I got depressed so many times by my blue-collar life and self-conscious about the fact that I didn't go to college. I was always working super low-end jobs, being the complete opposite of what I wanted to be.
— Kurt Vile
Influence is all osmosis.
After I play a gig, I'm like a different person: I have superhuman strength.
On one level, we're on Matador, but our amps still might explode on stage, or they'll be an echo in the mic. It's like climbing a ladder. I like to climb it really slowly. I could probably get really professional right away, but I like to take baby steps and find my own way.
I don't have anything to get off my chest. I'm not itching to prove myself anymore.
The last blue collar job I had, I was 29. Even 'Childish Prodigy,' I had a day job that whole time. Those early ones, they feel like psychedelic, blue collar records. Especially 'God Is Saying This to You,' there's such urgency in that album.
Some people are so sad that, at times, that's what gets on my nerves - if they just hammer the doom, with no comic relief whatsoever.
I feel like if you sit down and have an assistant engineer and a producer in a top-notch studio and everyone sets up all the mikes perfect, all of a sudden it's really hard to live that melancholy song. It's hard to really live it in the moment.
Life is so beautiful, but there are all these scary things you can't deny.
I definitely have relapses of stress. Most human beings are like that. But I think, ultimately, music is a therapeutic situation. Once you start playing, it all just gets resolved.
Nobody wants a complainer.
I just try to make as much money as possible. However I can do it. With as much integrity as I can have.
It was just the next logical step from making succinct pop songs. What do you do after that? You make pop songs that are longer and more epic, that push the envelope. Imagine your favourite song, or something that you play over and over in the car, except that you don't have to start it over as much.
I'm just used to the L.A. music life.
I'm definitely influenced by Animal Collective. I watched them early on.
I've always been a music fan. I played trumpet. When I was in 4th grade, we were getting demos from the music teacher about different instruments we could play, and I said I wanted to play the trumpet right away. It was easy: it just had three valves.
Even when I played in little league as a kid, I liked making friends, but I didn't want to be there, really.
There's so many ways you can play one chord progression that the repetition isn't ever exactly the same.
When I write, I tend to tap into this human wondering vibe that could come off negative, but it's really not.
Philly's busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It's a place where people pass through and bands don't usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it's not too over the top.
Even when I haven't played in a while, I can sit down and start with a chord, and just drop into it. It's like this tunnel I go into. The zone is where I want to live.
When I first got the record deal, I thought it felt like I won the lottery. But I always worked hard at it.
No offense to Boston, but I was glad to get out of there. I think it's just because I'm from Philly. Honestly, the blue collar side of each are pretty similar in ways, but something about the makeup of your brain, Philly versus Boston. It's a lot different, in weird ways.
I go through ups and downs in the psyche all the time, and then once you start moving again, it's amazing how you can always bounce back. You get, like, in a low rut, and you think, 'This is it; my life is a train wreck.' And then you bounce back again.
Humor is important. Nothing against bands that are always a downer, but the reality is - it just becomes theater.
I think if you just travel in general, it allows you to step outside of yourself and whatever you're familiar with.
I benefit from a change of scenery; it's always inspiring.
I feel like when I say something sad, I mean it.
If somebody else wanted to do a song for McDonald's, that's up to them. I wouldn't do something like that, but whatever.
The real reason I was lo-fi before was really just because that's what I could afford.
I've gotten a lot more paranoid in my older age.
There's so many FM hits that I love. Bob Seger, there's two of his songs that I love. I would probably love more, but I don't sit around listening to Bob Seger records. It's the same thing with Tom Petty; he writes amazing hits, but it's not often that I sit around at home listening to a whole Tom Petty album.
My dad's really funny. The male sense of humor - like my grandfather's and such - is pretty bizarre. Basically my dad's side of the family is where the bizarreness comes from. It's a little goofy and a little out there.
Cigarettes are the worst thing in the world for you.
I proved myself with 'Smoke Ring.' It was me maturing. I made a good pop record.
Critics always get the lyrics wrong in reviews, which is amusing - especially when they use them against you.
If I had known I'd be on Matador back then in my childhood, it would have blown my mind.
I'm the kind of performer who gets lost on stage. I can tap into this soulful haze.
There comes a time when you've toured a ton, and a time to be inspired again. Listen to awesome jazz records that are mellow with no words, and just sit there and read a book, or space out on your couch. And eventually, all that inspiration comes.
I'm always working on music.
I want really badly to just be funny in a movie but be close to myself.
I'm joking all the time with my friends, even when we're talking about serious things.
I find that I get nervous before I play. Even sound checks can give me anxiety and screw with my mind. But as long as I can play a little acoustic guitar backstage if I'm feeling nervous, so I don't have to walk in there cold turkey, I'll be fine.
If I sit in the same square room and work on something too long, I feel like you just go mad.
It's gotta feel natural. I'm always into that, and after awhile, if I am working on a song too long and trying to make something out of it that it's not... it's best just to stop and move on.
I like a well-rounded life. All of this work is kind of useless if you don't have something good to come home to.
I feel like my music is like - there are always new influences in there.
I'll know when a song's really awesome, for sure, and I get super stoked, and I'm so high when I'm hearing it back, but then you sit with the record forever. You're mixing it, and you can really just over-think everything.
My family was always playing music; I always enjoyed it. My cousin, who is a little older than me, he started playing music, so I wanted to, also. I asked my dad for a guitar, and he got me a banjo, so that was my introduction to playing. I played it like a guitar. I had a few lessons, learned out a few chords, and figured it out right away.
I do a lot of things, and I'll get excited about them - maybe it'll be a song in a movie - and then it comes out, and you're like, 'Aww, that was cool, but it wasn't quite as big a deal as I thought it would be.'
