Half a minute into our conversation, John Vanderslice realizes he's talking to the wrong guy. He was expecting a call to book time at Tiny Telephone, the studio Vanderslice founded and manages in the Bay Area. Apologies and introductions aside, we began our conversation about his record, "Emerald City," as Vanderslice walked up a hill in Dallas to his hotel room.
"Emerald City" is a shift, both musically and thematically, from his last album, which was fueled by fictional reveries. It has been almost two years since his last release, "Pixel Revolt," a record focused on coming to terms with the aftermath of Sept. 11 and American domestic politics. After the release of "Pixel," Vanderslice thought it necessary to take time off and try to change the way he creates his art.
"It helped me completely change what I do in my work and how I listen to music," Vanderslice said.
In "Emerald City," Vanderslice tries a more autobiographical writing style. "The themes of this record are more aggressive and war-like," he said. The lush arrangements of "Pixel" are now replaced by warped sounds, with distortion at its core.
Vanderslice approaches songwriting in a very simple manner: sitting at his desk with a pen, some paper and an acoustic guitar. He then shapes the sound of his songs by acting as producer, using his obsession with high-fidelity equipment to record them.
But on "Emerald," Vanderslice handed over the production responsibilities to Scott Solter, a longtime friend, collaborator and technician at Tiny Telephone. Vanderslice relinquished production control because he felt Solter makes better decisions when it comes to recording.
"We have serious aesthetic clashes sometimes but Scott always wins because he's less emotional about music in some ways," Vanderslice said. "Basically, Scott wins all the throw-downs."
The record is filled with "papery, thin acoustic guitars" brought out by heavy distortion, and is almost completely devoid of electric guitars. "[On 'Pixel'], all the aggressive, distressed sounds were taken out to make a lush-sounding album," Vanderslice said. "We wanted to reintroduce the distressed sounds. Scott and I felt that it was time to bring in a certain ugliness."
The twisted noises on the record and often surreal poetry of his lyrics all speak of violence, thematically uniting this record and his previous release. But in moving away from the focus of "Pixel," Vanderslice chose to deal with the ideas in a more personal way.
Instead of politicizing and over-conceptualizing, Vanderslice tries to make tragedy and its aftermath personal. On "The Minaret," he takes on the guise of a soldier paralyzed by his understanding of both sides in the war in Iraq. He also comes to terms with his girlfriend's visa problems on "Central Booking," singing "September won once again."
While Vanderslice's songwriting is more revealing, it took him awhile to get to this point of emotional disclosure. "Emerald" is Vanderslice's sixth solo effort on Barsuk Records. He began his career as part of '90s indie-art-rock group mk Ultra, which shared the musical versatility and vigor of bands like the Dismemberment Plan and Radiohead. After the group's demise, his solo records and production found a spot in the independent-music community. The situation change and emotional growth has made it possible for him to burgeon as an artist.
Rather than shy away from the changes, Vanderslice wholly embraces them.
"I'm completely at peace with someone saying that they don't like or understand the new record, or that I bailed on a style they preferred," Vanderslice said. "You have to change. You have to lose fans, and then you gain fans."
He is quick to look to the past for confirmation of his beliefs.
"Look at what Bowie did in the '70s, completely reinventing himself and throwing off his fan base with every record," Vanderslice said. "If you want to survive as an artist then you have to be willing to completely turn your back on everyone that's listening. Otherwise you're going repeat yourself. And that's trouble."
Tanmay Kumar is a staff writer. E-mail him at music@nyunews.com.
Be the first to comment on this article!