KURT VILE
With an abundance of tales gathered on the road, the Philadelphian troubadour returns with his finest album yet.
In a desolate space besides a train track in Philadelphia, there’s a huge mural on a crumbling wall with Kurt Vile’s name on it. It was created by the streetwise veteran graffiti artist ESPO, aka Steve Powers, whose vibrant depictions are the perfect visual representation of Vile’s beautiful new album Wakin On A Pretty Daze.
It’s been two years since Vile released his last LP, Smoke Ring For My Halo. Following the unprecedented success of that record, Kurt Vile’s style of bittersweet, leftfield Americana has taken him all over globe on an incessant touring schedule. And it’s a life on the road that Kurt Vile reflects on within his music. Structurally, his songs steadily drift towards an uncertain destination, and when he’s hunched over, intricately finger picking three of four chords, he narrates the misadventures and sharp wisecracks he’s had along the way while spilling out poignant pearls of wisdom that sound like they were scribbled on a napkin following a drunken 3am epiphany.
You could make a strong case that Wakin On A Pretty Daze is Kurt Vile’s best album to date. While Vile’s earlier recordings, especially the dusty lo-fi recordings collected on his brilliant 2008 debut Constant Hitmaker, sound like the work of a solitary chain-smoking insomniac, Wakin On A Pretty Daze showcases a warmer, more fleshed-out direction that immediately engulfs the listener with the album’s sincerely optimistic opener. And while the charm of Vile’s songs is still slow-burning, Shame Chamber and Girl Called Alex showcase his most immediate songwriting to date, underlined with little fragments of melody which will burrow into your ears if you’re inclined to pay enough attention.
It’s regularly noted that Kurt Vile’s music evokes the rugged sense of pride championed by Americana legends such as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. His sound would fit within the mid-space of a Venn diagram composed of canonical rock n’ roll and the avant-garde foundations of US indie. And as a teenager of the 90s, Kurt Vile became infatuated with Beck, Pavement, Sonic Youth and the artists on the Drag City roster. It just so happens that Vile’s been lucky enough to jam with some of his biggest inspirations; legends such as Thurston Moore, J Mascis and the seemingly indestructible Jennifer Herrema of the infamously wild noise-rockers Royal Trux, who’ve now morphed into Black Bananas.
When we meet up with Kurt in London he’s at the tail end of a gruelling press run and understandably exhausted. But fortunately, he’s still full of energy (‘I wanna go out raging tonight, are there any bars round here you’d recommend?’, he inquires, as a smirk peers from the lengthy curtains of his thick hair) and, though he’s a little spiky, is every bit the friendly dude we’d imagined him to be.
So firstly we’d like to ask you about the artwork of the new album. What’s the story behind that mural?
It’s really very much a Steve Powers piece, it’s just that I happen to be the subject matter of it. He actually contacted me about something else originally, but we came up with the idea of him creating icons from the song titles and painting interpretations of my lyrics on this huge wall. He’s been around for a long time, but he’s still really blowing up. Like, he gets flown all over the world to paint. It’s awesome.
You’re a relatively prolific artist, but as a listener it feels as if there’s been something of a gap between this new album and Smoke Ring For My Halo.
I guess there’s been a gap because we’ve been touring a lot, probably because of how well the last record went. But at the same time, I came back with what’s pretty much a double album. So you could say that I’ve been able to coast off Smoke Ring… for two years, but I was kinda eager to get back into the studio the whole time.
You toured with Black Bananas, which must have been a crazy experience for you as you’ve been a massive Royal Trux for a long time, right?
Yeah, it was really fun playing with those guys. I mean, Jennifer’s a sweetheart. You could think she’s crazy, but I like being around people who are a little crazy, y’know? And all her band are really awesome guys. I had a man crush on their guitarist Brian (Mckinley) for while. He’s such a great player and he shreds on this snakeskin patterned guitar.
You guys recorded a cover of The Rolling Stones’ Before They Make Me Run together, how did that come about?
