Interview: John Vanderslice

Preparing for a triple-tour extravaganza on three continents, John Vanderslice is finding out that maintaining success is more work than rising to it. Chatting from his home in San Francisco, where he runs the analog studio Tiny Telephone, he tells us why, even after you’ve hit success, it’s still scary to be a musician.

Drift: How are you doing today?

JV: (Sigh) I don’t know. I’m not really sure. To be honest.

Drift: Really.

JV: I think it’s, um, I think I’m good but you know those days where you’re just filled with anxiety, a free-floating kind of anxiety.

Drift: Um, yes.

JV: Ok good. I wouldn’t say it’s an unpleasant feeling. I would just say it’s unnerving. The tour and Europe and Australia and all these pending things right now. It’s absolutely fun, but it’s so much preparation, and it’s a lot of hand-wringing. It’s very tricky to pull it off and to do it right.

Drift: I hear you tour a lot. Is that one of your favorite things about your job?

JV: Touring: Well, you have to do it. I love it, definitely. There are times I don’t love it. But it’s essential. In general you have to do two or three national tours on every record, So, of course if you’re doing something that much…. Probably even a meth addict doesn’t like doing meth some times. I happen to like touring I would say more than the average musician, for sure.

Drift: What made you come to our town?

JV: Well, Café 11. Ryan’s huge. It’s always the venue. It’s the promoter that brings people to towns. I grew up in Jacksonville and Gainesville so I have a lot of ties to the area, anyways. I grew up going to St. Augustine Beach, so it was a part of my childhood. It’s a part of my DNA. When I go there, I actually recognize a lot of places from when I was a kid. It’s Café 11, that’s why we go there. I mean, there’s tons of great cities to play, but we keep going back to towns because of the promoter. He’s a genius man. Seriously, he’s a very, very good promoter. I mean look at the shows he brings there. People of St. Augustine, I mean seriously you should throw him a serious party. Because I’m just telling you, he brings bands who would never, ever…It’s not that they wouldn’t play St. Augustine, they just wouldn’t even play, they wouldn’t dip down on their route. It’s kind of off the path of a touring band. Not for me, because I grew up in Florida. And I’m very Pro-florida and I’m sick of having arguments with bands about Florida, but a lot bands don’t go to Florida. How can you miss Florida? I don’t understand that.

Drift: I was reading the description of the new album that said: “Fueled by an era of deep insecurity and paranoia, the songs and themes on Emerald City develop in front of a backdrop of ritualized and mythologized current events.” Did you write that?

JV: God, no. I didn’t write it but, well, usually those one-sheets are like, such bull shit, it’s unbelievable, the level of bull shit. My terms on the one-sheet are that it couldn’t compliment the album. Like, who cares, you know? Like there it is, you listen to it and I don’t care, I really don’t care if anyone likes it. I’m not making records for other people. And I don’t want the PR machine rolling all the time. It’s like, here, it’s a record. You don’t have to comment on it. Just put it on, you know what I mean?

Drift: So how would you describe it?

JV: For me, there has to be something there. It’s almost like saying, like, you know like if you’re selling a razor in a print ad, there has to be some copy. You’re already stuck. You’ve already lost, because you’re talking about like the five blades of the razor and how close it shaves and it’s like, you know. It’s just, you’re stuck. But within that parameter, I really liked that paragraph. I thought it was pretty great. I thought it was very terse and to the point. But did I write it? No, God no.

I wouldn’t because I’m too lazy. I would just say, I don’t know, like, listen to the album. I’m so disengaged from stuff like that. I really feel that once I make an album, that it’s not my thing anymore. I don’t go play live shows to convince you that the record’s good, I go play live shows because I believe in live music. I really believe that’s what I was put on the earth to do, is to play live. There’s a connection that you make when you play live that is completely overwhelming. It is for real. And if you really respect the craft of being a musician, it’s part of it, you know?

