elect’s biography: Well before he won his first election in 2018, Johnson was an aspiring professional musician whose compositions caught the ears of executives at Funimation Entertainment, the anime-focused production house that licensed the popular Dragon Ball franchise from Japan and introduced it to millions of American fans—including yours truly—via Cartoon Network’s Toonami block. Its high viewership inspired Funimation to give the series English-language dubs by the mid-2000s, along with a new batch of musical scores, courtesy of Johnson. Amid all the libbing out, anime fans around the world have been fondly recollecting the manymemorablescenes soundtracked by Texas’ incoming top cop.
On Thursday morning, I spoke with Johnson over the phone about his historic electoral victory, his music career, and whether the latter will come to influence his tenure as state attorney general. (Spoiler: It just might.) Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Nitish Pahwa: To start off, how does it feel to be the first Democratic Texas attorney general–elect since 1994?
Nathan M. Johnson: Look, it was time. We need a political market correction at this point. Any time you have single-party dominance at such a level, and for so long, the power of good ideas gets diluted with political theater. This election cycle, we’ve had that correction, and now it’s going to be up to every Democrat who got elected to prove ourselves capable of governing.
Also, I think I was told by a newspaper that I’m the first professional composer to be elected to the office, ever.
Let’s go to that part of your career. How did you get involved with the Dragon Ball franchise to begin with? Were you a fan of the original manga, or of anime in general? And how did you get into the field afterstudying physics and law in college?
I was a lawyer for several years, and I’d never even heard of anime when I got the gig. I had slowly moved out of law into studying classical composition, with the idea that I was somehow going to make a living that way. I’d studied opera a little bit and figured out I was good at scoring a picture, but bad at scoring opera. I tried to break into commercial music but failed and gave up after a certain amount of time. I was looking to go back into law and open up a new office, and the owner of the building I reached out to was Robert Cocanougher, who co-founded Funimation and was in charge of the Dragon Ball franchise there. We were chitchatting when I was looking to lease and got on the topic of music and anime. Then I met with him formally and a couple days later I was hired. I literally had just quit my musical aspirations when I got this break. Life is funny.
How long were you working on Dragon Ball Zin particular?
It was probably about two years, and I continued to write for some of the movies even after we finished that set of shows. Dragon Ball Z was already a pretty big hit by the time they brought me in. They’d parted ways with [original Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT composer] Bruce Faulconer, had these episodes available, and really wanted to try a new direction with the music, which is what I also wanted to do. So I brought in a new sound. People can argue whether it was better or worse, but I brought what I had.
How did you come up with the sound you brought to the show? Since you hadn’t been as familiar with the franchise beforehand, did you mainline a ton of previous Dragon Ballepisodes to figure things out?
To put it that way, I did mainline a few episodes, and the heavy synth music was not really my style. I’d come from a classical background and something of a rock background. In some of my experimental compositions—which got the attention of [Funimation producer] Barry Watson—I’d been developing what I would call an electro-orchestral sound, where I would do something like put a cello on a distortion amp. I was really looking to fuse the wooden world of an orchestra with the electronic otherworldliness that you can get through amps and computers.
It took some time to develop, even while I was working on the show. The first episodes out of the can, I was still searching for my sound. But if you listen, for example, to the Fusion Reborn soundtrack, where I was partnering with Dave Moran of the death-metal band I.O.N., we have ribbon heavy metal guitars with these below-the-earth trombones. It was so fun and was such a cool sound that we came upon together.
Texas has always had such a vibrant musical legacy, from outlaw country toTejanotochopped and screwed, so I’m curious how much Texan music in particular inspired your style. Or if you instead looked past the Lone Star scene.
I don’t think it was Texas-based. I mean, I’ve lived here for most of my adult life. I love Texas. I represent Texas. It is in me. It’s also a cultural melting pot, and I like to draw from all sorts of influences. What’s so astonishing about Dragon Ball Z is how many different cultural elements it draws upon, over thousands of years across the globe. You’ve got Tapion playing an ocarina. I don’t think there’s a Texan ocarina style, but the idea of looking around you at such a diverse palette of musical sounds and drawing upon them to what fits the show, what fits the picture, is something I was able to do.
