MUSIC Vile is okay with being weird a
TALKING WITH Kurt Vile is much like listening to his songs. His long, meandering guitar riffs are the musical equivalent of his speech, ambling around topics that are occasionally peppered with anecdotes from the road. Through those journeys, he repeats himself often, capturing the same spirit as his colloquial, stream-of-consciousnessesque lyrics that make his music both instantly relatable and deliciously psychedelic.
It’s a style that has arrested the ears of alternative-rock lovers since the release of his first solo album, Constant Hitmaker, in 2008. Vile’s idiosyncratic playing began commanding attention even as the popularity of guitar-based music started to decline, earning him a spot as an opener for some of the most iconic bands both one and two generations ahead of him. Dinosaur Jr. and the Flaming Lips booked him onto their tours, while John Prine and Neil Young tapped the performer to warm up their crowds—a testament to Vile’s ability to create music accessible to all.
But despite the artist’s presence on high-profile stages and as a staple on the major-festival circuit, Vile has never been popular popular in the mainstream. While the single “Pretty Pimpin” from his last solo record, b’lieve i’m goin down…, topped the U.S. Adult Alternative list, most of his releases have failed to log a position in the charts. That’s never been something that’s worried the artist, though—and a point he’s keen to make about his latest album, Bottle It In, which he released in October. Rather than try to re-create the success of his best commercial hit, Vile was keen to write the songs he does best—the rambling earworms that sell out venues around the world.
“I didn’t feel like I had to write another ‘Pretty Pimpin’,” he tells the Georgia Straight on the line from a San Diego tour stop. “Maybe an abstract pressure to come back with my best thing yet, and I definitely did that. But I wouldn’t say there’s a ‘Pretty Pimpin’ on this record—and it wasn’t like I needed it. I’ll have another form of a hit at some point, you know? And this record has weird hit potential. The songs are more weird. And that’s okay.”
The first single, “Loading Zones”, is an inner monologue that dips from the mundane moments of getting shopping done to musing about the need for an exoskeleton. The next, “Bassackwards”, is a head-nodding odyssey that clocks in at close to 10 minutes, composed almost entirely of the same two-bar riff. “One-trick Ponies” is the most mainstream of the three, layering harmonies over an easygoing country backing, and spotlighting Vile’s choice to pack this record with a more comprehensive selection of sounds than his previous, more minimalist offerings.
“I wanted to put a classic Kurt Vile record out,” he says. “In weird ways, even though there’s strategic instrumentation on my previous album b’lieve i’m goin down…, I would call that a stripped-down album too. I wanted to come back and make some kind of epic psychedelic [record], a culmination of ‘Who the hell knows what’s going to come out when I go into the studio.’ I wanted to do something out-there, but still reachable.”
Kate Wilson