Top 40 Kurt Vile Quotes

It was just the next logical step from making succinct pop songs. What do you do after that? You make pop songs that are longer and more epic, that push the envelope. Imagine your favourite song, or something that you play over and over in the car, except that you don’t have to start it over as much.

I feel like if you sit down and have an assistant engineer and a producer in a top-notch studio and everyone sets up all the mikes perfect, all of a sudden it’s really hard to live that melancholy song. It’s hard to really live it in the moment.

I can be chill. That’s a side of me that I like. But then, I can also be not so chill. I can get a little stressed out.

I think that I identify with Philadelphia for a lot of reasons. Without even thinking about it, I called myself ‘Philly’s Constant Hitmaker’ when I first got a MySpace, before I had any real hits. It was kind of just a funny slogan, basically lifted from the Rolling Stones’ first album, ‘England’s Newest Hit Makers.’

I’ve gotten a lot more paranoid in my older age.

When I was 20, I moved up to Boston with my girlfriend, who’s now my wife. She went to grad school, and I met a bunch of cool friends there.

I had a wacky job driving a forklift for an air freight company. That was the worst.

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.

If I had known I’d be on Matador back then in my childhood, it would have blown my mind.

People do get mad at me for falling asleep sometimes, and it’s the most frustrating thing. I can’t help it. What am I gonna do?

There’s too many favorite songs, so I’ll just say right now my favorite song of all time is ‘Poison’ by Bert Jansch.

Every time I play with somebody, your perspective gets a little extended. It always rounds you out a little more in some way.

I walk around a lot. People come up to me and say ‘Hi,’ but not that often. I mean, I get it plenty often, but sometimes I wish they’d come up to me more! I mean, I’m just a regular guy.

I like the idea of having money.

Australia is a wild place.

I’m joking all the time with my friends, even when we’re talking about serious things.

I’m definitely influenced by Animal Collective. I watched them early on.

That’s one of my favorite Matador records: Cat Power, ‘You Are Free.’

When I first got the record deal, I thought it felt like I won the lottery. But I always worked hard at it.

‘Smoke Ring’ was a downer, then ‘Wakin’ was an upturn.

‘Street Legal’ is like a cult classic. It’s pretty cheesy at times, but you learn to embrace it.

When I leave a recording session, there is usually a lot of paranoia or superstition on my part, like I’m afraid to hear what we’ve done.

When I was a teenager, I was mostly getting tapes and CDs, and somebody hipped me to the fact that you can get things on vinyl that are not necessarily available on any other fomat.

I write a lot when I’m feeling bummed, but other times, you get locked in, and it’s totally personal. If you’re really low and writing, you’re not thinking about anybody at all.

Philly’s busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It’s a place where people pass through and bands don’t usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it’s not too over the top.

I’ll know when a song’s really awesome, for sure, and I get super stoked, and I’m so high when I’m hearing it back, but then you sit with the record forever. You’re mixing it, and you can really just over-think everything.

I think if you just travel in general, it allows you to step outside of yourself and whatever you’re familiar with.

I’m always working on music.

I love polished pop music, but stuff like Neil Young’s Crazy Horse vibe or Waylon Jennings, that stuff is raw and real.

Humor is important. Nothing against bands that are always a downer, but the reality is – it just becomes theater.

I’ve got an amazing family. My wife is really smart. She’s guided me the whole way. With children, you see them grow up, so it’s like you’re forever young. They are totally innocent and so unjaded. Watching them grow up makes you go through it again yourself.

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.

The real reason I was lo-fi before was really just because that’s what I could afford.

I like a well-rounded life. All of this work is kind of useless if you don’t have something good to come home to.

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.

I’m not cynical, but the reality is that life is mortal. Terrible, sad things happen. Everybody loses friends and family. I’ll be on tour and get really scared if my wife won’t answer her phone within one minute. I’m sensitive.

Everybody goes up and down throughout their lives.

I like New York. I like Philly. I like San Fran. I like when people are stoked. But Chicago’s a real music town, and they’re really good to us there. There’s just something in the air there; people are just really stoked about music. Every time I go there, I have a great time, and the fandom is really heartwarming.

I’m obsessive when I get an idea in my head.

I actually often write about writing music and being in that zone.