[1] She has written and recorded songs with a number of bands including Faithless, Above & Beyond, Bent, and Delerium, and also with former Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton as part of his solo projects.
After reuniting as old school friends, Zoë began exchanging demos with Simon Mills (one half of the UK electronica duo Bent along with Nail Tolliday).
He was immediately drawn to Zoë's voice but assumed she had been sampled from a 1930s-era record as Mills and Tolliday were at this time frequently building their songs around vocals lifted from old vinyl.
Zoë worked using the 4 track at home and wrote the vocal parts, before re-recording them at the Faithless studio in London with the approval of Rollo and Sister Bliss.
Rollo and Sister Bliss had written an instrumental to which Zoë added the lyrics and melody from the first verse and bridge of an acoustic song she been writing at home, called "Crazy English Summers".
Despite some critical press reviews of the album as a whole, Zoë was repeatedly picked out by online commentators and media sources as a stand out highlight, with the BBC writing that "it is Maxi Jazz's soulful testament to his childhood hero "Muhammad Ali" and Zoë Johnston's sublime "Crazy English Summer" that will give this album a shelf life"[6] and reviewers praising her "obvious musical talent" and "original voice, style and sound [which] are so rare in today's music world.
"[7] In support of the album, Zoë accompanied the band on an 18-month world tour, performing in multiple countries throughout Europe, as well as in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.
Sounding like a teary Polly Harvey watching stars fall from the sky or a less self-conscious and mannered Chan Marshall, her duet with Heaton is a real gem and worth the price of the album alone.
Johnston spoke of her fondness for the band members and their collaborations in a rare interview in 2011: "I’ve been so touched by the constant Above & Beyond drive to include me, look after me, listen to me, absorb me into the project and really nurture whatever I chose to spill out.
In June 2009, they performed as a quartet unplugged in a hot air balloon to competition winning fans and Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong who covered the event for the BBC.
[15] Shortly after this, Zoë performed a number of semi-acoustic songs live with the trio and the addition of celebrated Above & Beyond vocal collaborator Richard Bedford and drummer Sebastian Beresford, to 8,000 people in Beirut's La Marina.
It was the band's first foray into large scale acoustic shows, with grand piano, harp, strings, percussion, brass, xylophone, rhodes, mandolin, and double bass all featuring in the sound, as well as vocals from Alex Vargas and Annie Drury.
As of July 2016, it has amassed over 3,000,000 views and has attracted thousands of positive comments from listeners, with exceptional praise shown for Zoë whose voice is referred to as "beautiful", "magical", "sensual", and "a true gift".
[17] Her lyrics are frequently quoted under videos, with their universal appeal summed up with statements such as "my life in a song", "Zoë Johnston sounds like love" and "she sings truth".
[18][19] The live shows were followed up with an album entitled Acoustic (released on Anjunabeats in January 2014), which saw Johnston performing re-imagined versions of the songs "Love Is Not Enough", "You Got to Go", and "Good for Me".
[20] In October 2013, Above & Beyond took the Acoustic I live show to Los Angeles, and Johnston performed two sold-out nights at the Greek Theatre with the previously assembled full band to wildly enthusiastic crowds.
[23] On the second night, the band were joined onstage by American producer and DJ Skrillex who took up a guest guitar slot on the song "Black Room Boy", sung by Tony McGuinness.
[24] The tour took place through May and June 2016, and extended from London and Manchester in the UK to Utrecht, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Sydney.
"[28][29] On 28 May 2016, the band played to a sold-out Hollywood Bowl crowd of over 17,000, with journalists and music critics celebrating the show as "beyond compare" and "spellbinding" with Johnston's opening rendition of "We’re All We Need" described as "haunting".
[30][31] The band received a standing ovation at their last show in Sydney Opera House in recognition of a "musicality [which] completed captivated the crowd in an unprecedented outpouring of love" and the "generosity of spirit" which was shared throughout the gig.
[32] The Acoustic II album (released 3 June 2016 on Anjunabeats) accompanied the tour and was well received by both fans and critics who hailed it "a masterpiece… stunning… an incredible piece of work", and described its contents as "tear-jerking".
In the absence of media commentary, it received favourable write-ups from internet reviewers who described Zoë as "a rare talent… she varies her voice in timbre, texture, tone, octave, and volume in a way that is intoxicating".
Johnston wrote and self-recorded vocal parts for the tracks "Leche" (2004) and "Inside Out" (2005) with renowned Faithless, Dido and Spice Girls linked percussionist Sudha.
She also wrote her vocals for instrumentals with house act Weekender ("Sunday Session" in 2000) and with Sleepthief on "A Kind of Magic" (2009), "Reason Why" with Coury Palermo (2009) and "Alice's Door" (2018).