Eric Donald Johnson (born June 7, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the leader of the influential folk-rock band Fruit Bats, and for his frequent collaborations with bands such as The Shins, Vetiver and Califone. He has also scored films, most notably Our Idiot Brother and Smashed. In 2014 it was announced he would begin a new solo recording project called EDJ,
Johnson formed Fruit Bats as a solo 4-track project in the late 1990s. At the time he was an instructor at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and fronted a band called I Rowboat. In 2000 he became a member of the experimental folk-rock group Califone. It was on tour with Califone that he befriended the members of Modest Mouse and The Shins, who took an interest in Fruit Bats and made an introduction to Sub Pop records