I saw that you had aconversation with aDragon Ballfan siteback in 2012, where the writers said you hadn’t been previously interviewed about your work on the show. Then in 2018, after your first election to the Texas Senate,the InterceptandBillboardhad these headlines about how a Dragon Ball Z composer flipped a Republican-held seat. As you’ve risen within Texas politics, has this part of your life come up more? I mean, it is still anincredibly popular franchiseto this day.
I don’t know if this is strange or not, but no, it hasn’t. I’ve never tried to lead with it, but it’s always been part of my history and we’ve referenced it many times. I guess it’s like an entertaining side question that lasts for about three and a half minutes. It’s never been a big theme, but as of about … today … it is actually catching fire.
I think one of the reasons is that politics can be so far removed from people’s everyday experiences. To see somebody who was part of something that’s part of your everyday experiences is such an opening to a world that feels closed off to most people. So I think this is a worthwhile moment where my experience with Dragon Ball Z allows me to connect with people and introduce them to the political world where I serve, and that serves them.
I think that also connects with, as you put it, the deep melting pot of cultures that is Texas, which I’m relieved to hear you celebrate—not least since we saw such hateful Republican campaigns attacking the very diversity of the state, especiallySouth AsianandMuslimandtransgenderTexans.
It’s a failure to appreciate what we have. It’s not just mean and ugly and unhelpful. It’s stupid. It’s an oversight. Diversity is agnition of reality. To me, Texas belongs to those who make it home
I realize your composition career was somewhat brief, but do you still dabble in music on the side?
It is too hard to compose part time. I’m not sure anybody has enough talent to compose something of value by working on it a few minutes a week. Whether you’re doing pop or film scores or classical, it’s a very serious thing. When I approach it so lightly, I write crappy music, and I don’t like to do that. Something I have done this year, with all the pressure of the campaign, is resume playing the piano and regain that connection with the art. It’s been a wonderful return for me, and I feel like it makes me better at what I do in every other way. I really appreciate that I can go back and do that.
Did you evermake like Dick Nixonand show off your piano aptitude at any campaign stops?
I did play the piano at one fundraiser and sent clips to a couple friends of mine. But otherwise, no, it’s a rather personal thing to me that I like to share with friends. I can’t play at the level where I would want the whole world to be watching it, but I can fake it pretty well. Serious pianists could respect my amateur efforts, I would say. And I’ve been playing some really interesting stuff.
Like what?
Actually, DBZfans might like this: There’s a recently deceased Russian composer, Nicolai Kapustin, who took classical forms and applied American jazz language. It’s really cool stuff. His pieces are what I’ve been working on.
Looking ahead to the future: You’re in a position that was previously held for decades by guys like Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, and John Cornyn. What do you think your first steps will be when you enter office?
Rebuild. Rebuild. Rebuild. It’s the most important thing I can possibly do. I can tell you from my eight years as a state senator, I do good work, and it’s because I surround myself with good people. I set up structures where they have the latitude to pursue worthy things and the discipline to get them done. The AG’s office has been hollowed out of committed people because many of them couldn’t stand the environment Paxton created. There are still good people there and I want to retain them, but I’m going to have to rebuild the office and rededicate it to its … well, not to sound too political, but to its constitutional and statutory purposes. To steer it away from the partisan warfare that had become the principal goal of that office and get it back to the things we’re supposed to be doing, like consumer protection, keeping businesses out of trouble, suing them if they do something wrong, and directing that same accountability toward our governments. There’s so much important work to do.
Does that include potential antitrust actions against our consolidated music and ticketing industries?
I already filed legislation going after the ticketing industry as a senator, if that clues you in to what I’m thinking. Look, I believe in markets, but markets don’t work when they’re rigged or uncompetitive. And I think attorneys general have to play a role in enforcing fair competition laws. We set these things up for a reason and nobody—other than shareholders—is served well if the market’s rigged. So, yes, I intend to do my job in that space.