The idea came after I’d done a couple of shows with Jennifer. Our tour manager just happened to be playing the Some Girls album, and when I heard Before They Make Me Run I was like ‘Oh yeah, I love this one!’ I could imagine singing it with Jennifer, so I said “next time I come through we’re recording this song”, and she was like, ‘Alrrriiiiight!’
You’ve built a relationship with a number of artists you’re a major fan of. You’ve worked alongside J. from Dinosaur Jr and you’re friends with the Sonic Youth guys. It seems like you’ve been very fortunate in that respect …
Totally.
It must be pretty surreal to jam with your influences, didn’t you see Sonic Youth when you were a teenager?
Yeah when I was, like, 15, I went to the Lollapalooza where Sonic Youth, Pavement and Beck played. I love 90s Beck, and Pavement were actually my number one favourite band at the time. That was my introduction to Sonic Youth. It was awesome. But looking back, I remember that they played The Diamond Sea but it was so loud and it was so hot that day … to be truthful, I didn’t really get it at first, I think this happens with a lot of teenagers. But I got into it very quickly after that, I got Dirty and then I got the Washing Machine album which has The Diamond Sea on there, and that’s when it hit me hard.
We’d like to talk more about the new album: this one sounds very bright and very human. Especially in comparison to your earlier stuff, which feels really solitary. Did you intend for the new album to sound this way?
I mean, I guess I did want it to be like that. Ultimately, I did want it to sound colourful, so that’s another reason why I’m so stoked about the album cover. It’s like the opposite to the last record, which is kind of bleak!
In terms of the way your music has progressed, it seems you made a transition from more lo-fi recording to a clearer sound when you signed to Matador.
Well actually, with the first record for Matador, Childish Prodigy, I actually had the whole record done before I signed with them, except for the song He’s Alright. But yeah, I guess I’ve expanded in general, and I took the logical step of getting a proper producer. And there was growing pains with that.
The new album is very collaborative, isn’t it?
Well the credits kinda look like a long laundry list of shoutouts. I had Jeremy (Earl, singer of Woods and founder of the Woodsist label) come along and play drums on a bunch of songs, but we didn’t actually end up using his drum parts ‘cause they were really early versions of the songs. But he did end up playing percussion on the Goldtone song, Emily from Warpaint sang back up on that song and Jennifer sang back up on Too Hard. So I had friends coming in and they were very helpful, but they had very specific roles to play.
Do you feel as if this is your best record?
Yeah, I think it’s my best record. Like, sometimes I want to write these classic pop songs, y’know, a song like Jesus Fever from the last record? And my idea for this album was to make songs like that, but make them longer and kinda hypnotic.
We’d like to talk about the lyrics on the new record, but do you feel weird when people ask you about your lyrics?
Nah, it’s cool. Although sometimes people try and ask me what the literal meaning is of a song and it’s sorta awkward. And sometimes you get younger journalists who don’t have much tact … but go ahead, we’ll see how it goes!
On the new album there seems to be a lot of songs directed towards someone, and it’s like there’s this recurring theme of wanting to maintain an emotional bond with someone you’re physically distant from.
Yeah, totally. Most of the songs on the record are about that. You know, I’d be gone for a long time then I’d be back. On the road, I had that huge yearning feeling and I wanted to get that message across. And when I’d be back in the studio, I’d be busting my ass to try and get that down.
When you speak about songs you love, you seem to really value sincerity, purity and truthfulness. When you write, do you try and be directly sincere and not think about it too much, or is there sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek irony in there?
Well I think that my music is always sincere. But with the way the world is, you gotta maybe have some dark humour in there to turn things around, know what I mean? Even with a song like Too Hard there’s that line which goes “what about those who are fathers and, what about their daughters? / I will promise to do my very best, to do my duty for God and my country, hey but I’m just human after all”, so you know, I’m try’na be totally sincere. There’s truth in the centre of it, but there’s jokes in there too. It’s like when you’re with one of your closest friends and things are starting to get serious, you’ve gotta throw a few little insults at each other!
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Wakin On A Pretty Daze in available now via Matador
Words: David Reed
Photo: Charlotte Bibby
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