Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There's too many favorite songs, so I'll just say right now my favorite song of all time is 'Poison' by Bert Jansch.
I love polished pop music, but stuff like Neil Young's Crazy Horse vibe or Waylon Jennings, that stuff is raw and real.
I can be chill. That's a side of me that I like. But then, I can also be not so chill. I can get a little stressed out.
If somebody else wanted to do a song for McDonald's, that's up to them. I wouldn't do something like that, but whatever.
All of my surroundings influence my songwriting. It's autobiographical, although I leave enough space so it's relatable.
Finger-picking, in general, is a hypnotic thing. I feel like I'm more A.D.D. all the time, so the music has to be hypnotic.
Life is mortal. There are all these rewards and consequences. Sometimes you embrace them, and sometimes they knock you over.
Every time I play with somebody, your perspective gets a little extended. It always rounds you out a little more in some way.
I've always been a deep sleeper; because I come from such a large family - there are 10 kids - I could sleep through anything.
People do get mad at me for falling asleep sometimes, and it's the most frustrating thing. I can't help it. What am I gonna do?
Some people are so sad that, at times, that's what gets on my nerves - if they just hammer the doom, with no comic relief whatsoever.
When I leave a recording session, there is usually a lot of paranoia or superstition on my part, like I'm afraid to hear what we've done.
John Prine in particular... just the chord changes combined with the words. He definitely can make you cry a little bit. Just a little bit.
When I was 20, I moved up to Boston with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. She went to grad school, and I met a bunch of cool friends there.
I've developed this routine at home. I wait for the kids to go to bed; then my wife falls asleep. Then, it's dark and quiet enough for me to work on songs.
A lot of getting a song done is booking the studio time. I'm the kind of person who will set time aside to do something and then do everything but that thing.
Even when I haven't played in a while, I can sit down and start with a chord, and just drop into it. It's like this tunnel I go into. The zone is where I want to live.
My favorite kind of song is the most beautiful song that you love so much and it's so good it makes you want to cry a little bit. Any jam can sound like that on a certain day.
I write a lot when I'm feeling bummed, but other times, you get locked in, and it's totally personal. If you're really low and writing, you're not thinking about anybody at all.
I definitely have relapses of stress. Most human beings are like that. But I think, ultimately, music is a therapeutic situation. Once you start playing, it all just gets resolved.
When I was a teenager, I was mostly getting tapes and CDs, and somebody hipped me to the fact that you can get things on vinyl that are not necessarily available on any other fomat.
I guess some people like to just stick with their sound, like Weezer or something, but I think I just try to keep it as close to my real life, in a Neil Young sort of way, as possible.
I walk around a lot. People come up to me and say 'Hi,' but not that often. I mean, I get it plenty often, but sometimes I wish they'd come up to me more! I mean, I'm just a regular guy.
My cousin used to make fun of me for liking stuff like C+C Music Factory. I didn't have any tapes; I just liked their song on the radio. We liked that because that was what we had access to.
It's gotta feel natural. I'm always into that, and after awhile, if I am working on a song too long and trying to make something out of it that it's not... it's best just to stop and move on.
We'll play somewhere like London, playing to 2,000 people easy, and every time you play with more people, you think, 'You're a rock star,' and it makes you laugh. I guess I am, but I'm also, you know, not.
My music has to be funny and sad and happy and loving; it's gotta have it all. When somebody's just too dark all the time, it's just drama. Or if somebody's too funny? Well, I like being too funny sometimes.
I got depressed so many times by my blue-collar life and self-conscious about the fact that I didn't go to college. I was always working super low-end jobs, being the complete opposite of what I wanted to be.
My dad's really funny. The male sense of humor - like my grandfather's and such - is pretty bizarre. Basically my dad's side of the family is where the bizarreness comes from. It's a little goofy and a little out there.
I'll know when a song's really awesome, for sure, and I get super stoked, and I'm so high when I'm hearing it back, but then you sit with the record forever. You're mixing it, and you can really just over-think everything.
Anybody that's from somewhere that's made it in music outside of New York or L.A., if it's a unique enough place, they'll always say, 'Dude's from Minnesota!' Or wherever, you know? So that's how I got the Philly connection.
