JPG: There’s a connection, rhythmically, of the Delta Spirit song “California” with the first single off this album, Trailer Park but there’s a much different viewpoint.

MLV: Yeah, it’s got that straight beat, that straight eight. Cool beat. (laughs)

JPG: A similar bpm  

MLV: Yeah, 155. It’s a thing we do, a thing we love. Definitely not shying away from that. I’m always writing songs in that form.

JPG: It’s a fun form. Maybe your drummer won’t enjoy playing a whole set of that.

MLV: (laughs) We definitely switch up quite a bit. Unless you’re playing some serious house music, that’s like the only time that beat survives that long.

JPG: Speaking of Trailer Park, it’s interesting that the video got its premiere on Rolling Stone Country. It says a lot about what is considered country now and that your music is included in that.

MLV: Delta Spirit’s been called a whole lot of things like honky tonk Americana stuff. Certainly, the hipsters of today have been listening to a lot more Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt and a bunch of other crazy old people and are really well-studied on a lot of stuff that a lot of my friends were hip to. It’s definitely taken a lot further these days than it was 13 years ago.

JPG: Back to the album, “Ghostwriters” has a Tom Petty/Traveling Wilburys feel to it.

MLV: Jeff Lynne is a god idol of mine and I’m always looking for an opportunity to nod my hat at that guy. I really loved the show last year. So fun. So good.

I saw it in Oslo. Taylor Goldsmith [of Dawes] was opening for them. I texted him, “Fuck you, man” when they got to open because I was so jealous. It was so cool. So, when your friends open for you idols I called in a favor and I got to watch that whole thing in the front row, which was so much fun. I got yelled at a couple times for singing the harmonies too loud.  

JPG: By Jeff or the audience?

MLV: Some relative of the bass player sitting next to me quietly enjoying it. (Starts singing, “I’m so tired of being lonely…”) I love that. Roy [Orbison’s] the man.

JPG: So Dawes opened up?

MLV: Not on that date but they opened for them through the U.S. So, when they came through Oslo I was able to call in a favor and get on the list, and that was really fun.

That’s definitely been really positive. Normally, I don’t have so much time to go see shows or hang out with people. It’s actually been great being in a city where not a lot of people know a lot of people. You end up getting to spend a little more quality time. Los Lobos came through town and I got to run around with Steve Berlin and went eating. He had an old buddy from the ‘80s that owns a Mexican food restaurant. Had a whole night eatin’ chilis. (slight laugh)

JPG: Speaking of bands, you put out an album with Glorietta last fall. Did that record have any influence on Light’n Up?

MLV: Glorietta was very special. Nobody knew what they were getting into which was exactly how I hoped it would be. We found our way together. It was such a magical week in the finite nature of the project, which was set out to make one record, do one tour and that’s it.

JPG: Do you like approaching musical projects like that because you did Middle Brother years ago and haven’t done anything since?

MLV:  With John [McCauley of Deer Tick] and Taylor [Goldsmith of Dawes] and I, we have conflicting schedules. Always. Everybody’s pretty prolific and busy.

The only reason we did a reunion for Middle Brother was because of Jay Sweet [executive producer] and Britt [Ryan, production coordinator] of Newport Folk Festival that pleaded and convinced us to do it. It ended up being really fun.

So, the idea that could exist again is pretty much a longshot, but that’s the fun and specialness of those records that you get to make. I really wanted to make another one that had that vibe because it’s just so fun to be challenged in that way and open you up as a songwriter. It’s a very polite pissing competition. 

JPG: Well, as long as it’s polite.

MLV: Yeah, yeah. When everybody’s the leader in a band at the same time, sometimes, that can blow up in your face because everybody’s jockeying to do their thing or it turns into people being really supportive because they empathize and they go, “How would I want my band to react to a new song that was being performed and how can I bring something to the table that’ll enhance the song?” Everybody came in in a really great way in both Middle Brother and Glorietta.

JPG: They had a great attitude and honored the song above all else.

MLV: Yeah! And simplicity was a takeaway from it. You can always have a little bit of sonic candy, and that’s always really fun, but at the end of the day you should just hear the lyric and get the general vibe. If you don’t leave a little space for the imagination or the feeling and sentiment of what the song is you can miss the mark.

JPG: Speaking of songwriting, I was listening to your previous album, Does What He Wants, as well as the new one, Light’n Up. The song “Tall Man” and the line, “I know I can change, yes I know can change” stood out in regards to what’s happened to your life since then. Then, “Ball Pit” references the father son father aspects that were on the previous album, particularly the line, “Feel like a king baby, number one, pass the sin from the father to son.”

MLV: It’s out of the Bible, sins of the father into generations. That’s very much a story song built around the life of a gigolo or marrying up and being in an outlandish situation. “Ball Pit” is actually an older song that I wrote. In January while I was recording the record we had played a wedding in New Orleans. We played this song “Everything I Do Is Out” and we normally go into this E minor jam thing…and the wedding was hilarious. The groomsmen got too drunk to go to his own reception, which they rented out Gasa Gasa, and it was one of the funniest craziest nights.

The “Ball Pit” line came from, it’s weird, Taylor couldn’t do a Middle Brother tour and it was Jeremy Black from Apollo Sunshine filling in on drums and John McCauley and I jamming as a rock three-piece in Santa Cruz. Super weird. That’s where the ball pit idea came from, but it found its way back on to my lips doing this improvised jam and it ended up turning into this drunken congo line. I was like, “This is fucked. I’m going to finish this idea.” Then, I landed on these old lyrics that I had of a gigolo marrying up in the world, and I always liked that Egyptian cotton line. Then, I had Joe Woullard of Hard Proof play that bari sax, and it was all over after that.

I needed literally something to lighten up the record. I needed a dream fantasy left turn out of the woe-is-me attitude of the record. 

JPG: Does that make the title of the album, Light’n Up, a command to yourself?

MLV: Yeah. It’s in jest. If you sit back and listen to the thing and think about the space I was in when I was making it and a lot of deep solitude, searching, looking in myself and also feeling sorry for myself. That’s where the light’n up came from. You’re sitting there, you’re all alone and you’re feeling sorry for yourself, you need to get your ass up and take a real record of the good things in life. That’s why I wrote that.

JPG: You mentioned earlier about looking at yourself as the 13 year old playing guitar in the mirror and I thought of that when I watched you play live with Delta Spirit or in live videos, solo or in Glorietta. You‘re a pretty wild guy on stage. Have you ever injured yourself or anyone else? 

MLV: (laughs) Ummm, we played a South By SouthWest event. We got cut off and I got pissed and started scaling some stuff. Security was trying to grab me and I jumped from the scaffolding into the audience and crowdsurfed but I didn’t know that I accidentally hit somebody square in the face, a girl got a bloody nose. But, I’ve never intentionally hurt anybody. That would be pretty fucked up; pretty lucky kung fu, especially with the amount of alcohol intake that I’ve carried on with during my life.

JPG: Maybe it’s some subconscious thing, like a mime, you stay in the “box.”

MLV: Yeah. I’m always pretty conscious of my space and what’s going on. I’m always trying to gauge things. I wanna be able to feel the environment around the room. I’m always looking for a way to hype it up…and not whack people in the head even though I’m going nuts. (laughs) I try not to. I’ve got good Spidey sense, mostly.

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