Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Laid-Back Psych-Pop Master

Image: Perry Shall

PREVIEW

Jay Houhlias

Kurt Vile is a culmination of two very different styles of music. On the one hand, his acoustic guitar and twangy, unique voice give him that warm country sound. On the other, his synths and psychedelic tangents put him in the realm of outer space. This creates an unpredictable, hypnotic and infectious style of music that is completely his own.

Sydney Observer spoke with Kurt Vile ahead of his performance with The Violators at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Kurt explains how he approaches a live performance. “You’re always improving and seeing what things work. A lot of my songs are relatively simple, we stay within the structure, but there is definitely room to get lost; to go to outer space. Neil young told me he goes to outer space whenever he wants. We do some kind of version of that, but it doesn’t go off on some kind of tangent… We stick to the few chords that the song is.”

Much of Kurt’s music follows that catchy, rhythmic flow one can get lost in. Many of his songs, for example, Wakin On a Pretty Day which is 10 minutes long, attempt to capture that flow.

“I made a vinyl mix of all my favourite songs that weren’t mine at the time… a lot of them were like FM 70’s hits, the kind of songs you can play over and over. Wakin On a Pretty Day had enough bridges in it… I didn’t think it would be quite so long, but that’s how I long I played it. The whole thing with it was making it that hypnotic catchy tune that you wanted to start over, but not as many times because it’s 10 minutes long – you don’t have to hit that repeat button as much!”

He continued. “The solos (on the song) came on a different day. I jammed over the top of the whole thing… I do it all through an acoustic guitar. It sounds like an electric by the time I’m shredding but,” Kurt laughs.

Using an acoustic guitar to pull such unique sounds is untrodden on ground for many musicians.

“We definitely bring some synths and play trippy loops… You can get those sounds out of a guitar with zero effects whatsoever… I feel like you get those sounds whether you have a bunch of effects or not.”

“I’m definitely best on an acoustic guitar. It’s just thicker, and I dig in more. It’s fun to play electric. My favourite guitar these days is a ‘65 Fender Jazzmaster. But still, if I had to pick, acoustic is my main instrument – that’s what I write on…. You can be intense with that quiet fingerpicking, its interesting. You can have all these things which are loud and intense, but then you can just grab this instrument (acoustic guitar), and it’s a different kind of intense. I like that.”