I'm not cynical, but the reality is that life is mortal. Terrible, sad things happen. Everybody loses friends and family. I'll be on tour and get really scared if my wife won't answer her phone within one minute. I'm sensitive.
I'd go to a more civil party just to socialize, and I didn't know what to do with myself. So I drank a shot of tequila. And then I drank another one. I probably had four or five shots. I was like, "Tequila! It wakes you right up!" But no.
The last blue collar job I had, I was 29. Even 'Childish Prodigy,' I had a day job that whole time. Those early ones, they feel like psychedelic, blue collar records. Especially 'God Is Saying This to You,' there's such urgency in that album.
I feel like if you sit down and have an assistant engineer and a producer in a top-notch studio and everyone sets up all the mikes perfect, all of a sudden it's really hard to live that melancholy song. It's hard to really live it in the moment.
There comes a time when you've toured a ton, and a time to be inspired again. Listen to awesome jazz records that are mellow with no words, and just sit there and read a book, or space out on your couch. And eventually, all that inspiration comes.
I find that I get nervous before I play. Even sound checks can give me anxiety and screw with my mind. But as long as I can play a little acoustic guitar backstage if I'm feeling nervous, so I don't have to walk in there cold turkey, I'll be fine.
Philly's busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It's a place where people pass through and bands don't usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it's not too over the top.
I've always been a music fan. I played trumpet. When I was in 4th grade, we were getting demos from the music teacher about different instruments we could play, and I said I wanted to play the trumpet right away. It was easy: it just had three valves.
I go through ups and downs in the psyche all the time, and then once you start moving again, it's amazing how you can always bounce back. You get, like, in a low rut, and you think, 'This is it; my life is a train wreck.' And then you bounce back again.
I'll know when a song's really awesome, for sure, and I get super stoked and I'm so high when I'm hearing it back, but then you sit with the record forever. You're mixing it and you can really just over-think everything. I'll go back and forth all the time.
I've got an amazing family. My wife is really smart. She's guided me the whole way. With children, you see them grow up, so it's like you're forever young. They are totally innocent and so unjaded. Watching them grow up makes you go through it again yourself.
Around '93, the radio started playing 'Loser' by Beck and 'Cut Your Hair' by Pavement, and then I got way into Pavement. That was kind of a gateway drug into indie rock. I got all their B-sides, and I got that 'Hey Drag City' comp, so I got into all those Drag City bands.
No offense to Boston, but I was glad to get out of there. I think it's just because I'm from Philly. Honestly, the blue collar side of each are pretty similar in ways, but something about the makeup of your brain, Philly versus Boston. It's a lot different, in weird ways.
I've always been a deep sleeper; because I come from such a large family - there are 10 kids - I could sleep through anything. Even with my last day job, I'd sleep in later and later and start coming in an hour-and-a-half late. I got fired twice before I really got fired.
On one level, we're on Matador, but our amps still might explode on stage, or they'll be an echo in the mic. It's like climbing a ladder. I like to climb it really slowly. I could probably get really professional right away, but I like to take baby steps and find my own way.
Some people think they are such geniuses and just thought of that. They think they are so smart, like they say "All this talk about Kurt Vile and no one asks him where he got his stupid name from," or, "No one asks where he stole his name from." And I'm like, "Oh, you're a genius."
It was just the next logical step from making succinct pop songs. What do you do after that? You make pop songs that are longer and more epic, that push the envelope. Imagine your favourite song, or something that you play over and over in the car, except that you don't have to start it over as much.
There's so many FM hits that I love. Bob Seger, there's two of his songs that I love. I would probably love more, but I don't sit around listening to Bob Seger records. It's the same thing with Tom Petty; he writes amazing hits, but it's not often that I sit around at home listening to a whole Tom Petty album.
I like New York. I like Philly. I like San Fran. I like when people are stoked. But Chicago's a real music town, and they're really good to us there. There's just something in the air there; people are just really stoked about music. Every time I go there, I have a great time, and the fandom is really heartwarming.