But when, OK, for instance, if we were to be in the Flying J truck stop and we were in the diner, which we would never do, by the way, but let’s say we were sitting there having a real cheese sandwich. And someone said, “Oh, what do you do? Are you in a band?” I’d say, “Oh no, we’re just driving around.” It’s really just the last thing I’d ever want to talk about. I mean, I have an ethical obligation and it’s a pleasure to talk to you about these questions, but if I were in my own private zone, my own private life, the last thing in the world I would want to do is talk about is my own record.

Drift: What kind of stuff do you like to talk about?

JV: I like gardening, a lot. Right now, I’m really into California national parks. I just went to PinnaclesPark, which is an amazing park, in the central valley. For me, it’s like, I do music all the time, so it’s not like, I mean I’m not that much of an egotist that I need to like, I mean it’s a little unhealthy, to be talking about something you’re doing anyways.

I love movies. I would say as far as where my, I mean I love music in general, and I’m fine to talk about other bands, but as far as what I really throw myself into aesthetically would be film. That’s what really drives me crazy. Movies are absolutely, I mean, that’s the thing that keeps me going. We were watching this movie Rain last night, with Joan Crawford, it’s a really interesting movie from 1931, just an absolutely beautifully filmed black and white movie.

Drift: I saw that you have some stuff that’s in reference to war and politics, how much does that affect what you do?

JV: Well, for me it’s just impossible to ignore that stuff. I mean, on a lot of levels the record for me was very personal and about a personal relationship filtered through kind of foreign policy and the outside world. I don’t see how you can ignore all that stuff. And by the way that’s not like, I don’t care if, when I listen to music, I don’t care if people are talking about current events or not. That’s not something I think is a prerequisite of being current or relevant. I really don’t think that someone should necessarily talk about that stuff, but, for me, it’s impossible for me to avoid. I’m also really interested in politics in general. It’s hard not to filter your own personal experience through, like, the fading U.S. empire experience. It’s like a car crash on your street. You’re gonna go outside.

Drift: How important are your lyrics to you?

JV: For me, they’re important. I mean, I don’t really care if people listen to lyrics or not. I think it is important that if you’re writing pop music, which is what I’m doing, there should be enough melodic stuff going on where someone could be completely oblivious. I mean, you know, we play a lot of countries where there’s people that do not speak English that are there. And they’re standing up front. I think there’s a component of music that’s cool that it’s beyond language, you know? But me personally, I mean I’ve got to admit that like even if I’m listening to Justin Timberlake, I’m listening to the lyrics the first time I hear a song. There’s many, many people that I don’t care about because I don’t feel anything from their lyrics. There are tons of people that I love because I’m getting a picture of who they are and I’m getting some humanity from what they’re writing about. But that’s me, you know?

Drift: Who are you listening to right now?

JV: God, isn’t it amazing how much stuff is out there right now? I mean there’s so much great stuff that’s happening outside of the label system right now. It’s just, there’s so many bands that come into the studio that record that I’m amazed at. There’s a band coming next week called Hello Central coming in from L.A. and I’m going to actually play on their songs because I’m just crazy about them. I think they’re amazing. I mean there’s so many bands like that. The stuff over the past couple years that have really really changed the way that I write, I mean I would say definitely the band Xiu Xiu And I would say Destroyer and Mountain Goats. I mean there’s so many bands. Little Wayne. There’s a lot of hip hop that I listen to.

It’s weird, iTunes has really changed everything for me. Because, not only is there music and tons of stuff that I have, but there’s also so many podcasts that I subscribe to that I actually probably listen to a little less music now and I listen to more podcasts now, than I did in the past, for sure. Like On the Media, and Fresh Air, Harry Shearer’s Le Show, (Scott) Frank at KCRW, like just a lot of different stuff. Some tech blogs, like The Merlin Show. Just a lot of stuff like that. It’s amazing how engaging that stuff is to me. It’s probably eaten into a little bit of my music time.

Drift: Are you producing a lot these days?

