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I love polished pop music, but stuff like Neil Young's Crazy Horse vibe or Waylon Jennings, that stuff is raw and real.
Kurt Vile -
Australia is a wild place.
Kurt Vile
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Finger-picking, in general, is a hypnotic thing. I feel like I'm more A.D.D. all the time, so the music has to be hypnotic.
Kurt Vile -
There's so many ways you can play one chord progression that the repetition isn't ever exactly the same.
Kurt Vile -
I've developed this routine at home. I wait for the kids to go to bed; then my wife falls asleep. Then, it's dark and quiet enough for me to work on songs.
Kurt Vile -
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.
Kurt Vile -
Influence is all osmosis.
Kurt Vile -
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.
Kurt Vile
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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 -
My music has to be funny and sad and happy and loving; it's gotta have it all. When somebody's just too dark all the time, it's just drama. Or if somebody's too funny? Well, I like being too funny sometimes.
Kurt Vile -
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.
Kurt Vile -
I don't have anything to get off my chest. I'm not itching to prove myself anymore.
Kurt Vile -
'Street Legal' is like a cult classic. It's pretty cheesy at times, but you learn to embrace it.
Kurt Vile -
When I first got the record deal, I thought it felt like I won the lottery. But I always worked hard at it.
Kurt Vile
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I'm definitely influenced by Animal Collective. I watched them early on.
Kurt Vile -
I go in and out of mental funks all the time 'cause it comes with the territory.
Kurt Vile -
Anybody that's from somewhere that's made it in music outside of New York or L.A., if it's a unique enough place, they'll always say, 'Dude's from Minnesota!' Or wherever, you know? So that's how I got the Philly connection.
Kurt Vile -
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.'
Kurt Vile -
Life is mortal. There are all these rewards and consequences. Sometimes you embrace them, and sometimes they knock you over.
Kurt Vile -
After I play a gig, I'm like a different person: I have superhuman strength.
Kurt Vile
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People can have their punk ideals, but I don't really care about that kind of thing.
Kurt Vile -
John Prine in particular... just the chord changes combined with the words. He definitely can make you cry a little bit. Just a little bit.
Kurt Vile -
My cousin used to make fun of me for liking stuff like C+C Music Factory. I didn't have any tapes; I just liked their song on the radio. We liked that because that was what we had access to.
Kurt Vile -
My favorite kind of song is the most beautiful song that you love so much and it's so good it makes you want to cry a little bit. Any jam can sound like that on a certain day.
Kurt Vile