John Vanderslice has been around the block. Since breaking into the indie scene as frontman for the now-defunct mk Ultra, he's worked with pretty much everyone, from Spoon to the Mountain Goats to Sunny Day Real Estate. In addition to running his own recording studio, Vanderslice now boasts an impressive solo career, the most recent addition to which is his sixth album, Emerald City, a moody contemplation on the travails of post Sept. 11 America. recess recently spoke with him about his upcoming Duke Coffeehouse show, David Bowie and the similarities between song writing and pig butchering.
So you're from California, but you were born in Gainesville?
Yea, I was born in Gainesville. That was the first city of my life, and really, it was very influential for me. Especially then, pre-internet, you had a feeling of being very isolated. Florida is a really odd state that I don't think people respect enough, personally. I'm always getting on my friends and people I know in bands that say they don't want to play Florida, or give the usual party lines about it. I think its a great place to play. But, for me, I grew up very isolated, and when I left I realized how much I loved it there.
When did you start playing music?
Pretty much the first band I was in was called mk Ultra. It was in 1994, and it started as a real local band in San Francisco. I mean, we had no traction. We would book our own tours. We went around the country a couple times, mostly because we were asked to tour with Sunny Day Real Estate, and that was like the biggest thing that ever happened to us. When you're opening for another band, its great. We had our own audience, who were mostly there because of Sunny Day. It kind of gave me a taste of touring though, and that never, never went away.
So do you like touring?
Oh God, yeah. I mean it can wear on you like anything, but yeah, I really like being on tour.
You guys are touring pretty hard, something like a show every day.
Absolutely. The overhead is high, so you just have to keep touring.
What's been your favorite place so far?
We've had some really fun shows. I would say that Tucson really ended up being a really wonderful show because we had a lot of time off there. Fresno was amazing. It was mind-blowing. We'd never played Fresno before, so it was great to be there and play a city that is a couple hours away from me, that I'd never been to. I couldn't believe it. The Central Valley is really different. It's completely unlike the rest of California.
What makes a good show for you?
The audience. You could be playing anywhere, and if the audience is there with you, they're absolutely on your side, they can really make you play better. I mean, you can be a really good audience. It's really all about being engaged in the performance-you could be rowdy and crazy, or you just could be very attentive,
How's it been touring with Bishop Allen?
It's great. They're awesome guys. We listen to a lot of current music, and we listen to a lot of bands that we really like and respect. Then we ask them to tour with us. Before Bishop Allen, we were touring with a band from North Carolina actually, called Bowerbirds. We're always finding and touring with new bands. We're very particular about who we take out.
How'd you decide to come to Duke?
We change where we play all the time. We've played the Local 506, we've played Cat's Cradle. I actually know Durham pretty well. My mom and my brother live in Chatham County. The Coffeehouse asked us to play, so I said cool, absolutely. But we're actually playing less colleges on this tour than we usually do. I think we're only doing three college shows on this tour. There's Duke Coffeehouse, [Tallahassee], and then Athens, Ohio.
Tell me about your new album. How did it work out for you, how do you feel about it?
That's tough. It's almost like saying, "Tell me about your son, how do you feel about him?"
Yeah, how do you like this thing that you created from scratch?
I mean I love it, because of exactly that. I mean, its my son. However much he tortured me during his upbringing, I love him. So that's the first thing. The second thing is that its an absolute pleasure to be touring on the record. It feels different and it feels really good. There's a totally different vibe on this tour. I mean, we start our set list off with three completely new songs.
The album is pretty political. Are you trying to be a political motivator or is the album more of a personal statement?
To be honest with you, like all songwriters, I'm an egotist. So I really don't care what other people think. I have very strong and transparent political views, and I'm completely fine if people agree with them, but I've never wanted to change anyone's mind. I'm of the opinion that it's pretty much impossible to change peoples' minds. I mean, basically, when we went into this situation, it was pretty obvious that we were getting into it so that we could steal people's resources, but there was a 90 percent approval rating. I'm not going to try to help, I mean, who can help, a country that is that gullible? It's a personal album for me. All the political stuff is just refracted ideas and emotions that I have about being alive right now.
So how did you set out with the album, were you trying to get thoughts out there about what's going on?
Well, the label called me and said, "Hey, we need you to turn in a record by this date," and I thought, "Ok. Sh-. I should start writing songs." And that's exactly what happened. You know, I like writing songs, but its a tortuous process. Its arduous, and honestly, somewhat boring.
For me, it would be a lie if I gave you a song and dance about how inspired I was to make this record. I mean, this is my job, it's my life. It's a great job, and I'm lucky to have it. I fought a long time to get it, and I'm definitely not going to give it up. But the truth is that sometimes writing a record is a very down-and-dirty process. It's ugly and there's no "sex" whatsoever in the process. It's sometimes just like slaughtering pigs.
No sex in the process?
I was definitely under the impression that it would be a little more glamorous. Which is fine. I mean, I just want to be accurate and truthful in what I say. But unless you're in a heavy metal band, it's not there. Even the most swinging indie-rock band's always disappointed by how little debauchery there really is in tour.
So, I hear that you're really into David Bowie.
I definitely like David Bowie. I definitely was very influenced by him, as much by his process of making albums as by his music itself. It's the way he put together his bands, and his albums, and the sounds of his records-I really appreciate him, as an artist.
So how does that tie into your music?
It doesn't that much. I wish I had the balls to pull off what he did live. You look at Ziggy Stardust concerts, that was just the coolest thing in the entire world. I wouldn't say that I'm like a Bowie fanatic, I don't go to bed dreaming of holding and stroking him every night, but I love Bowie. There's a lot of great music out there, and Bowie was definitely a big part of it.
But no spiders from Mars in the future?
I love the energy of that record so much, but no. No spiders from Mars.
John Vanderslice plays at the Duke Coffeehouse this Friday at 9:30 p.m., with doors open at 8:30. Tickets are $7 for Duke students, $10 for the general public.
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