A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
Kurt Vile has become known for his dream-like folk sound, and with his sixth studio album, 'b'lieve i'm goin down...,' he used his environment to amplify it.
Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down...
Vile recorded some of his album at the famous California desert studio, Rancho de la Luna. It's where artists such as Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age have recorded, and where the isolated desert setting made Vile feel "possessed by the music."
The Frame's James Kim talks with Kurt Vile about his love for the banjo, how recording some of this album late at night affected his songwriting, and why he doesn't want to reveal the meaning behind his music this time around:
Do you remember how you got into music?
I think I was attracted to music because [of] my earliest memories. My dad would be playing records and they'd make me feel crazy, in a good way. By the time I was 14, my dad bought me a banjo and then I pretty much knew I wanted to [play music] right away. I think a couple years earlier I was going to get a guitar, but I was particularly a bad kid that year, at least to my parents' standards. They told me, "We were going to get you an acoustic guitar, but you've been a nightmare."
At first I didn't think [banjo] was as cool, obviously, as a guitar. But anybody in my house — my wife included — they like when I [play] the banjo because it's a really meditative, hypnotic, ethereal, Appalachian, zoned-out folk thing. You could just space out and be playing it and not think about anything.
Was there a certain approach or theme you centered on for your new album?
One of the heads at my label, Chris Lombardi, he [said], "What's the story on this record? The record's gotta have a story." I was like, "It's a life record, man." He's like, "What does that even mean?" I was like, "It's a life record! You'll have to hear it!"
You seem cryptic about explaining your album and what your songs are about. Why is that?
This time around, I don't exactly like to point things out too much and dissect. For instance, my song, "That's Life, tho (almost hate to say)," talks about somebody who everybody loved that died. It's about a specific person, but I've decided I don't wanna say who it is, you know? I just want to leave it a little bit open, but just know that all my friends and family and my surroundings influence my music.
How did the desert environment affect how you wrote songs this time around?
We were recording a lot of this record at night. There's a certain time when it's been dark and quiet for a while that — just from being up and being possessed by the music — you could find a chord that's more than playing a hot lick. Just some kind of dreamy chord, a little bit sad but a little bit poppy. Those kind of songs, those kind of riffs, you could play forever. It's easier for you to do something like that at night, for sure.
Kurt Vile is currently on tour to support his new album, "b'lieve i'm goin down..."