Interview: Kurt Vile

Kurt Vile is a punk-fucking-rocker from Philadelphia with an asphalt heart and electric wanderlust in his boots. But he doesn’t actually play punk. His second album for Matador, Smoke Ring For My Halo, is a snarky, diffident record of folk and classic rock abstractions charged with a strange, lonesome energy most performers couldn’t dream of getting near. While it probably isn’t the most formally brilliant or cohesive record of 2011 so far, it might just be our fave anyway. Quaking fearfully with the after-effects of a three-day bender, The Stool Pigeon tracked Kurt down to a terrace poolside at his hotel digs for the Primavera festival. Stammering out questions scrawled on the back of a cathedral entrance ticket, we also found time to ask the avowed Mick ‘n’ Keef fan about his favourite, lesser-known Rolling Stones tracks. Here’s what he had to say.

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You’ve been touring with J Mascis and even played a few tracks on his new solo record, how’s all that been?

J’s a total idol, but I really like him as a person and he likes us. He likes a laugh, he’s kind of quiet but once he gets to know ya he’s the coolest. I’ve been listening to the Dinosaur Jr album Hand It Over a lot lately, ‘cos solo he was playing that song ‘Alone’, it’s just three chords that he loops and then he solos over the top with all this acoustic fuzz, it’s the most beautiful thing we saw night after night.

How did you get to know him?

He was a fan of my Childish Prodigy album and we toured with Dinosaur Jr after that, then around the same time I met with John Agnello to do my last record, who’s worked with J for a long time. J helped us out when we were in a pinch, we got screwed out of studio time and John asked him if we could use his studio and he said ‘yeah no problem’. And then we went on tour again on the West Coast and I got news he wanted me to play on his solo record. It’s not even awkward ‘cos it’s sort of a friend thing, it’s a family affair-type thing you know?

Would you say you’ve taken a lot from his guitar style personally?

Definitely with some of my songs there have been Dinosaur Jr-isms, just from growing up listening to them. ‘Space Forklift’ sorta reminds me of a song off Where You Been, I can’t remember which now. But also just touring with them, I do think about his music a lot and you can’t help but be influenced by that kind of thing. There are definitely chord progressions that are Mascis-inspired, it’s not like conscious thievery or anything but that’s just how it comes out.

It must have been nice when he cited you as one of his favourite new guitarists in a recent interview? Can you see him winding up on your next record at all?

That was fucking amazing, seriously. And just to know these people on a personal level, we can just nerd out about gear or whatever, it’s great. I’m sure I’d have him do something on my next record, yeah.

Kurt Vile, ‘Jesus Fever’

Certain lines in your music strike me as just being very cool things to say in a song. Like “society is my friend, it makes me lie down in a cool bloodbath” for instance, where did that one come from?

There’s usually a certain main line which I imagine being in the middle of the song — it might not even be the chorus, but it usually makes me laugh… It’s about the delivery as well, not just the line. But to me [that line] is ambivalent or questioning, you know ‘cos society’s beautiful but it’s also fucked up. And also society’s like a punk rock thing but if you turn it a little and make it weird or poetic, and put it into a different kind of music… but it just popped out. It’s not like a narrative thing, it’s more about playing with the words really. When I was younger I used to put words together that didn’t neccesarily mean anything — well, some did — but often it’s quite abstract.

You often get pegged with the slacker tag but I dunno, you seem like a pretty hard-working guy.

It’s more like a slight sarcasm, maybe it’s a Philly thing. People from Philly can be real ball-busters, it’s like a dark humour thing. Maybe it’s in my genes.

Your music draws a lot from classic rock but it’s rarely delivered straight-up, d’you ever feel like cutting loose and writing a balls-to-the-wall rock song?

It just comes out the way it does, like with ‘Hunchback’ for instance I didn’t necessarily write it to be like that but when we played and recorded it I was listening to a lot of punk rock and it just came through, I’d never written a heavy rock song like that. But they’re usually written at first (‘Hunchback’ included) on an acoustic guitar at home. And it really showed finally with this record. I went in the studio and played the songs on acoustic thinking I’d add electric or whatever but the acoustic ended up being really prominent.

You mentioned previously your next record might rock a little harder, though..?

I’m definitely not going to do a super-acoustic record next, I mean I’ll always throw in a few acoustic songs but I’ve been playing my ’64 Fender Jaguar guitar a lot, it’s been inspiring. It’s not gonna be Black Sabbath or anything but it’s gonna be classic rock. It’s weird, I feel like this is the first time in my life where I can think about making the next record, before I was just doing it on my own for so long hoping someone would put my music out. And by the time that happened I’d built up quite an archive of songs, even with Childish Prodigy I recorded most of it before anyone had heard it. So Smoke Ring is the first proper studio record for me really, I learned a lot from doing that. And with the next one I’ll take it further. There are different insecurities you have the first time you’re working with somebody [in the studio]. I felt like I couldn’t really tap into too much experimentation, I kinda just went in and did the songs. We did do some, but this time we’ll be super-comfortable — we’ve been touring as a band for a while now. Now we’re all totally on the same page, it’s a real living musical energy. So to do a record with a band that’s oiled-up from touring, it’s great. The Violators is a real unit now, I’m grateful for that.

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Kurt Vile on his fave underplayed Stones tracks

‘Before They Make Me Run’ — It’s about the Toronto drug bust, Keith got busted while he was out there in the ‘70s and it’s saying let the guy walk before you make him run. It’s got nice harmonies — just a beautiful song, you know. I’ve been reading Keith’s biography lately.

‘Sway’ — This is the second track off Sticky Fingers. It’s really pretty, it makes me want to cry a little bit but it’s raw at the same time. You got some great harmonies on the chorus and epic slide guitar solo.

‘You Got The Silver’ — From Let It Bleed. I love how with ‘Midnight Rambler’ they just jam that chord forever and then it just suddenly stops and it’s like, [mimes the intro with a sly grin], and it’s the most fucking soulful acoustic picking, real Robert Johnson-style stuff. In the Marianne Faithfull biography she claims he wrote that one looking right at Anita [Pallenberg, his then-girlfriend], during the time she was on the set of Performance with Mick.

‘No Use In Crying’ — it’s on Tattoo You, it’s got a real snappy snare. Again, it’s super-soulful. It’s major harmonies, great words — “stay away from me”… [mimes guitar bit] I used to work at this college as a janitor when I was young, in the cafeteria. There was a jukebox in there and that song was the B-side to ‘Start Me Up’, I used to play it all the time. That record is fucking incredible.

‘You Don’t Move Me’ — This is actually a Keith Richards song, it’s on his first record whose name I forget [Talk Is Cheap]. It’s like his hate song to Mick, ‘cos Mick was touring his solo stuff at the time but playing Stones songs as well. But it’s super good, very poppy. You can’t knock Mick, obviously he’s incredible but I’m kind of a Keith man through and through.

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