The Bay Area is rife with really talented musicians who are also legendarily nice people (SFist attributes this to the mellow climate and the good Mexican food here). Even among the many local greats, John Ringhofer stands out as one of the friendliest, and most talented people you’ll ever come across. Making music as Half-Handed Cloud, John has released upbeat albums. As a collaborator and co-conspirator of both Sufjan Stevens and Yoni Wolf (Why?) (among many others) John is one of the new group of musicians whose sound can’t be really categorized using conventional labels, but which is something you’ll want to listen to a lot. If you’ve never listened to Half-handed cloud, SFist’s current favorites are "A Suit of Clouds to Ride the Skies" and "Here’s a List".

John recently underwent the grueling SFist interview process and has produced the gem below. In it you’ll find instructions on how to be a good fan to your favorite up and coming band, secrets of the east bay, and some seriously tasty vegetarian eateries.

Half-Handed Cloud will be playing with Casper and the Cookies on Friday September 1 at Bottom of the Hill.

Best shows you've ever played and what made them great?
It’s hard to pick, but here’s something: On the recent spring tour we got to play an art gallery in New York—The Brooklyn Fire Proof Gallery. There were all sorts of ingredients that made it pretty great; the fact that it’s an art gallery was the obvious initial good thing. They were excited about a music-preview write-up for this performance (a first for the gallery) in The New Yorker magazine; us too. Many old friends heard about the show and came—we made some new friends also because there was a pretty healthy turnout. Vollmar was opening that tour, and his music is a sure way to enrich any evening. Sufjan helped us run the sound system; he kind of looked like teen-wolf with these massive mutton chop sideburns. There was this generous Spirit in the room that colored everything, and…you know…our fingers, feet, and vocal chords hit whatever the “right notes” were for that night since Justin and I probably recognized each other’s cues pretty well by that point in the tour. The evening felt comfortable, but a little precarious—like sitting on grandma’s Parkinson’s-shake lap, with a real possibility of falling on the floor, but knowledge that we were held in loving and capable arms.

Another time, a few years ago, we played a house in Indianapolis, and that show was great because we started laughing at something ridiculous and couldn’t finish the set. Every time I would open my mouth to sing, only laughter would come out. It was pretty awesome/awful/the best.

Best venue in the world?
The Ramp. An extinct all-ages venue in the basement of an East Bay church from September 2002 to September 2003. It had a welcoming and weirdly-homemade atmosphere. So many great bands played there.

Best fans in the world?
The ones that sing-along, clap in time, write encouraging notes, bake some cookies, play tour-guide, let us sleep on their couches, etc.

What's your favorite song to perform?
Current favorite is a song from Halos & Lassos titled “Foot on the Brake,” especially if someone is helping me perform it—that one requires some instrument juggling. Sometimes people can talk me into singing Smiths covers…

Favorite collaborators?
Brandon Buckner (we shared a painting studio in college, and he recorded Halos & Lassos, etc), Sufjan Stevens (made a 5-song 7” record together, etc), Daniel Smith (mixed two Half-h albums with him), Jason Munn (sometimes helps me with layout projects), Yoni Wolf & Justin Vollmar (helped perform songs in different two-person versions of Half-h).

Name:
John Ringhofer.

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
At this point, I still haven’t given-in to cell phone ownership, and wonder if they’re really necessary, even though they’re sometimes handy?

Age and Occupation:
32. Church caretaker / musician.

Home Town:
Andrews, NC. (But it’s feeling more like home here)

How long have you lived in the Bay Area?
I’ve lived in Berkeley since the summer of 2002. I’d been feeling that it was time to move away from where I’d grown-up, and had visited here several times before, liked it, had some good friends here, then moved to Berkeley and stayed with them until finding my own place.

Favorite place to spend time online:
Have you seen the Jim Morrison Simulator? My friend Randall from Jetenderpaul showed me this. Click on letters to make Jim sing some Doors lyrics... Make different attempts at spelling "D-o-r-s".

Favorite local businesses:
Berkeley Bowl, Urban Ore, Adolph Gasser, Missing Link, BART, Copy Central, Amoeba.

What I'm currently Reading:
Rip it Up and Start Again Postpunk 1979-1984: Simon Reynolds
The Divine Conspiracy: Dallas Willard. (re-read)
Best American Non-required Reading: Dave Eggers, editor.
Death in the City: Francis A. Schaeffer.
King Dork: Frank Portman
Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey: Fant/Reddish
Cat and Mouse: Günter Grass

Best Deal in San Francisco:
Le Cheval Vietnamese restaurant in Berkeley—Three entrées and rice for $5!

Favorite mode of transportation:
Bicycle and BART

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area:
Larry Norman. His first album Upon This Rock was released on Capitol in 1969. That one is especially good.

Some favorite local hangouts:
Albany Landfill, three or so Bay Area churches, Red Vic Movie House, Tinkers, etc.

The Bay Area has the BEST:
Climate, book stores, grocery stores, fog, library, record stores, movie theaters.

You've never lived in SF until
you’ve seen a free film at Dolores Park, with a pilgrimage to the golden fire hydrant afterwards.

You can tell someone is a local here IF
They refer to San Francisco as “The City.”

SF would be soooo much better if only…
My out-of-state friends decided to move here too.

Best Burrito:
Cactus? I finally figured-out what to order.

Best Restaurants:
Cheeseboard Pizza, Hummingbird Café, Herbivore, Brazilian Café, Fellini’s brunches, Tandor Kitchen, Smart Alec's, Razan's Organic Kitchen.

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF:
THX 1138

Favorite artist to come out of the Bay Area:
Richard Diebenkorn.

Favorite author to come out of the Bay Area:
Richard Brautigan.

Place you always tell visitors to check out:
The headlands, House of NanKing, the Berkeley Natural History Museums on campus and the giant Eucalyptus forest nearby.

Favorite Bridge in the area:
Bicycle/pedestrian bridge over I-80 to the Berkeley marina.

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
We will change the $15 to quarters and head to the Musee Mechanique.

Tell us a Bay Area story.
William Hung, the superstar "American Idol" reject was attending college at UC Berkeley a few years ago, and he frequented the photocopy shop that I used to work at across from the North Gate. For a few months it seemed like he was pretty famous; students would walk-around campus with t-shirts that quoted him. Visitors to the school thought that they would see him in the distance. People would stop him on the way to class and ask for his autograph.

The last time I saw him, William was in the store, on his cell phone for awhile, speaking Chinese. Then I heard him receive another call and talk in English, "Um... I dunno. I'll have to speak to my representative about that. Yeah, I mean my dad." Then he walked over to the counter and asked me to send a fax—it was his major-label record contract!

Most-loved local ice cream place and flavor:
Whole Grains gelato at Naia.