Greeting me with a firm hug and a constant smile, John Vanderslice is one of those people you want to add you to your “Ideal Dinner Party” wishlist. Known as both a San Francisco staple and a folk icon, John Vanderslice’s discography spans seven records and countless collaborations. Currently touring to promote his newest album, “Romanian Names,” John talked to me in the pouring rain before his set at Austin City Limits.
Out: I want start off by asking you how your hometown of San Francisco influenced your work.
John Vanderslice: Well, where do you live?
I just moved from New York City to The Castro.
Oh wow! You have so much good stuff right there. Amazing. I’ve lived in San Francisco for a while. It was a really important place for me to move to. I grew up on the East Coast and sometimes you need move far away from your family as possible to start a new identity in a way or become something different than the person your parents, and your brother, and your sister grew up with. For me moving out to San Francisco was very freeing. It was like a blank slate. That’s been that way for a long time for people and I think it’s still that way where you can really forge a new identity. That is why San Francisco attracts really extreme, intense, and smart people. Whether it’s tech or for music and art, San Francisco attracts really intense personality types.
Totally! Where in the city do you live?
I live on Mount Davidson. Do you know where the cross is? I live on that hill. I live in a house and record in the house so I can make noise. I have my touring van and trailer up there. It’s a forgotten part of the city. It’s really quiet and peaceful and there’s more area for people so I can make noise all hours of the night. It’s incredible.
Do you have any favorite venues in the city?
It’s funny; we were talking about Bottom of the Hill yesterday. Bottom of the Hill has sustained all these new venues coming in and still remains a beautiful place to play. There is something about the immediacy of that club. I love The Independent. I love The Great American Music Hall. I love The Fillmore. San Francisco has a lot of great venues. The Yerba Buena Theater is amazing! It’s gorgeous. There are so many cool places. I haven’t been to The Fox yet, but people love The Fox. Rickshaw Stop is fantastic. I have fond memories of the Hotel Utah. I have seen great shows everywhere. It’s gotten a lot better in the past five years.
I like that there is no Blockbuster stadium so even large acts get intimate venues.
I saw Spoon play three nights in a row at The Fillmore and it was one of the best concerts I had ever seen in my play.
In regards to Spoon, can you tell me more about your collaboration with them?
Jim, the drummer, and I – who I am actually working with tomorrow in the studio – we started recording studios at more or less the same time so we were sharing ideas and our fears and our experiences constantly. For probably about a year straight we were in close collaboration because he was starting his studio in Austin and I was starting one in San Francisco. In some ways our studios were very similar. He probably has a better version of the studio but we really influenced each other. I really expect that band. They really changed how I felt about music and how I felt about live performance. I really respect how they view recording too. We probably influenced each other especially on the recording side.
I noticed that so many different genres are collaborating where before it was mostly a hip-hop thing. Where do you find yourself in that world?
I totally agree! That’s an interesting thing that you mentioned because the next album I am going to do is actually a collaboration with an orchestra, their called the Magik*Magik Orchestra and they’re San Francisco conservatory students who listen to Radiohead. We are going to do an orchestral album…a full collaboration with an orchestra.
How did that come to be?
We did a fundraiser for them once at The Great American Music Hall and it was 35 people on stage playing together. It was the most inspiring—
Epic?
It was epic! There’s nothing like the sound of all those strings around you. It’s all you want when you do that. We decided to just do it. It’s going to be very intense and difficult. It’s going to be great.
What would you call your genre?
That’s a great question. When we are checking into the hotel and people see us with a lot of instruments, we say we play rock music. That stops all the questions. I play rock music.
I like how simple that is.
It’s a huge stew. Does it mean you have a drummer? I don’t know. Sometimes it’s better to not carry a flag. I wouldn’t say that I’m an American. I would say I am a guy that lives in the 94127 zip code for the time being. That’s as specific as I can get.
Your music is very politically drenched. Do you think it’s important as a musician to have an agenda?
I wouldn’t say so. I would say it’s important to do what you have to do. Some of my best friends have to write about girls or about boys and that’s it. If that’s your thing man, I would run with it. MF Doom did a record about food. I think whatever is inspiring you, go crazy! At the time it was very important for me to be hyper-political and I wanted to write a war record. I think it’s important to be extreme. If you are going to do a concept record it should be like The Wall. Let’s go for it. I would say that it’s important for people to map out the music that’s in their head, and that’s hard. There are a lot of intermediary sources at work that screw you up. It could be about dirt. Wouldn’t that be an interesting item to write an album about: soil? Topsoil. It could be amazing.
