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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 on his new album Tiny Cities
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Picture by Nyree Watts
Age is a factor in his take on things. Both Kozelek and I are in our late 30s, and as such, grew up with a whole slew of bands like Gang of Four, Patti Smith, and genre-blurring '70s radio – sounds that are being copied, often without credit, by many indie rock darlings both Kozelek and I are too polite to name.
Mark Kozelek |
"I think because of our age we hear today's music and we're just so aware of what came before it," says Kozelek. "A perfect example is I remember seeing Tortoise around six years ago, and there were all these little chicks there with tattoos and dudes with chain wallets. But I remember seeing Mahavishnu Orchestra when I was a kid, and there's really not that huge of a difference. But you tell that to a kid, that this band they like sounds a lot like Frank Zappa or Captain Beefheart or UFO, and they don't give a shit."
While there are no plans to regroup Red House Painters in the immediate future, Kozelek works regularly with the other guys. The gracefully powerful Anthony Koutsos drums for both the Painters and Sun Kil Moon, and guitarist Phil Carney played a series of shows with Kozelek this winter. He seems upbeat about a follow-up one day to 2001's Old Ramon.
"Though the four of us aren't out there as the band, we're closer than we've ever been. We're a little older. We're a little more relaxed. We're a little more able to let things go and let ego things go," Kozelek remarks. "At the same time, we're able to look at each other and say, 'I have other priorities in my life besides hanging out with you.' We're able to look at each other and know now isn't the time for us to be out there. We've always been that way. We'd make a record, do a tour, and then not do anything for two years."
All the pretty houses
Decoratively colored
Tonight, I want no other
Than my own
The man himself will be out on the road, earning his daily bread the way any other working musician does it – one stage at a time. The strain of the touring life, especially after 13 years of it, can sometimes wear him down.
Mark Kozelek by Torbjorn Persson |
"People think it's a big party. It's not. It's a lot of work to go to the airport everyday and go through the security check and something's wrong with the plane and there's a problem with a connection between this place and that place (his voice trails off into a small sigh). It's taxing," laments Kozelek. "I got to get up at six in the morning the next day. I got sound check. I got to drive. I got a show. I'm hopefully going to eat dinner somewhere. I just don't have time to entertain."
"Sometimes out on the road, occasionally there's a little pocket of time. If everything connects perfectly, you'll get about an hour of time before you play where you might be able to take a bath, chill out in your hotel room, and just have quiet time. But that's like every other gig where you'll have that. For me, a lot of times the only time I'm out on the road where I get a chance to be alone is when I'm standing in front of 500 people (laughs). That's my quiet time."
He's careful to point out that he still loves performing and there's still nothing like the feeling when all the elements align in front of an audience. But the pressure to be "on" all day long is one of the most wearying aspects of being a professional musician with a dedicated cult following. The days are full of interviews and endless interaction, the nights full of music and sleepless nowhere hours before the dawn.
Mark Kozelek |
"My friend Alan Sparhawk from Low is very driven. He's one of those rare artists that's an artist 24 hours a day. He wants to be making art and creating and performing all the time," Kozelek comments. "Where I just like being Mark most of the time. I just want to be Mark at a sushi restaurant, going to see Capote or whatever movie's playing. I just want to be Mark. And Mark from Red House Painters, Mark from Sun Kil Moon, I can turn that on, but I'm not Mark from Red House Painters 24 hours a day."
Last year, Sparhawk corralled him for a new side project, The Retribution Gospel Choir, that spans both their catalogs and "ups the sonic ante with Steve Vai vs. Ralph Macchio-influenced guitar solos" and a vast array of covers from Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Flock of Seagulls, and Pere Ubu. The new band toured last September and will hopefully collaborate again.
In the meantime, Kozelek is active as ever, popping up everywhere. Recent efforts, besides Tiny Cities, include several cuts for Crowe's Elizabethtown, including an especially sweet version of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman," and standout appearances on I Am a Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass: A Tribute to the Music of Will Oldham and a grand collection of children's music coming out in March called See You On The Moon!, which features Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, and other alternative notables. He hits the road again in May for a tour through the South and Northeast. Never idle, the man is a musical lifer. While he may be unsure of where the wellspring that feeds his rapturous musings lies, there's no question that he'll keep drawing from it.
I feel the rain fall down my back
I'm going back to my place of work
To get things done, to get them right
But I'll mess them up
I always do
JamBase | San Francisco
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