Mark Kozelek – of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon – talks to SIOBHAN KANEabout sacred spaces, Billy Crudup and an upcoming tour documentary
You must have been tentative about the [upcoming tour] documentary, because though it explores something in the public domain, it nudges at your private nature.
I’ve been approached by film-makers since the beginning, and with almost every tour I do, I get at least a few requests. I always passed, as I had no control over the project, there was just no level of comfort or trust with anyone who made offers.
I’m officially middle-aged now, so I just felt it was time. I hired a friend to help me out on a few tours, bought a few cameras and asked him to film. It was a nice way to approach it.
Do you think your relationship with the public/private equation has evolved a lot over the last number of years?
I don’t think I’m any more private or not private than anyone else. I meet fans, do interviews, say hello, but I just don’t have the time or interest in doing a daily blog, telling people what I ate or whatever. I don’t allow filming at my shows, but that’s nothing new, many artists make the same requests. I play my shows, and there are still signs up saying “no filming” from the artist who was there the night before.
I am looking forward to seeing the Owen Ashworth interview with you as part of the documentary project.
I've known Owen for several years. He used to work at a movie theatre in San Francisco a long time ago, but lives in Chicago now. I bumped into him in Spain in 2004, then in Poland a few years ago, and then sang at his final show as Casiotone[ For the Painfully Alone]in December. We've been in touch on and off for a while. I wanted to be interviewed by only a few people – a filmmaker and a musician. Of all the musicians I know, Owen made the most sense.
Do you feel you have a shared experience in terms of the way you approach music, and life in general?
I remember sharing a cab with him in Poland, him dragging his keyboards around the airport by himself, and getting charged some amount of money for the weight of his luggage. It’s the same shit I go through every day on tour. Touring is an interesting dynamic. For two hours, you’re a very important person to a room full of people, but then it’s over, and you’re scratching your head at some airport going ‘okay, where is the gate for Warsaw?’ So I just instinctively knew that he was the guy I wanted to talk to about this film.
A sense of place seems important to you... was this a conscious decision to play more “sacred” spaces?
Solo acoustic, especially nylon string, is very difficult in a noisy bar. I don’t want to waste my time, or anyone else’s, by playing venues that don’t make sense. Outdoor festivals are getting very difficult also, but churches tend to work well with what I’m currently doing.
Admiral Fell Promisesis perhaps the most direct of your records, in that you were basing the sound purely on the Spanish guitar style. Have you learned a lot technically in the last few years?
Yes, I'm doing more as a player than I ever have before. Songs like Half Moon Bayrequire a lot of concentration. I just feel more confident about my art than I have in the past, like I have more to offer than I did 10 or 15 years ago.
You once said that when you were a boy, the first song you covered was Stairway to Heaven, have you revisited it?
Just once. I taught it to Billy Crudup during Almost Famous. He was one of the hardest working people I've ever been around. That guy knew nothing about music when he walked in the first day, but I swear, he had that Les Paul strapped around his neck for the entire movie.
I remember his fingers trembling when I showed him the first chords for Stairway, and by the end of the film, he could play it from beginning to end.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m producing a record for a local band called Desertshore. I’m doing some vocals on the record, which has been interesting. I’m just singing whatever words come into my head, and recording right there in the moment. It’s been fun, but I have no idea what I’m singing about.
Mark Kozelek with special guests Geese performs on Sunday 14th August at St. Canice’s, Kilkenny as part of the Wired strand of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, which runs from August 5-14
