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Being this guy from Red House Painters, I don't know what it is but people get an idea of who I am and what exactly it is I'm about. Sometimes they're surprised that I watch television, that I walk down the street, that I have a pulse and breathe. People get this idea from this band and this catalog and they have an image of how you live and what you do, but the truth is I have sex. I've had the occasional one-night stand like any guy, and I've enjoyed it.
-Mark Kozelek
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"Sometimes you do something like this and go 'Whoa.' It is very extreme. You don't see artists often covering an entire work of another artist," Kozelek comments. "Sometimes I'll write a song, and I really have no idea what's going on as I'm writing it. It'll hit me later. I see why I was creating it, what was going on in my life at that time. I think probably the same thing will happen to me with this [Modest Mouse] covers album eventually. I'll admit it's a little embarrassing. I'm a little shocked. Five years ago I didn't know who Modest Mouse was, and I happened to go see them at The Fillmore. I ended up immersing myself in their music [Winter] of last year, and I came out of the studio with an 11-song Modest Mouse covers album."
To those critics who've given him heat for building a whole album around a single, active contemporary, Kozelek's answer is succinct and absolutely correct. He says, "I think it's all about people sort of thinking inside the box a little too much. If this was a Modest Mouse covers album with various artists like Iron & Wine and Cat Power, everyone would have a fucking orgy over it. Then you'd hear the songs in an M&M's commercial. Everybody'd be coming all over themselves."
Mark Kozelek |
As in his own work, Kozelek crawls inside the furthest reaches of Isaac Brock's lyrics and pulls them into the light of fresh melodies, familiar words drying like a child next to a summer lake, gentle breezes and murmuring trees making the world seem so much larger and mysterious than it was moments before. It's something Kozelek has done before. 2001's What's Next To The Moon focused on ten Bon Scott era AC/DC tracks, unearthing hitherto unknown pockets of acoustic blues and Bon's fractured heart below the sordid tales of limousines, liquor, and loose ladies.
"I was in a weird place where I'd been dropped from a label. I had a couple years with nothing to do. I had a part in a movie [Almost Famous]. I did the AC/DC covers thing. I think I was doing some strange things to be noticed or to rebel against being 'the Red House Painters guy,'" comments Kozelek. "I think with the AC/DC record I was able to explore a real human side of myself. Being this guy from Red House Painters, I don't know what it is but people get an idea of who I am and what exactly it is I'm about. Sometimes they're surprised that I watch television, that I walk down the street, that I have a pulse and breathe (laughs). People get this idea from this band and this catalog and they have an image of how you live and what you do, but the truth is I have sex. I've had the occasional one-night stand like any guy, and I've enjoyed it. And I think that's what's going on with the AC/DC. If I'd written songs about getting a blowjob, it would have been like 'What the fuck is going on here?' But by singing Bon Scott covers where he's singing about riding around in cars and having sex and just that indulgent side of being in a band, I was able to cover that in my own way and kind of get that out of my system in a way where I could get away with it (laughs)."
Besides Almost Famous - arguably the greatest, truest rock drama ever – Kozelek worked briefly with Cameron Crowe on Vanilla Sky and most recently appeared in Anand Tucker's screen adaptation of Steve Martin's novel Shopgirl. He'd like the opportunity to do more than carry a guitar and deliver a few lines in the future, but for now, he appreciates the benefits of working with Hollywood.
Mark Kozelek |
"What I've enjoyed about the movie experience is just being around it. I'm in the independent music scene, and it's a struggle. It's very do-it-yourself at my level. In the movie business, there's a car there to pick you up, there's cartons of cigarettes everywhere and food and girls and it's glamorous. You get there, and everything is taken care of."
In each of his roles, the first thing you notice is his voice. Even just speaking conversationally, there's a resonance that's ear-catching. Put him in front of a microphone, add a little reverb, and Kozelek conjures the same instant intimacy as My Morning Jacket's Jim James or the late Elliott Smith.
"I've never had any training. Over the years I've found my own voice. I don't really know who to compare it to. I don't really feel like I sound like anyone. There's no one person I'm trying to emulate," offers Kozelek. "It was definitely a struggle not growing up with any kind of singing training. It's something that's still - and probably with my guitar playing, too – developing. It's still unfolding as my career moves on. I'm exploring different ways of approaching music. With my singing, I'm more relaxed as I've gotten older. I think my voice has matured where I sing more like a man now. On my early records, I sound very young."
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