JV: I produce maybe only the Mountain Goats these days. I would say that it’s very difficult schedule-wise to work with anyone else. And I’m going to be co-producing the next record with Scott Solter. That’s going to be fantastic.

Drift: Do you still do everything on analog? Are you running out of that stuff?

JV: Oh yeah. It’s like a big problem, a huge issue. Tape is a huge problem. There’s a Dutch company, RMG, that makes it now, and maybe a couple others that will come up in the next few years, but it’s a nightmare.

Drift: You record on all this old, dated, raw stuff. Then your music is filtered through hi-tech stuff like iTunes and iPods and everything. Is that OK with you?

JV: It’s just the way of the world and convenience is always going to have a say in what happens. I think that you can encode MP3s at a very hi-bit rate and it can sound OK. I mean, best case scenario, it’s uncompressed and someone’s listening to vinyl on a musical turntable but it’s not always going to be that way.

Drift: You think that’s where the best sound comes from?

JV: Not necessarily, it can be extremely good if everything’s done right. We press 180 gram vinyl. We take vinyl very seriously. We spend an enormous amount of money on a small run of vinyl because I believe in vinyl. I think it’s important to have out there. And there’s that hard-core contingency. I mean the vinyl just sells out immediately. And I really believe in it. But I think CDs can sound great if they’re properly mastered. There are so many factors. It’s enough to make you not a little bit hesitant to have too a lot of opinions.

Drift: Tell me more about your process. It seems very collaborative. Is that the norm?

JV: It probably isn’t the norm in a way. I have a very small group of people I use over and over again for records. Scott’s always been making records with me. And I believe in collaboration. I believe that other people can, kind of, steer you in a better direction than what you’re normally going to go toward. I think there’s tendencies of mine that need to be held in check or people who expect more out of me than I do myself.

Drift: Have you got any new toys for the studio?

JV: In many ways we actually stripped down what we used on the album. We definitely, I would say that we used less instruments for sure than we ever have before. We had less players than we ever had before. It was really my permanent band made the record with just three other guys with me. It was really stripped down. That changed the sound of the album for sure.

Drift: So how are you seeing your career going from here? It seems like you’re just comfortable doing what you’re doing.

JV: I’m mean, I wouldn’t say comfortable. There’s a terror no matter what. It’s not easy to hold together a studio and a touring band and to be kind of unhinged from your life for six months a year. But I accept that low-level terror and free-floating anxiety that I mentioned before. I think that’s very inspiring to me. But I wouldn’t say that it’s a comfortable feeling or that I’m comfortable.

I mean, to do this, you know, you put out a record, and then it’s a tremendous flood of responsibility and expectation and you are laying in bed at night and it’s 3 in the morning and your numbers are going to come in tomorrow, your radio position, your routing for the tour, your accountant is going to tell you where you stand for your taxes, you know, it goes on and on and on and you’re sitting there in your bed and I only have one thought in my head, like: This is no joke. I mean, this is really serious. I mean, you’re trying to monetize culture? I mean, do you know what you’re up against, when you do that? This is a serious game. Maybe I’m overstating it, but there has to be a component with this where people just can’t wait to be done with it. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m very happy now. I’m not saying that I’m not happy. But it’s no joke. The one thing I didn’t understand was to sustain some level of success is10 times more work. That is very difficult to do.

Drift: Ok, so not comfortable. Any goals you wanted to achieve that are still out there?

JV: No, not really. I’ve done the most that I could do, for sure. I maybe overachieved for my background. I didn’t really grow up around music and I didn’t really grow up around musicians. It wasn’t easy for me to start. You know, I didn’t know anything about the sector of the economy I threw myself into - recording studios and being in a band. I didn’t have a leg up at all in any of that stuff. From the beginning, I didn’t have any connections into that world, so I had to learn a lot of stuff in a very slow and arduous way. So I think to be able to have a studio open and functioning and do what I do is really lucky. I realized that later on, how lucky that was for me.

John Vanderslice - White Dove