There might be a lot more potential than you know there. How do you write a song from start to finish?
Usually I have to an idea about a story. Usually it’s based on a story that I have in my head and I sit down and won’t leave the desk until it’s down. Sometimes I throw the song away but often times if I force myself to concentrate on an idea (I’m like a guy who can sit down and make a cabinet), I can write a song. The cool thing is if you write a lot of songs you can be very vicious in your pruning. You can really take out the stuff that is not inspired or doesn’t sound natural. I’m starting to think I need to have 20 to 25 songs for a record because then I can really start to pull things out.
Do you write the music or the lyrics first?
I’d say the lyrics really come first. It’s easier for me. I think it’s unusual and sometimes I wish I didn’t have to write that way. It slows me down. That’s just how it is.
Where are you finding inspiration from right now?
From the sounds of words and phrases. I’m trying to make less sense of my music. I’m trying to be more fragmented and surreal. I want melody line to be more important. I think content is great and fine, but there has to be something that takes precedence. I want it be about melody line and the force or words and the feelings of words, more than a straight narrative. I see where that gets me.
How did you come to find that was of importance to you?
I don’t know. These things change overtime. You want to smash your system. If you keep in your system, it gets really boring. I would say I was recognizing that I was incapable of finishing a song that didn’t have a queer narrative idea. I would just stop writing it. I thought, “That’s stupid.” I had this killer melody line here and this other song with a story that I thought was really boring. So I decided to not make that the most important element anymore. It was really important for me to have these really tight lines. Structurally it had to scan well and the rhyme scheme had to be really well thought out. I just don’t do that anymore. That’s cool. I just let go of that. I might return to it, but all these things are limiting in their way but you need to be limited but it’s good to change the pathways.
How do you juggle your personal life and your musical career?
My personal life is extremely simple at home. I hang out with my wife and my cats. That’s all I care about.
How long have you two been together?
Four years. I hang out with her and my cats. I own a recording studio in San Francisco so I am there everyday. I see tons of musicians and tons of engineers in my work. I am kind of circulating that way. But after 5pm I am at home. It’s very rare that I am out. You have to pick your battles. You have to have time that is just yours. That helps me write because I write a lot at night. It helps me just be focused. There would be no end to when I would out. There are shows every night of the week. There are friends coming through town all the time. I have to decide when I am home from touring to just stay at my house. It really helps. It’s great. I am there and touring is so incredibly social. You do this and you go home and it’s enough. It’s fantastic.
Who is on your list of who would like to work with?
I love the new Cass McCombs record. There are so many good records that have come out. I like the engineer Brian Deck in Chicago who did the new Califone record. There is John Congleton who did the new Bill Callahan record.
There is a lot of good music right now.
It’s unbelievable. I’ve always loved The Destroyers.
And your recording studio—
I started in 11 years ago. There really wasn’t any mid-priced studios in San Francisco. There were either rehearsal places or really fancy, wood floored places. There wasn’t anything in the middle. When I started it, it was really important. But now there are millions of recording studios. We are just one of the many really good studios in the fabric of San Francisco life. A lot of really good bands perform there. It’s been a really important studio for a lot of people. There’s 11 people that work. It’s been an important place for me.
Like a second home.
Oh, totally.
You play a lot of instruments? Do you have bizarre instruments that you have dabbled with? The didgeridoo?
We call them didgeri-don’t. Actually a didgeridoo is so easy to make fun of. You think it might be cooler than you think. I’m only really confident at keyboards and guitars. I love modular synths and old synthesizers. If I could get my hands on old ERP synths and modular synthesizers, that is what I would bring into my life. For sure.
You use analog?
I’ve done seven records in all. They were mixed on analog tape. I’ve only done one record that’s been digital and that’s the record I did with The Mountain Goats.
Did you like the digital thing?
I did but I perfect analog. That was a super fun collaboration! We didn’t have much time so we had to do it.
Where do you find your music? Blogs? Magazines?
Blogs. I read Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan and Gorilla versus Bear. There are so many good ones. I am on Tumblr all the time and I follow a lot of people on Tumblr and view the bands that they like. Again, there is just so much new good music.