September 30-October 6, 2004

music

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats

STRANGER THAN FICTION: "The next album is almost straight autobiography," says Dr. John Darnielle (right), with bassist Peter Hughes.

Interview by Patrick Rapa

For years John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats wrote songs of travel, trauma and mystery with such conviction his listeners scoured every inch of tape or vinyl or disc for clues that would piece together some picture of the songwriter behind it all. It was futile, of course, looking for the man in nigh-supernatural stories about Agamemnon, Grendel's mother and love that can't die fast enough. For his part, Darnielle always said he was just telling stories. Aha! But the songs on his most recent CD, We Shall All Be Healed (4AD), are based on his real life. So he says. Anyway, he's a bigtime music fan and a wordy, nerdy rock critic—see lastplanetojakarta.com for his "101 Things To Which You Can Compare Interpol Besides Joy Division"—so he understands the quest to know the musician behind the music. Even if he's not down with it.

City Paper: You're suddenly telling us you drew on real-life experiences. How are we supposed to trust you?

John Darnielle: Well, because I'm the only singer-songwriter who's always told the truth, I guess. Most guys want you to believe their stories all the time when they're usually cribbing from Dylan and/or the movies; I've always been open about how I was making up stories. Nobody ever wanted to believe me, since people have this weird idea about how acoustic guitar equals he must be singing about his life! But it ain't so. But anyhow—eight years or so of making up stories and I felt like I kinda had that one down to a science, so I decided to changeup my game a little. The next album is almost straight autobiography.

CP: Have you heard many wrong theories on the truth behind We Shall All Be Healed?

JD: No; the one thing is that since I started including drug references in songs, a few indie critics whose experience with drugs has largely been limited to listening to Lou Reed albums have enjoyed claiming that I don't sound "convincing.' If I'd've known these guys were gonna front like that, I'd've sent them postcards from jail, but hindsight is 20/20 I guess. So yeah. The only wrong theory I know of is that I'm embellishing stuff. I didn't embellish; I actually left the most gruesome stuff out.

CP: Would you like people to listen to this CD and not imagine you in the songs? To treat Healed like any other album?

JD: Well, yeah, but I always work on the assumption that people are playing with the whole idea of persona—I hope people feel the tension between the truth of a story and its telling.

CP: How important is the artist to the appreciation of the song, generally speaking? In other words, how badly would you like to know about Jandek's personal life?

JD: Generally not at all, I'd say—Jandek's a special case, obviously. It's nice to have some idea of who you're hearing, but the idea can be totally fictional and still satisfy. People are still asking me what field I took a Ph.D. in, for example, but I never actually went to graduate school. If it makes them happy to think of me as a Ph.D., though, they're free to address me as Dr. Darnielle. Hmmm. Maybe I should start including this on my rider, I kinda like the sound of it.

CP: What are you working on now?

JD: The next album. We'll be recording it at Prairie Sun in Cotati [Calif.] shortly after tour; John Vanderslice is producing again. I've got a working title for the album already—The Sunset Tree—which I took from a hymn mentioned in a particularly brutal scene in Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh. There's other stuff in the hopper, probably, but I'm pretty focused on this next album for now—the songs are really direct and savage and I'm really happy with them. This album is special for me in a lot of ways that I think will become clear when people hear the songs.

CP: All these haters are ripping into The Roots' new album, saying it's not preachy or socially relevant enough. Your thoughts?

JD: I haven't heard it. I'm oddly inclined to side with the haters from the sound of things, though. I think we're long overdue for a swing of the pendulum back toward "preachiness" (loaded word, that). Scarface routinely makes songs that actually have a point without sacrificing any of his awesomeness. I'd like to hear more stuff like 'Face. There does come a point where songs about how great it is to get half-drunk and look at boobies begin to wear a little thin, after all.

CP: Will bassist Peter Hughes be joining you on this tour?

JD: Hell yes. I think Peter's in the "more songs about Cristal and boobies" crowd these days, though. … Let the record reflect, anyhow, that Peter's probably the best bassist in indie rock right now, period, and I feel blessed to have him along with me these days. When I write a new song, I don't feel like it's done till I've heard Peter's part for it.

CP: Please address the city with some words of consolation regarding the lost hockey season.

JD: This is a tough question for me. I was raised with the idea that the union is always right, because even if the players are filthy rich, the owners are richer, and aren't risking their bodies every day out on the field of play. So instinctively I want to side with the union. But as a sports fan, my gut says: "What the fuck? You schmoes are getting paid more money than any of us will ever, ever see in our whole lives, and you want more money? Fuck you, I'm gonna go see some minor league games where the players are still hungry, and what's more, when the strike's over I'm gonna keep giving my entertainment dollar to the local minor league team. You guys had your chance." Which is the only way these ridiculous sports strikes will ever stop: People gotta vote with their pocketbooks. Unfortunately, so many of the expensive seats are bought by corporations, who philosophically are on the side of the as-long-as-everybody-gets-rich people.

So I don't know that I have any words of consolation as such! As far as I know, the AHL is unaffected by the strike, so Philadelphia hockey fans should go check out the Philadelphia Phantoms—their season started Sept. 27, and the most expensive seat in the house is 19 bucks, and I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the players work their asses off and flex considerably less attitude than NHL players besides! Admittedly, the level of play is a little less surgical, a little looser. But is that a bad thing, really?

Wed., Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m., $10, all ages, with John Vanderslice, First Unitarian Church, 22nd and Chestnut sts., 800-594-TIXX.